Review of 'Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
This book provides a survey of compassion through the lenses of Daoism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam while offering twelve concrete and challenging steps to ground us in the spiritual practice of compassion. These steps are anchored in the Buddha's meditation on the four immeasurable minds of love, and each step either builds upon this meditation or offers complimentary exercises to strengthen your practice.
Compassion is a skill that we need to practice in order to achieve fitness in its usage. Without this fitness, when passions are inflamed and we are experiencing feelings of aggravation, frustration, or hatred, then we will find it impossible to respond from compassion and instead follow the primal urgings of our habits and instincts.
I particularly enjoyed the use of stories from all of the above traditions as well as Greek myth and Socrates' method of dialog to illustrate various points and to show a …
This book provides a survey of compassion through the lenses of Daoism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam while offering twelve concrete and challenging steps to ground us in the spiritual practice of compassion. These steps are anchored in the Buddha's meditation on the four immeasurable minds of love, and each step either builds upon this meditation or offers complimentary exercises to strengthen your practice.
Compassion is a skill that we need to practice in order to achieve fitness in its usage. Without this fitness, when passions are inflamed and we are experiencing feelings of aggravation, frustration, or hatred, then we will find it impossible to respond from compassion and instead follow the primal urgings of our habits and instincts.
I particularly enjoyed the use of stories from all of the above traditions as well as Greek myth and Socrates' method of dialog to illustrate various points and to show a unified respect for this thread that runs through us all.