Lowell Brook
(Member of the Empathy Based Values Group)

 Brainstorming EMPATHY 
 

Ideas for activities exploring and expressing empathy, and questions for contemplating, interviewing and designing a class on Empathy.

1-   List words or phrases that are synonyms for empathy.
2-   List words or phrases that are antonyms for empathy.
3-   Make a collage of photos or images depicting empathy.
4-   Write or tell a story in which there is empathy.
5-   Write or tell a story in which there is no empathy.
6-   Notice and note who you feel empathy for.
7-   Notice and note who you don’t feel empathy for.
8-   Experiment with acting as if you feel empathy.
9-   Compare your feelings of empathy with your actions.
 

Which terms best categorize empathy?

core ability
capacity
value
state
potential
condition
trait
feeling
idea
inclination
tendency
attitude

How do you think we attain empathy?

Is it Universal?
Innate
Learned
Developed
Cultivated
Trained
Grace
 

Exploring Empathy

Are all people born with equal potential for empathy?
Is E an inherited trait?
Does E need to be taught?
Do other species feel E? 
Do other species behave empathetically?
If empathetic behavior is thwarted, does it dry up?
Are men and women equally empathetic?
Where competition is high, is E necessarily low?
Does individual E increase or decrease in socialist systems?
What other values or attitudes follow E
How does our contemporary US society encourage/discourage E?
Can E be measured?  
If one has a personal wound or handicap is he/she more likely to be empathetic?
Does E beget E?
How much do external conditions matter?
Does age matter?
Do people tend to become more E or less E with age.
How do different cultures/societies value E?
How do social class, educational level, financial means, exposure to arts and culture influence or effect E?
Does foreign travel cultivate E?
Does TV watching effect E?
How do religious traditions refer to and promote E?
What art images or activities stir empathy.
What are the pitfalls to being E?
Why isn’t everyone empathetic all the time?
How do we know when E becomes co-dependency?
How can we tell when we’re projecting, not empathizing?
How can we deal with the overwhelming joys and sorrows of the world if we open our hearts empathetically and hands helpfully?
How can we maintain equanimity while opening to others?
 

Buddhism- 4 Divine Abodes:

Metta-  loving-kindness
Karuna-  compassion
Mudita-  sympathetic joy
Upekkha-  equanimity
 

METTA- Loving-kindness is the over-arching wish that all beings may be well and happy. It is the essential attitude of positive connection with Other; identifying with others so that wanting their well-being is associated with, or the same as, wanting your own well-being.  Metta is basic understanding, accepting and knowing of interdependence.  Metta spawns connectedness.  Metta is similar to the Golden Rule, but instead of Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, it is wish/want for others as you wish/want for your self.

KARUNA- Compassion is the sensitivity to notice another’s suffering, and the resonance to be with them in their pain.  It is caring when someone else is hurt.  It is feeling the vibration of their suffering, and not moving away from it, but staying present with it. 

MUDITA-  Sympathetic Joy is similar to Karuna, but it is sensitivity to when someone wlse is joyful and resonating with them in their happiness. Mudita is feeling glad for someone else success orgood fortune.  It is celebrating for others in their well-being, rather than feeling threatened or competitive.  Sympathetic Joy rises from awareness that when you are more free and happy, I am more free and happy.

UPEKKA-  Equanimity is staying centered in the midst of all the suffering and joy.  It means that as you resonate with others in their joy or suffering, you stay balanced; you don’t lose yourself.  All the boundless swirling positive and negative energy of the world doesn’t swallow you up or make you contract or hide in fear.  You don’t disappear.  You remain stabile and present.

EMPATHY - (Lowell’s thoughts, May 4, 2009)

The Mystery
When we are calm enough to be receptive,
the vibrations of creation flow and swirl
into the highly sensory creatures we are,
filling the vast emptiness of the inner Universe
we call Heart or Mind,
until the difference between out there and in here
thins and ultimately dissolves.
Thus, the inner experience mirrors the outer experience (or visa versa).
Empathy is the ineffable core
Of what goes on inside
That enables us to feel, connect, and relate
With what goes on outside.

The Purpose
Cultivating empathy is the perfect growing edge
to partner with exploring human potential.
It is imperative, now that we are ‘individualized’, to re-member
we are an inseparable part of the whole:
There is no me without you.
Empathy is our glue.
Two-ness and one-ness are both true.
Empathy precedes and enables compassion
(trembling with the suffering of another).
Empathy precedes and enables sympathetic joy
(celebrating with another’s success).
Empathy is an essential attribute of being human.

Impediments
Impediments to empathy are rooted in ego.
With an under-developed ego-identity we are likely to merge,
(be unable to know ourselves as separate from other…
I feel your reality so profoundly that I lose myself in you).
With an over-developed ego-identity we are likely to project,
(be unable to know other as separate from ourselves…
I don’t really see you, only what I think you would be experiencing if I were you).

Empathy and Equanimity
Developing equanimity is essential as we grow in empathy.
With equanimity we can maintain centered, spacious and impartial balance
while opening to the endless joys and sorrows of others.
It is with this balance that our actions are more likely
to be compassionate and wise.