Dharma, Karuna and Prajna, and Bhavana.

 Bhavana means to cultivate or develop/  It is the practice in Buddhism we do do develop our minds to be compasonate, 

It is the nature of things (Dharma)  This is why candy is sweet, fire is hot, ice is cold.  It is their nature.  Likewise, an animal is wild.  

We all know the story of the frog and the scorpion, which is designed to teach up that one cannot resist hurting others even when it is not in their own interests.   That nature of a being will prevail even if it causes their own death. 

IN another story we can add other concepts to this teaching.  

In this story the master sits next to the water, a scorpion wanders on and falls into the water, struggling and nearly to drown the master reaches down and grabs the scorpion who as soon as out of the water stings the master.  The master drops the scorpion and it again walks into the water.  A passerby has watched this and asks 'it will bite you again if you grab it!'  The master says, it is his dharma (nature) to sting, it is mine to be compassionate (Karuna).   However, learning from my mistakes I will use prajna now (wisdom) and use this stick to help this poor fellow.  

It is often we teach of compassion but do not add in wisdom.  People often think that they must be compassionate or have loving kindness to all beings no matter what.  This is simply not true and not skillful.