Compassion is a primary tool of the Buddhist faith,and a recurring idea throughout the novel. Sogyal stresses that compassion is a sense of sympathy or caring for the person suffering, warmth of heart toward the person before you, a sharp clarity of recognition of their needs and pain, and a sustained and practical determination to do whatever is possible and necessary to help alleviate their suffering. When one can view ones self as a large part of the interrelatedness of the universe, one can feel compassion for all other beings.