From Compassion to Self-Compassion: a Text-Historical Perspective

Stand-alone self-compassion or mindful self-compassion, presented independently from the cultivation of other-oriented compassion, has recently emerged as a specific field of secular training and research. Its purported Buddhist background has so far received limited attention in academic scholarship. This article surveys Buddhist precedents-or lack thereof-to the contemporary emergence of this notion. In view of the yet to be established presence of an altruistic component as a psychological corollary of self-compassion, an analysis of the Buddhist sources may offer insights relevant for facilitating future research on the self-other relationship in self-kindness (or self-benevolence) and self-compassion constructs and on altruistic aspects as correlates of self-compassion.