Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Mindfulness https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-023-02223-3 EDITORIAL Compassion and Skillful Means: Diverse Views, Novel Insights, and Extended Applications for Compassion Science and Training Jordan T. Quaglia 1  · Judith Simmer‑Brown 2 Accepted: 7 September 2023 © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2023 Abstract Compassion science has been shaped and guided by Mahāyāna Buddhist conceptions of compassion, including the potential for compassion to be cultivated through contemplative practices and training. Despite these infuences, important Buddhist perspectives and ideas about compassion are still underrepresented in the scientifc literature. This Special Issue focuses on initiating a body of literature on skillful means, a foundational idea from Mahāyāna Buddhism pertaining to the enactment of compassion joined with wisdom. Arising from a seminal Think Tank centered around compassion and skillful means, scholars and trainers representing diverse perspectives were invited to contribute to a Special Issue introducing a variety of perspectives, insights, and approaches that may help to advance contemporary understanding, research, and training of compassion. This includes papers that examine skillful means within Buddhism and Christianity, empirical studies that draw on skillful means to motivate or frame tractable questions, theoretical papers that refect on skillful means in relation to other topics in psychological science, and how common compassion practices may themselves serve as skillful means. Considered together, we believe the variety evident throughout this Special Issue highlights the potential of skillful means to serve as a broad and fexible concept that can inspire many new ideas and directions for the feld. Keywords Altruism · Compassion · Self-compassion · Skillful means · Theory Compassion science is a rapidly growing feld, marked by a vibrant mix of views, training initiatives, and practical applications—all rooted in the use of empirical methods to understand compassion, how to cultivate it, and its potential benefts. In this journal alone, the volume of publications with “compassion” in the title has more than doubled in the recent 5-year period from 2019 through 2023 (e.g., Andreu et al., 2022; Han & Kim, 2023; Mey et al., 2023), when compared to the preceding fve years from 2014 through 2018. Amidst this variety and escalating interest in compas- sion, a unifying element is the central importance of allevi- ating sufering. Indeed, at the heart of compassion science lies an age-old question—how can we alleviate sufering most efectively? This collective focus forms an important foundation for understanding, assessing, and cultivating compassion. It also prompts refection on the broader aims of compassion science: To what extent is the feld contribut- ing to the alleviation of sufering in contemporary society? Who may be left out or underserved by the current scope and framing of compassion and its training? How can compas- sion science further enhance its benefcial impacts? When viewed in this light, compassion becomes more than a topic of scientifc exploration—it can be a critical lens and driving force that informs and motivates the eforts of the scien- tists, trainers, clinicians, and others who make up the feld. Refecting in this way at the outset of this Special Issue on Compassion and Skillful Means, we extend our gratitude to the many contributors who refect this compassionate ethos, and whose contributions we believe hold considerable poten- tial to advance the benefcial aims of compassion science. Given this backdrop, it is also important to refect on our overall view and understanding of compassion itself. Ideally, scientifc conceptualizations of compassion would be aligned with not only its essential nature, but also its potential to be cultivated and the diverse ways it can be experienced and expressed across diferent individuals and settings. While a variety of defnitions for compassion exist * Jordan T. Quaglia jquaglia@naropa.edu 1 Department of Psychology, Naropa University, 2130 Arapahoe Avenue, Boulder, CO 80302, USA 2 Department of Wisdom Traditions, Naropa University, Boulder, CO 80302, USA