Radical Empathy

I listened to Krita Tippet's most recent show. She interviewed Isabel Wilkerson, author of The Warmth of Other Suns. During the course of the conversation Isabel Wilkerson talked about the need to practice or have radical empathy to change the heart, to bring about true change. This is, to me, being open to seeing the other not as an other, but as someone to whom we are connected in the great scheme of things. I also see it as a tool for making shift and change. The link to the show is here.

It seems to me that this practice of radical empathy aligns with something Joanne Macy talked about in her video explaining a Tibetan Buddhist prophecy that she was told a number of years ago. You can see the piece here. Her teacher talked about Shambala Warriors rising. As he put it, the tools of the Shambala Warrior are compassion and insight. This feels quite a bit like radical empathy to me. 

Thomas Moore, in his book Writing in the Sand (here), talks about metanoia, which is a radical shift in perception. I think that practicing radical empathy can lead to that radical shift in perception that he thinks is possible to find by looking the teachings of Jesus in a different way. He argues that there is a soul in the gospels that exists, a soul which many people do not realize is there.

And, for a bit of self-promotion here, I believe strongly that working with my book, Opening the Heart: Meditations on How to Be (here), can help bring about the shift in vision towards compassion, kindness, healing and light. 

The questions, I suppose, for many of us are do we want to be Shambala Warriors, and if we do, how are each of us called to do that? 

Many blessings on your journey in this time of shift.


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