Compassion in Buddhism and Islam: The Liberal Arts and Living a Meaningful Life

Abstract

In this chapter, I examine the liberal arts model of education and the central importance of the humanities, showing that the communication skills and the creativity this approach teaches students are valued by employers and lead to successful work lives. In addition, the humanities help students learn how to examine their own lives in a meaningful mode by showing them how other people have structured their own lives meaningfully, through art, literature, philosophy and religion. I then explore the ways in which compassion is taught in both Buddhism and Islam, showing that each has a distinct means of situating that virtue in its narrative tradition and its form of practice. I argue that the study of compassion, for example, in diverse systems of thought, is crucial to students’ development of the capacity to formulate their own values. Finally, I take issue with Stanley Fish’s narrow conception of higher education as being solely focused on ‘the mastery of intellectual and scholarly skills’. While faculty members should not merely indoctrinate students into their own values, they can skilfully facilitate students’ discovery of the values they will find meaningful.