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In this important and thoughtprovoking work, Karen Armstrong—one of the most original thinkers on the role of religion in the modern world—provides an impassioned and practical guide to helping us make the world a more compassionate place. The twelve steps she suggests begin with “Learn About Compassion,” and close with “Love Your Enemies.” In between, she takes up selflove, mindfulness, suffering, sympathetic joy, the limits of our knowledge of others, and “concern for everybody.” She shares concrete methods to help us cultivate and expand our capacity for compassion, and provides a reading list to encourage us to “hear one another’s narratives.” Armstrong teaches us that becoming a compassionate human being is a lifelong project and a journey filled with rewards.
[...]... riding unarmed with a thousand unarmed Muslims into enemy territory There, having narrowly escaped being massacred by the Meccan cavalry, he negotiated a treaty with the Quraysh, accepting terms that seemed to his outraged followers to throw away all the advantages they had gained Yet that evening, the Qur’an declared that this apparent defeat was a “manifest victory.” While the Quraysh had behaved according... focused on the fact that all human beings were made in God’s image To show disrespect to anyone was therefore regarded as a denial of God himself and tantamount to atheism, and murder was not simply a crime against humanity but a sacrilege.58 God had created only one man at the beginning of time to teach us that destroying a single life was equivalent to annihilating the world, while to save a life redeemed... beings have always been prepared to work hard to enhance a natural ability We doubtless learned to run and jump in order to escape from our predators, but from these basic skills we developed ballet and gymnastics: after years of dedicated practice men and women acquire the ability to move with unearthly grace and achieve physical feats that are impossible for an untrained body We devised language to improve... nomadic life behind and established a commercial empire based in the city of Mecca In order to make trade possible, they had abjured tribal warfare, cultivated an attitude of lofty neutrality toward local disputes, and made the area surrounding the Kabah, the ancient shrine in the middle of Mecca, a sanctuary in which violence was forbidden These measures enabled Arabs from all over the peninsula to. .. country What has your nation done for the world in the past, and what can it realistically do to make the world a more just, fair, safe, and peaceful place? Most of us believe that our nation has compassionate values, but can you imagine what it would be like if it became more compassionate? How would this affect the global community? And what would a compassionate modern nation-state be like? What would... Christian tradition, insisted that scripture taught nothing but charity Whatever the biblical author may have intended, any passage that seemed to preach hatred and was not conducive to love must be interpreted allegorically and made to speak of charity.73 In many ways, Islam can be seen as an inspired attempt to counter the violence of tribalism, urging Muslims to use their new-brain capacities to control... rituals of consideration at the same time as you were bestowing them The li required a son to submit absolutely to his father’s wishes, but the father was supposed to behave fairly, kindly, and courteously to his children Family life was seen as similar to the carefully choreographed ritual ballets of ancient China, a series of interweaving and reciprocal dances in which each person had a partner and... out of tombs or seas splitting asunder, and this has made religion problematic Without practical implementation, a myth can remain as opaque and abstract as the rules of a board game, which sound complicated and dull until you pick up the dice and start to play; then everything immediately falls into place and makes sense As we go through the steps, we will examine some of the traditional myths to discover... that changed in 610, when Muhammad began to receive revelations that would eventually be collected in the scripture known as the Qur’an These inspired oracles spoke directly to conditions in Mecca and articulated a compassionate ethos to counter its aggressive capitalism The basic message of the Qur’an is that it is wrong to build a private fortune but good to share your wealth fairly to create a just... gentleness and courtesy Men and women of peace, they “walk gently on the earth, and whenever the jahilun address them [insultingly], they reply ‘Peace’ [salam].”79 To counter the arrogant self-sufficiency of jahiliyyah, Muhammad asked his followers to make an existential “surrender” (islam) of their entire being to Allah, the Compassionate (al-Rahman) and Merciful (al-Rahim), who had given “signs” (ayat) . Inc. Knopf Canada and colophon are registered trademarks. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Armstrong, Karen, [date] Twelve steps to a compassionate life / Karen Armstrong. p. cm. A Borzoi. Compassion. 2. Twelve- step programs. I. Title. BJ1475 .A7 7 2010 177′.7—dc22 2010036870 Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Armstrong, Karen, [date] Twelve steps to a compassionate. evolution of a brain that was able to care for others and thus help to ensure the survival of their young. At first this care was rudimentary and automatic; but over millennia, mammals began to build