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Author
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Topic: Is empathy enough?
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listenstotrees
Knowflake Posts: 1257
From: the 5th dimension
Registered: Apr 2009
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posted May 06, 2010 05:13 AM
 
Is empathy enough to change the world?I think empathy and compassion are two different things. It is possible to be sensitive to the emotions of others, but not know how to react to them. It is possible to have compassion, without knowing exactly what someone is going through. I've been waffling on for a very long time about how important empathy is, but maybe there's another crucial ingredient needed here to complete the picture. Love. Love of ones self...and love of others. What is love? To me it's a feeling, inside, of knowing all is interconnected, "one". It is not sufficient for the mind to grasp what that means. It has to be felt. Is this something that can be taught? Or is it only something we can awaken in ourselves? If that is the case, then who is responsible for awakening it? Is it or own free will? Or something that is sleeping that we may be unconscious, semi-conscious, of, etc etc etc.....Which circumstances, surroundings, a few magical words said at the right time in the right way....or simply a dog running over to you and gazing into your eyes lovingly and deeply.....may awaken. That knowingness of oneness. Sitting and meditating in the sunshine alone amongst the trees while being serenaded by birdsongs. Or a spontaneous feeling of peace that envelops you all of a sudden as you gaze out of your window. Or an experiencing during meditation or music. And so on. Is it something we can be taught? Is this enlightenment?
If it is, I wonder how we can stay "attuned", without having it slip away time and time again. Its as if...the wisdom of that knowingness remains, but the feeling of clarity of being tuned into those higher levels has faded. The stresses of daily life take over, and the heart is saddened by that wall of forgetfulness. The frustration of not being able to remember one's ancient memories or why, exactly, we came here.
Anyone else here feel this way?
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listenstotrees
Knowflake Posts: 1257
From: the 5th dimension
Registered: Apr 2009
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posted May 06, 2010 05:28 AM
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koiflower
Knowflake Posts: 1731
From: Australia
Registered: Apr 2009
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posted May 06, 2010 07:27 AM
Empathy - useful to have to understand a point of view.Compassion - deep love that heals. IP: Logged |
katatonic
Knowflake Posts: 3802
From:
Registered: Apr 2009
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posted May 06, 2010 11:26 AM
no in fact empathy can paralyze one to the point of being no help at all. sympathy and compassion on the other hand can do wonders...as a healer when i TAKE ON the pains of the person i am working with it can make me useless to others for quite some time. the empath has a hard time uplifting others out of their problems whether physical or emotional, because she becomes mired in them herself. to focus on resolutions and raising the vibration of a situation or person involved in it is to me far more valuable. and i would much rather have someone make me laugh than get down in the ditch of misery with me! but only 100% of the time.IP: Logged |
Valus
Knowflake Posts: 2692
From:
Registered: Apr 2009
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posted May 06, 2010 12:28 PM
Kat has a point, but I've found my greatest asset, when it comes to reaching somebody in an emotional state, is my ability to emphathize and identify with them. I need to be careful to protect myself, but I need to be open, even vulnerable, to the experience of real connection. I've found that other approaches, especially "tough love", mostly push people deeper into their alienation. If you can empathize, you can erase that imaginary line dividing you from "the patient". Then you are just two people, one of whom is in pain, and the other of whom knows how it feels to be in pain. I think we need to allow ourselves to feel what they feel a little bit, without getting entirely drawn into it. That vulnerability and sense of identity is, as I see it, essential to the practice of the highest manner of healing.
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katatonic
Knowflake Posts: 3802
From:
Registered: Apr 2009
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posted May 06, 2010 12:42 PM
true, but the ? was "is empathy enough?" i don't argue that it helps...but for many it can be paralyzing/overwhelming and make the empath unable to give any aid at all. i don't think, for instance, that empathy for the corporations will change their tactics for a minute. there's a time and place for everything - something my mother used to say and irritate me no end, but it's true...we have to use our heads as well as our feelings. i agree about tough love for sure. i think it is a bogus excuse for keeping people in their place. IP: Logged |
Valus
Knowflake Posts: 2692
From:
Registered: Apr 2009
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posted May 06, 2010 12:56 PM
Well said.In that case, no,
empathy is not enough. But it's a point worth making
that empathy is essential to do
the job we are capable of. Do corporations have feelings?
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katatonic
Knowflake Posts: 3802
From:
Registered: Apr 2009
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posted May 06, 2010 01:13 PM
lol haven't you heard they are now "persons" according to law? and ALL persons have feelings...i was referring to the fact that some would have us believe the corporations are innocent victims of propaganda and are only poor little so and sos trying to make a living...while others consider them heartless soulless entities ready to consume us all for profit alone. and, after all, it is PEOPLE who own and run corporations. who APPEAR to have no empathy at all, but actually do give large sums back from time to time. many educations are owed to the rockefeller, carnegie and ford foundations, as well as medical services, etc etc etc. the fact that they receive incredible tax breaks for doing so is just a byproduct of generosity IN THEIR EYES... IP: Logged |
Dervish
Knowflake Posts: 558
From:
Registered: May 2009
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posted May 06, 2010 08:34 PM
Good point on empathy and compassion. Some of the scariest people to me are those with good empathy but use it to harm others (from the con-artist and politician to the torturer and blackmailer, all willing, maybe even eager, to add to our pain even as they "feel it"). Anyway, as for me, I was born with a lot of empathy which caused me to see similarities rather than differences. One of my earliest memories (I'd have been 4) was seeing calves being restrained to tables and branded and I cried, and did so even harder when my uncle lied to me about it not hurting them (because I depended on him and other adults to tell me the truth, and if they were liars, or even just wrong where even I could plainly see it...). Many in my family tried very hard to drive it out of me by cruel means. It's one reason I sometimes laugh bitterly when I hear "children need to learn empathy." An interesting observation I had is that when my survival was threatened, a lot of my conscience and empathy turned off allowing me to do the unethical, sometimes even brutal, to survive. And yet even then, unlike so many others, I wasn't willing to predate on those I saw as innocents. I even realized as I was sent in to burglarize a house (as a 15-year-old runaway) that we might steal jewelry and stuff that had sentimental value that no insurance could ever replace and that struck me hard (I never burglarized another home because of it)...and I was even glad when it turned out that the house we broke into had a meth lab in it and while the others with me that I let in ran away, I grabbed a gun (I believe, in retrospect, a mac-10) feeling no guilt as what sentimental value could it have? But the others thought I was crazy stealing from a meth dealer (the mac-10 was to be exchanged for drugs which was then sold by the krew of runaway kids I'd joined up with to survive).  (And I was lucky on that, but that's beside the point.) IP: Logged |
Nephthys
Moderator Posts: 167
From: California
Registered: Apr 2009
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posted May 10, 2010 04:39 PM
quote:
Which circumstances, surroundings, a few magical words said at the right time in the right way....or simply a dog running over to you and gazing into your eyes lovingly and deeply.....may awaken
  Emily, have you ever thought about writing a book? You have so many htoughts and so much information that you need to share..........write it all down.....it should be published and shared with the world.........  IP: Logged | |
Lindaland
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