Compassion is aspiring to help all beings.
Wisdom is knowing how to help.
If, when empathizing with other’s suffering, we feel overwhelmed, we may reassure ourselves that at least we’re being compassionate. But even with good intentions, when we fail to employ wisdom, our efforts to help will likely prove ineffective and lead to our feeling disappointed and frustrated.
What we ordinary beings have yet to realize and thus so far failed to remedy, is that we invariably act from emotions. Rather than from wisdom. Oh, what tangled webs of emotion we weave. They overwhelm us to the point that not only are we unable to help others, we make things worse.
We may have empathy, but can we help others in a substantial way?
Will they be any closer to ending their suffering?
In our practice, instead of reacting blindly from emotions, we need to temper our compassion with wisdom. When we do this, we can begin to truly ease not just our own suffering but that of others as well.
-A Buddhist's Perspective, Venerable Wuling