The Problem with Words: Empathy and Compassion
(HYBRID) Do you ever wince at a sad story on the news, or tear up at a rescue dog video? That natural resonance with others’ feelings is empathy. It’s important, but we often mistake it for compassion. We assume compassion drains us, but it’s empathy that fatigues.
Blaming compassion for burnout is like blaming the cast on your arm for the broken bone.
On its own, empathy can lead to burnout, and even to turning away from people who need us when we’re at our limit. Compassion builds on empathy, but it lets us turn towards suffering without being overwhelmed.
It’s the release valve that gives us the stability and staying power to face difficult times. And easy ones, of course.
This day-long workshop combines guided meditation and discussion to bring together Buddhist and neuroscientific perspectives on the difference. It shows how mindfulness and compassion training make our empathy part of the solution, for us and for the people around us.
Empath & Compassion is the second in The Power of Words, a series exploring the mind through Buddhist and psychological perspectives. Upcoming sessions will explore Consciousness & Cognition.
The series draws on Corey’s background in Tibetan-English interpretation, Sanskrit and PhD into mindfulness and mental health. This will bring Buddhist thought and contemporary psychology together to explore not just what the mind does, but how we can learn to work with it.
Event Details
Please make a donation
You can contribute now online, or when you arrive on the on the day (with cash or card). Thank you for your generosity! Your donation helps keep LTC flourishing and providing courses such as this, and it also means we can make a nice offering to Corey in appreciation of his time.
Join Event on Zoom
This is a hybrid event, held both in-person in the gompa and online on Zoom. Zoom meeting starts 10 minutes before event start time.
