No Empathy = No Compassion
Know empathy = know compassion.
If we cannot empathise with and understand others, we cannot have compassion. We have all experienced every emotion possible, but because of pride, we hide them or ignore them.
Empathy is recognising and being interested in all aspects of humanity: suffering, being fed-up, frustration, depression … we cannot be of use to others if we aren’t interested in them.
This disinterested attitude is usually a consequence of becoming institutionalised. Many ‘spiritual’ people do not actually care about others; they only care about being an adherent – someone who sticks to doctrine, and acquires another identity.This causes harm, as it’s all about them.
There is only one cause of suffering – self-interest.
Empathy is going beyond the words
and being genuinely interested in the well-being of others,
and the cause of suffering.
Empathy has nothing to do with religion;
it’s about being a respect-able person.
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N.B There is a Tibetan Buddhist practice called Tonglen:
Tonglen is Tibetan for ‘giving and taking’ (or sending and receiving), and refers to a meditation practice also known as ‘exchanging self with other’. This is Bodhicitta.
Does it work?
We can only hope so.
🙂
BUDDHA IN THE MUD is a blog - a living book based on the Dzogchen teachings. Our teacher is life, and life is karma. We are all Buddhas in the mud of concepts. 
When I first discovered Tibetan Buddhism, I was really attracted to the Tonglen practice – the way people spoke about it in reverential tones, it sounded so magical and advanced. It’s a lovely thing to do and as you say, we can hope it has some effect … During a retreat by a Nyingma lama, he told us, in a rare moment of honesty, that we are all happy to do the practice but it’s just theory – none of us would actually be prepared to exchange self for other and actually take on their suffering. And when we summon up a feeling of compassion, it’s either for some vague, disembodied group of people, or for someone we know personally who is suffering. It was really refreshing to hear that, but it caused repercussions among the students, and he never (as far as I know) repeated it.
I remember thinking at the time that it was a shame he hadn’t used the opportunity to include himself in his observation about the conceptualisation of suffering – it sounded as if it was a problem for all the students but for not the lamas … which is not the case.
Kathie
Hello Daisy – I was there! 🙂 Tony