Joan Halifax: Compassion and the true meaning of empathy

http://www.ted.com Buddhist roshi Joan Halifax works with people at the last stage of life (in hospice and on death row). She shares what she's learned about compassion in the face of death and dying, and a deep insight into the nature of empathy.

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes, Pattie Maes on the "Sixth Sense" wearable tech, and "Lost" producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in a variety of languages are now available on TED.com, at http://www.ted.com/translate.

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[Neuromance27]

303 dislikes? Unbelievable. Just because someone speaks in the language that they're familiar with, in this case buddhist terminology, doesn't mean they're pushing their religion on anyone. You're a free-thinking individual, can you not comprehend figurative language, or at least the comparative aspect of compassion here? Maybe some of you left-brained fanatics need to volunteer in a hospice.

[Scott Hill]

@therealbreadfan:

1) It's really no different to, say, stroking one's beard.

2) Buddhism is a philosophy not a religion.

3) You probably wouldn't say that if she were, say, discussing a complex scientific subject.

4) Rational thought without compassion leads to horrific acts of violence.

[claudeghe]

More likes please!!!

[t ill]

Strong back, Soft Front.



[Max Treblinka]

If I'm in pain, I have zero desire to be causing somebody else to be in some kind of fancy, sophisticated pain. I will award no points for people who feel "genius compassion" (or whatever you call it) for me.

Compassion can impel people to make the world a better place, but there can also be other motivating factors. I think she's fetishising "feeling someone else's pain" for personal reasons, and taking it to pathological extremes.

[SmeesLightning]

It seems many people that are commenting and dislike this talk, have belief systems getting in the way of understanding and actually hearing what this woman is saying. She is not saying you have to be buhdist or anything, she is saying we need to be concious of ourselves to be compassionate even in terrible conditions, and that compassion can change the world for the better.

"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society"

Jiddu Krishnamurti.

[mandypalacio]

Sentimental compassion is not what she is talking about. Quite the opposite.

[Patricia Vázquez]

Seeing suffering clearly is not enough, we must act to transform it. That's easy enough to grasp, but she adds an important insight: we cannot be attached to outcome.

Thumbs up (c:

[Max Treblinka]

You can say competence and compassion can both exist in one doctor. I agree. My only point is, I, as the burn victim, don't care EVEN SLIGHTLY whether my pain is “shared”. And, frankly, any burn victim who did want the carer to “share” their pain is just a sadist. As a burn victim, I want my burn-pain to go away. Period. If the doctor loves their job and whistles while they work, I DON'T CARE. Just do the job right.

Does anyone feel differently?

[Max Treblinka]

Let's say you've been very badly burned. Who would you rather see running toward you over the horizon - a doctor who couldn't care less about your suffering, and is just going to treat your burns perfectly, in such a way as to minimise scarring/infection, solely because it will feed their ego to do so? Or a doctor who will feel your pain so much that their hands tremble, get dirt in your wounds, and leave you in worse pain than when they started?

[therealbreadfan]

"Open your eyes, kid"? Really?

I do hate religion. As any intellectually honest person should. In order NOT to hate religion, one must turn a blind eye to the fact that religion has been detrimental to humanity.

Religion is a virus of the mind. A virus that spreads by infecting the defenseless minds of the very young or the uneducated. For that reason, I don't hate the religious, exactly like I don't hate the mentally insane.

Want to help people? Educate them, and keep religion out of schools.