Maitrīkaruṇā, or compassion, is one of the major virtues in Buddhism. Maitrī means loving-kindness or affection, and karuṇā means compassion or sympathy. The former is said to be the providing of comfort, and the latter the removing of suffering. This way of thinking about compassion was systematized into the “four immeasurable minds”: (1) loving-kindness: providing comfort to sentient beings, (2) compassion: removing suffering, (3) sympathetic joy: taking joy in sentient beings’ suffering having been removed, and (4) equanimity: leaving behind love and hatred. Buddhism preaches putting compassion into practice based on these four states of mind.