Empathy vs compassion

Well it´s not a question about win or loose - it's about definitions.

 Empathy often means something like; the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.

 The keywords is "share the feelings of another".  Of course it's okay to share the feelings of a friend, or a happy person. But many around us is not happy, and if we read the news we may think that no one is happy. So empathy can be exhausting. 
In mindfulness compassion often means "love and kindness". Also called metta. That word  derives from Pali, an ancient language in India spoken and written in the lifetime of Buddha.

It can be helpful to meditate on compassion, specially if it is for all beings, without discrimination. 

You may feel well after a metta meditation. 

But it will be to no use if you don't act in some way. But the action doesn't have to driven by just feelings. 
We can look at our feelings and not act immediately. Maybe we can find a more effective way to help someone. 
To give someone a fishing rod is more effective than to give away a fish to eat. 

It may be better to send money to the Red Cross than to give money to a beggar. 
Or it might be better to fight for a more equal society - even if that is a heavy task. 

Even a experienced meditator like Richard Mattieu choose to meditate on compassion rather than empathy. 

But you should start the meditation with sending love and compassion to your self. 

Even to your mistakes or to the times when you blame yourself or loose your temper. 

Even to your mistakes or to the times when you blame yourself or loose your temper. 

We are intelligent mammals, nor more, not less.

We didn't ask to be born here, we didn't choose our talents nor other sides of our personality. 

We may all sometimes wonder; who am I really? and then feel a cool wind of alienation fill us. 

I think we are nature more than individuals, we are made of that nature and of the Earth. but the Earth is tightly connected to the rest of the galaxy and probably to the whole universe. 

Take for instance the fact that all the stuff on Earth, including us, are made of the residues of a exploding supernova; an old and huge star. 

It's not magic but reality is really fantastic. 

And if we want, we can fill ourselves with gratefulness and compassion towards the planet we share with other beings for a short while - what we call a lifetime. 

I

image of a supernova explosion







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