In consciousness and in action, empathic sensitivity to human beings' needs - including both one's own and others' needs.¹

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Note

¹Although this is strictly my own definition, I'm grateful for what I've learned from the work of Marshall Rosenberg - including from his book, Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life - and the degree to which it has informed and influenced my formulation of this definition. I can't imagine having formulated this definition in this manner without Marshall Rosenberg's influence.

Prior to having discovered the work of Marshall Rosenberg, I also benefited from consulting the following reference.

"compassion," Answers.com, Reference, Words, WordNet (A semantic lexicon of word connections and related words.) http://www.answers.com/topic/compassion [June 24, 2005]