In Vasubandhu’s Yogācāra vision, compassion (karuṇā) is not a secondary ornament to practice but a structural feature of the path itself, inseparable from wisdom. His work is framed within the bodhisattva ideal, where great compassion (mahākaruṇā) for all sentient beings provides the fundamental motivation to undertake the path and to seek awakening for the benefit of others. The bodhisattva’s resolve to remain engaged with suffering beings, rather than pursue a merely individual liberation, expresses this centrality of compassion. In this sense, compassion is both the initial impulse that sets practice in motion and the abiding orientation that sustains it.

Yogācāra’s analysis of reality as “consciousness-only” (vijñapti-mātra) and devoid of inherent self does not lead to cold detachment, but to a loosening of rigid self–other boundaries. When the imagined solidity of “I” and “mine” is seen through, the basis for hostility and aversion is undermined, and a more expansive, impartial concern for all beings becomes possible. Wisdom and compassion thus function like two wings of the same bird: insight corrects mistaken views about self and world, while compassion corrects self-centered motivation. True understanding of emptiness and the constructed nature of experience naturally gives rise to empathy for all who are caught in these same patterns of delusion and suffering.

Within this framework, compassion plays a decisive role in the transformation of consciousness, especially in the turning of the basis (āśraya-parāvṛtti) of the storehouse consciousness (ālaya-vijñāna). Afflictive mental factors such as hatred and cruelty are gradually displaced by non-harming, love, and compassion, and compassionate actions plant wholesome karmic seeds that purify the mind-stream. In this way, compassion is not merely an ethical ideal but a concrete force that reshapes the very structure of consciousness and supports progress along the bodhisattva stages. It functions as a direct antidote to self-clinging and as a condition for the maturation of the potential for awakening that all beings share.

Finally, compassion in this tradition is universal in scope and practical in expression. Because all beings are enmeshed in beginningless ignorance and karmic conditioning, the bodhisattva’s compassion is impartial, extending to friends, enemies, and strangers alike. It manifests in ethical conduct, generosity, patient endurance, and skillful means in guiding others toward insight. Acting compassionately both alleviates suffering in the immediate sense and simultaneously accumulates the merit and wisdom necessary for full buddhahood, revealing compassion as both the path’s guiding intention and its living expression.