Altruism is no more a luxury or utopia or a morally good idea but an absolute necessity. You can no longer dispense with a compassionate and altruistic society.

Altruistic love, compassion, empathy, sympathy; there are many definitions. From a Buddhist perspective, it is defined as the profound wish, deep aspiration, determination and engagement that may all sentient beings have happiness and the causes of happiness. Compassion proceeds from the same source of benevolence; that may all beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering.

As long as there is mental confusion, and deluded thinking that hatred, obsession, greed, envy, arrogance can somehow bring happiness to anyone; as long as there is basic distortion of reality, suffering always abound. So the root cause has to be better understanding of reality and that is wisdom and knowledge.

Reality is essentially interdependent. Our mind are dynamic streams of experience. On the experiential side, altruistic love and compassion are the most fulfilling, constructive states of mind that we can ever experience.

In scientific research, meditation on altruistic love and compassion brings about the strongest activation in the areas of the brain connected to positive emotion by far, and therefore is the best way of self-flourishing.

Loving-kindness and compassion begins with one realising the interdependent nature of existence; with one realising that just as I do not want to suffer, deep within every sentient being too does not want to suffer.