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The Various Faces of Compassion
To “feel with” can mean different things
I think I’m ready to write about compassion.
Not because I’m so good at it. But because I can see the difference it makes, clearer than ever. The difference is in how open I am to connection — with myself, and with others.
Compassion is one of these experiences that are hard to pinpoint. Is it a feeling? An attitude? A response? And outlook? Depending on the situation, it can be all of those things.
In this piece, I will be putting on different lenses and inspecting compassion through them.
Compassion as common humanity
There are many components of compassion and angles from which to look at it. It seems important which one I’m going to pick as the first one. It will set the tone for the rest of this essay.
After some thought, I’m going with the “common humanity” aspect. That’s the one which facilitates compassion for ourselves, as well as for others.
Kristine Neff, one of the most well-known compassion researchers in the world, talks about common humanity as…
