Empathy / Compassion
I recently finished Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, which I started in Portland due to some cravings for good fiction. The author raised interesting questions about what separates humans from androids, the main difference being empathy. The story complicates that distinctive guideline. The humans need to get a regular dose of empahty by fusing with a spiritual / religious figure called Mercer via an "empathy box". This ritual questions the innateness of such empathy. Perhaps it is the extreme lack of life and harsh conditions that necessitate this kind of upkeep by the characters in this world.
Philosophies aside, what I myself believe about empathy is more in line with the Tibetan Buddhists: that empathy, or, to be more precise, compassion, is indeed an innate human potential and that it can be generated by getting in touch with that. I think people, due to ignorance, egotism, or severe traumas, can block empathy.
I was just thinking about empathy during lunch today, lying on the grass reading my book on adrenal fatigue. There was an old Chinese lady nearby. Like most of the elderly in Chinatown, wearing homemade pajama-like clothes under a vest, a soft bucket hat on her head to protect her from the afternoon sun. She was just sitting there, with her pink plastic grocery bag. A few minutes later, I looked up and noticed she was vigorously slapping her legs. She did this for a good 10 minutes or so before standing up and shaking her arms. This site is not particularly unusual around Chinatown. A lot of the old folks do Tai Chi at nearby Lake Merritt BART. But something about her touched me, and I immediately wished I could help her. I would imagine she's got some leg pain, perhaps swollen joints. I just fet for her pain and her achiness, the burden on her arched back of walking around downtown (where the drivers are really agro) getting groceries.
Old people are like children in a lot of ways. More vulnerable. Also they become again kind of soft and fuzzy and more alike. Their distinct identities & features kinda melt away. I'm sure she reminded me of my gramma, who passed away nearly 2 years ago. She had that same softness, the same oversized swollen joints, the same kind of movements. And that same quiet way of going about her day, taking care of herself. Kinda lonesome. I guess I talk about empathy because I just felt a mysterious love for her.
I guess I bring up my gramma because in a lot of ways humans seem to empathize based on their experiences. I tend to have a lot of empathy for elderly Asian folks probably because of my love for my own grandparents, and especially for old ladies because I loved my grandmother a lot. It made me think about how important, and how potent are the seeds of kindness and love that my gramma planted all the time. Just knowing her, having an experience with such a warm, loving, patient woman makes me really feel for anyone I associate with her. It made me think about the importance of being the kind of person I'd like to see in the world, planting seeds of kindness and leading a meaningful life of love and service to others, not just for the immediate effect on those I help, but because that kind of energy radiates outward in amazing ways. If I know that the way my gramma lived her life inspires me to really love so many others, then I know any example I make will have lasting effects. There's no doubt about that.
There's only illusion, which the world in everyday life manages to cast on us each day: my job is so important, my image is so important, I must get xyz done, I'm so upset about this thing that happened or that person... the endless variety of samsara, as Buddhists say.
And there's ignorance (let's not forget our own responsibility in creating illusion). And in a lot of ways, we are limited by experience. But as said before, I also feel there's an unlimited human potential to generate compassion. Even though, for myself, it comes most naturally from feelings associated with my own experiences (e.g. with people I know), compassion can also be generated through contemplation. HH Dalai Lama is always telling his disciples that in his teachings: generate compassion.
For me, in generating compassion, it helps to think about rebirth: that we all have had millions of births, millions of manifestations as life, from a plant to a seahorse to a bear, to any of all of humanity and other life. And at some point, most of us have been related to one another. So I try to think about that a lot -- how anyone I meet could have been my sister or my mother or my lover in another life. And it makes me respect and value others a lot more.
Philosophies aside, what I myself believe about empathy is more in line with the Tibetan Buddhists: that empathy, or, to be more precise, compassion, is indeed an innate human potential and that it can be generated by getting in touch with that. I think people, due to ignorance, egotism, or severe traumas, can block empathy.
I was just thinking about empathy during lunch today, lying on the grass reading my book on adrenal fatigue. There was an old Chinese lady nearby. Like most of the elderly in Chinatown, wearing homemade pajama-like clothes under a vest, a soft bucket hat on her head to protect her from the afternoon sun. She was just sitting there, with her pink plastic grocery bag. A few minutes later, I looked up and noticed she was vigorously slapping her legs. She did this for a good 10 minutes or so before standing up and shaking her arms. This site is not particularly unusual around Chinatown. A lot of the old folks do Tai Chi at nearby Lake Merritt BART. But something about her touched me, and I immediately wished I could help her. I would imagine she's got some leg pain, perhaps swollen joints. I just fet for her pain and her achiness, the burden on her arched back of walking around downtown (where the drivers are really agro) getting groceries.
Old people are like children in a lot of ways. More vulnerable. Also they become again kind of soft and fuzzy and more alike. Their distinct identities & features kinda melt away. I'm sure she reminded me of my gramma, who passed away nearly 2 years ago. She had that same softness, the same oversized swollen joints, the same kind of movements. And that same quiet way of going about her day, taking care of herself. Kinda lonesome. I guess I talk about empathy because I just felt a mysterious love for her.
I guess I bring up my gramma because in a lot of ways humans seem to empathize based on their experiences. I tend to have a lot of empathy for elderly Asian folks probably because of my love for my own grandparents, and especially for old ladies because I loved my grandmother a lot. It made me think about how important, and how potent are the seeds of kindness and love that my gramma planted all the time. Just knowing her, having an experience with such a warm, loving, patient woman makes me really feel for anyone I associate with her. It made me think about the importance of being the kind of person I'd like to see in the world, planting seeds of kindness and leading a meaningful life of love and service to others, not just for the immediate effect on those I help, but because that kind of energy radiates outward in amazing ways. If I know that the way my gramma lived her life inspires me to really love so many others, then I know any example I make will have lasting effects. There's no doubt about that.
There's only illusion, which the world in everyday life manages to cast on us each day: my job is so important, my image is so important, I must get xyz done, I'm so upset about this thing that happened or that person... the endless variety of samsara, as Buddhists say.
And there's ignorance (let's not forget our own responsibility in creating illusion). And in a lot of ways, we are limited by experience. But as said before, I also feel there's an unlimited human potential to generate compassion. Even though, for myself, it comes most naturally from feelings associated with my own experiences (e.g. with people I know), compassion can also be generated through contemplation. HH Dalai Lama is always telling his disciples that in his teachings: generate compassion.
For me, in generating compassion, it helps to think about rebirth: that we all have had millions of births, millions of manifestations as life, from a plant to a seahorse to a bear, to any of all of humanity and other life. And at some point, most of us have been related to one another. So I try to think about that a lot -- how anyone I meet could have been my sister or my mother or my lover in another life. And it makes me respect and value others a lot more.
posted by sylviashines at 2:12 PM
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