The Bridges of Empathy • Opening to Our Sameness (HC008)
⁘ Created: 2026-01-05 ⁘ Updated: 2026-01-09
Genuine compassion is born of empathy. Reflecting the other, stepping into their shoes — into a vision of our underlying samenesss. We are not fundamentally different and separate. Our deeper concerns are universal. Walk those bridges of empathy — born from the reality of our shared essence. Step beyond that little self — seek the life of integration.
Greetings. Kind and compassionate greetings. And with that, we're back in the core tunings of "Hearty Chatter". Today we look at compassion. First, to distinguish between compassion and pity. Pity is born typically from a sense of superiority, separation. "Poor bugger, not like me."
Genuine compassion stems from an empathic connection. You feel the suffering of the other. There's an essential underlying sameness, a stepping into the other person's shoes, even a blend of identities. This connection drives you to help the other, even as if helping yourself. I suppose I need not argue why such a compassion is a good thing, and the more universal, the better for all of us as a whole.
Now why is it that I often do not feel that compassion? Is there something wrong with me? Well, in fact there is, and that goes for most every one of us. You've built your life into a silo, you've erected your fences, and you've covered it all with your subjective veils. You've poured your attention to the specifics on the surface that make you distinct. You've sidelined the underlying essence that bridges all of us together.
The parallels are there, the connections are there, the bridges are there, the unified concerns are there. The more you rewind from your surface distinctions, entering the underlying essence of your being and life itself, the more you will find that bridges of compassion open in all directions. Pure compassion and empathy emerge naturally from this perception of sameness between you and whatever it is that you may encounter.
So that's the heart of compassion itself, born from a vision of sameness, belonging to the collective. Yet for this heart of compassion to be beneficial in practice, there must be discernment and reason. The vision of sameness coupled with the vision of distinctions.
There's no point in being the kind and sweetly hippie Jesus, trying to help everyone in every which way possible, when it does not actually lead to their long-term benefit, growth and evolution. When you are, with all of your compassion, an enabler of their dysfunction and continued suffering.
Let us seek that beating heart of compassion, born of a vision of sameness, but let us ride it in a vehicle crafted with a vision of distinctness. With due consideration of the concerns in the field of action — that the expressions of our compassion would lead to lasting long-term benefits.
The ultimate feat of compassion is the unveiling and release of awareness from attachment to the subject shell that generates the root of all suffering. Yet countless are the fields of compassion, all born from a vision of sameness, an empathic connection with the collective.
Compassion is found by entering deeper into the universal essence of what you are. Then let us be kind, not because it makes us feel better, but because it naturally follows from a shared field of concern. Rise beyond your little self, walk the bridges of empathy — and be well.