Compassion and wisdom are interrelated in varying ways within three leading Buddhist traditions. In early and Theravada Buddhism, compassion is a power for deep mental purification, protection, and healing that can support inner freedom. In Mahayana Buddhism, compassion becomes the primary means to empower and communicate a non-conceptual wisdom in which self and others are experienced as undivided. In Vajrayana Buddhism, unconditional compassion radiates forth all inclusively as a spontaneous expression of the mind’s deepest unconditioned nature. - John Makransky