August 26, 2026
In August 2026, the Bayreuth Festival celebrated the 150th Anniversary of Richard Wagner's Ring of the Nibelung with a new AI production of it. The four opera/music dramas that make up the Ring were first performed in Bayreuth in the Festpielhaus, the opera house Wagner built for it, which is still intact and unaltered, with its wonderful acoustics. I attended the Bayreuth Festival this year, which included a new production of Parsifal, with our son Daniel, an opera stage director and Wagnerian and his wife Katie. The one other time I was there was for its 100thAnniversary production of Parsifal in 1983.
Parsifal is about "A simple fool made wise by compassion" (Durch Mitleid wissend der reine Tor). This exceptional music drama prompted me to study compassion and write about it, first in my book Heart in Hand (available on Amazon) in Chapter 3, "The Philosophical, Moral, and Medical Importance of Compassion." And LewRockwell.com published my article "On Compassion" in 2014 (at: lewrockwell.com/), which contains the bulk of the material discussed in the book.
My compassion article on LewRockwell.com shows a stunning photo, which is not in the book of my 101-year-old patient George Crosby tending vines on his farm, six weeks after undergoing open heart surgery to replace his stenotic (blocked) aortic valve (it is not in the book). I write:
"Awed and inspired by his incredible resilience and spirit, I asked George Crosby to please tell me, if he could, how he had done it. How had he been able to maintain such good health that would enable him to withstand major heart surgery at his age ? Without hesitation, George told me that his philosophy of life was this:"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you-and do it first."He accepted life as it is and was not given to judgmental thinking. He did not harbor regrets for the past or concerns about the future. He lived in the eternal present."
My somewhat longer book chapter in Heart in Hand on Compassion addresses subjects not in the somewhat shorter article, like astrophysics and, shown here, molecular biology:
Molecular biologists have now found that all living things speak the same DNA language, be it a tubercle bacillus, an oak tree, or a human being. The basic instructions that regulate a cell's activity, such as processing energy to maintain its living state, are all remarkably similar for all types of earthly life. Cells metabolize sugar as their main source of immediate energy. With rare exception, plants and photosynthetic bacteria make these sugars from the energy that is provided by sunlight. (The exception is bacteria in the depths of the sea, called chemolithotrophs. Two miles deep in the ocean, where there is no sunlight, these bacteria make sugars with energy derived from the oxidation of inorganic sulfur-containing compounds that are spewed forth from deep hydrothermal vents.)
All of the many millions of species that live on this planet, including us human beings, obtain energy in a usable chemical form (as ATP, adenosine triphosphate) the same way our ancient bacterial ancestors obtained it billions of years ago.
When my book "Heart in Hand" and article "On Compassion" were published (in 1999, and 2014), "Artificial Intelligence" online had not yet arrived. It's here now. An internet search, "On Compassion Donald W Miller," yields this "AI-generated answer:"
"Donald W. Miller, Jr., MD was a thoracic [cardiac] surgeon and author who explored compassion as a critical component of health, morality and philosophy in his 1999 book Heart in Hand. He argued that compassion is the antidote to repressed anger, which he identified as a primary factor in diseases like cancer and coronary heart disease, noting that patients with hostile attitudes had significantly higher death rates.
Key Perspectives on Compassion
Medical Significance: Miller stated that acceptance, forgiveness, and love are necessary for inner peace and good health, contrasting compassionate patients with those suffering from"free-floating hostility."
Moral Philosophy: Drawing on Schopenhauer, he described compassion as the foundation of natural justice and the primary incentive for moral behavior, distinct from self-serving altruism.
Spiritual Connection: He viewed compassion as unconditional love that connects individuals to a universal oneness, citing religious texts like Parsifal to illustrate its power to"enlighten"the spirit.
While Miller Williams is also known for his poem Compassion, which emphasizes empathy for those hiding inner struggles, the specific philosophical and medical synthesis of compassion is attributed to Donald W. Miller, Jr."
"AI-generated answer. Please verify critical facts."
In addition to Wagner's Parsifal and my work as a heart surgeon, my study of compassion especially embraces the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer. Compassion figures importantly in his ethics, with its two cardinal virtues of natural justice and loving-kindness, and in his view of the noumenal oneness of ultimate reality. It also focuses on Woody Allen's films, especially Broadway Danny Rose; on Milan Kuderas' novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being; and on the American Trappist monk Thomas Merton, who wrote: "The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the interdependence of all these living beings, which are all part of one another, and all involved in one another."
Compassion arises from our intuitive perception that there is a metaphysical identity and oneness of all beings.
The Rev. Dr. Dale E. Tuner (1917-2006), Senior Minister of University Congregational Church in Seattle 1958-1982, read Heart and Hand and wrote: "Your selection of Schopenhauer and Woody Allen as two of your mentors on compassion was great. I studied Schopenhauer quite carefully when at Yale Divinity School... Your chapters on compassion and Religion could be taught in any seminary. You deal with these themes in a rational and helpful way."
We live in a world bereft of compassion, which now, more than ever, we sorely need for both our personal and society's health. I invite you to read "On Compassion" on LewRockwell.com ( lewrockwell.com); and if sufficiently stimulated, Chapter 3, "The Philosophical, Moral, and Medical Importance of Compassion," along with other chapters, in my book Heart in Hand (on Amazon).