Quotes About Empathy

When we are free of self-concern or self-pity, free of inner preoccupations, compassion emerges as a spontaneous expression of our awareness

compassion is a great tranquilizer.

In the Dalai Lama's words, "One of the deepest human desires is to be known and understood.

As another general antidote for distress, the Dalai Lama recommends caring for others despite our own problems. "The space of awareness is small, so our personal distress looms large," as he puts it. "But the moment you think of helping others, the mind expands, and our own problems seem smaller.

Nurturing others can be very healing and nurturing for you, too—if you're not feeling deprived.

Understanding, too, can be a form of forgiveness.

In Buddhist psychology, compassion is seen as a direct antidote to aggression.

We each have our unique ways of responding to life's challenges, and we need to respect our own needs, temperament, and timing.

There are several forms of the loving-kindness meditation. Here's one. Just as I want to be free from suffering, may all beings be free from suffering.

A Buddhist principle holds that awareness leads to empathy.

When someone says to us, as Thich Nhat Hanh suggests, "Darling, I care about your suffering," a deep healing begins.

The boundary to what we can accept is the boundary to our freedom.

But this revolutionary act of treating ourselves tenderly can begin to undo the aversive messages of a lifetime.

The intimacy that arises in listening and speaking truth is only possible if we can open to the vulnerability of our own hearts. Breathing in, contacting the life that is right here, is our first step. Once we have held ourselves with kindness, we can touch others in a vital and healing way.

Awakening self-compassion is often the greatest challenge people face on the spiritual path.

Attention is the most basic form of love. By paying attention we let ourselves be touched by life , and our hearts naturally become more open and engaged.

The poet Longfellow writes, "If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.

The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change. Carl Rogers

Overcome any bitterness that may have come because you were not up to the magnitude of the pain that was entrusted to you.

Overcome any bitterness that may have come because you were not up to the magnitude of the pain that was entrusted to you. Like the mother of the world who carries the pain of the world in her heart, each of us is part of her heart and is, therefore, endowed with a certain measure of cosmic pain. You are sharing in the totality of that pain. You are called upon to meet it in joy instead of self-pity. -Sufi poetry

Once someone is an unreal other, we lose sight of how they hurt. Because we don't experience them as feeling beings, we not only ignore them, we can inflict pain on them without compunction. Not

Thoreau writes, "Is there a greater miracle than to see through another's eyes, even for an instant?

was continually harassed by an inner judge who was merciless, relentless, nit-picking, driving, often invisible but always on the job. I knew I would never treat a friend the way I treated myself, without mercy or kindness.

Through the simple practice of seeing our own goodness, we undo the deeply rooted habits of blame and self-hate that keep us feeling isolated and unworthy.