Translated as compassion, karuna is a core Buddhist value across traditions. Together with loving-kindness, sympathetic joy, and equanimity, it is one of the brahmaviharas, or four immeasurables. Compassion involves recognizing others’ suffering and cultivating the intention…

Literally translated as action, karma refers to the principle by which intentional actions shape future experience, with wholesome actions tending toward happiness and unwholesome actions toward suffering. In Buddhists teachings, karma is not fate or divine…

Literally meaning public cases or precedents, koans are a key feature of East Asian Buddhist traditions, especially Chan and Zen. They are brief questions, stories, or sayings attributed to early Chan masters that often appear paradoxical…