Definitions: (1) characterized by insightful understanding; the ability to know how another is feeling; possessing a mutual knowingness arising from sameness of experience; (2) vicariously being aware of, or being sensitive to the feelings, thoughts, or experiences of another without personally participating with the other at the time these feelings, thoughts, or experiences took place; (3) being able to grasp what is happening without the situation being fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner; (4) an emotion of kind-hearted pity or compassion
Familial Quality: sympathetic
Quotes:
• Being able to feel the pain of others is a strength. It gives us incentive to avoid causing pain. — Morgan Llywelyn (1937-) BARD, The Odyssey of the Irish {1984}
• Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. — Jesus of Nazareth (7 BC-30 AD) The Bible, Matthew 7:12
• Regard your neighbor’s gain as your own gain and your neighbor’s loss as your own loss. Relate yourself to every man as if you were in his place. Recompense injury with kindness. — Lao-Tse (6th Century BC) T’ai Shang Kan Ying P’ien (The Treatise of the Exalted One on Response and Retribution) Taoism
Note: The last two quotes represent the Golden Rule. We cannot adhere to this principal of reciprocity if we do not empathize with our fellows.
Consideration: “Death is division,” the priest said. “Not only the dying who passes from this world to the coming cycle, but within each of us. We are trapped between the life we had when our friend, our lover, our parent, our child was with us, and this diminished world without them. We are split in two, and bringing ourselves back to wholeness is the spiritual work of mourning.” — Daniel James Abraham (1969-) American writer Age of Ash {2022}
Experience:
The Five Stages of Grief
1. Denial and isolation
2. Anger
3. Bargaining
4. Depression
5. Acceptance
Note: You may not be able to bypass the stages of grief, but you can move through them efficiently if you do not allow yourself to wallow in defeat or sorrow. After living through the difficulty, you will be a more mature person, thus better able to empathize with others in similar pain.