Empathy:sensing another’s suffering with compassion
Compassion:loving concern for another’s suffering without identifying with it
(Misguided Empathy: feeling and joining in on the suffering of another by identifying with or attaching to it)
Cultivate compassion. You can see the suffering in the world and yet stand in the Light, stand as a silent witness to the love, peace, joy and beauty that exists within each of us, within all life and all nature. In this way you acknowledge that your identity is rooted in that Light. It defines you. This is what it means for your life “to become the prayer.”
For instance, I may say, “Yes, I see the suffering in the world; I am aware of it. I support causes that attempt to end it, but I don’t identify with it. It does not define my experience of life.”
Bringing this to the level of one individual who is in pain, you could think/intend/pray, “I honor you by acknowledging your experience; I don’t feel or join in your suffering because it doesn’t define you. Rather, in the face of this suffering, I stand as a silent witness to the Light rooted within you and all life — the Light of love, peace, joy and beauty. In so doing, I serve as a continual conduit for that Light to express itself in the world; my life becomes a healing prayer.”
Barbara Atkinson 12/2000
