A quiet notice V2Melody closes at midnight on , Spanish time.

Closes

A note from Richard

V2Melody will close at midnight on 20 January 2028

This site has been a retirement project in musical poetry: poems chosen with care and set to music, offered freely for as long as it felt right to keep the garden open.

The work no longer holds the place it once did in my life. I have gone as far with it as I wish to go. Like a sand mandala, it was made to be completed and then released. I am not attached to its permanence, and I do not believe any of it needs to last beyond the time it was given. The poems were already here before I arrived and began to experiment with them. They will still be here when these musical experiments, and indeed myself, have been swept away, like the sand of a mandala. Nothing has been lost.

I want a simpler end to my life, days of simple love and enjoyment with my wonderful wife of 20 years. The work of maintaining a server, the monitoring, and the residual obligations that come with keeping a site alive no longer fit that life.

From 4 November 2026 I will not be adding new poems or musical poems to the site.

The experimental music I am making now is on my Suno profile. Those pieces stay there, and are not added to this site.

Until midnight on 20 January 2028, Spanish time, everything remains available exactly as it is. That is when my VPS server contract comes to an end, and it will not be renewed. After that, the server will be switched off and the site will disappear.

The Mandala Is Finished explains this more fully.

Thank you to anyone who found a poem, a track, or a quiet moment here.

The pleasure was in the making.

Richard

Home › Glossary › Letter K

Karuna

World Religion
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Compassion in Buddhism—the heartfelt wish to alleviate the suffering of others.

Detailed Definition
Karuna arises from seeing the universality of pain and is central to the bodhisattva ideal. In poetry, it is often depicted as a mother’s love for her child or rain falling equally on all. Poets evoke karuna to inspire action, not just feeling, framing it as the dynamic force that moves the awakened heart to serve a suffering world.
Example
Example in poetry:
In a Mahāyāna poem, karuṇā is “the rain that falls equally on friend and foe”; A modern verse defines it as “compassion that acts—not just feels”; A minimalist lyric: “Karuṇā: seeing your pain as my own, and doing something”; A Tibetan-inspired poem calls Avalokiteśvara “the embodiment of karuṇā—tears turned to lotuses”; A student’s reflection: “I thought empathy was enough—karuṇā taught me to move.”
Additional Notes
In Buddhism, Karuna is not merely pity but an active, empathetic compassion that motivates one to take action to relieve the suffering of others. It is the second of the Four Immeasurables (Brahmaviharas) and is considered essential for the path of the Bodhisattva, who vows to liberate all beings. In poetry, Karuna can be a powerful theme, exploring the depth of human empathy and the desire to alleviate pain in the world, contrasting with themes of indifference or cruelty.
Also Known As
Compassion
Skip to main content