C. Paul Schroeder's Blog, page 4
March 15, 2017
Compassionate Seeing in Everyday Life
(This is an excerpt from Chapter One of the forthcoming bookPractice Makes PURPOSE: Six Spiritual Practices that Will Change Your Life and Transform Your Community)
Compassionate Seeing is a practice, which means that, like any skill, we get better by doing it. There is no magic about it, no mystical transports, no moment of illumination after which we will unfailingly see everyone and everything in the rosy glow of compassion. The process doesn’t happen overnight. It will probably seem awkwar...
Compassionate Seeing is a practice, which means that, like any skill, we get better by doing it. There is no magic about it, no mystical transports, no moment of illumination after which we will unfailingly see everyone and everything in the rosy glow of compassion. The process doesn’t happen overnight. It will probably seem awkwar...
March 7, 2017
Compassionate Seeing in the Workplace
(This is an excerpt from Chapter One of the forthcoming bookPractice Makes PURPOSE: Six Spiritual Practices that Will Change Your Life and Transform Your Community)
We often think of compassion as something sort of soft and fluffy, like a baby chick. So Compassionate Seeing might suggest putting things in a slightly fuzzy focus and airbrushing over certain unpleasant truths. But the opposite is actually true. Compassionate Seeing allows us to view theworld in sharp definition, without the dist...
We often think of compassion as something sort of soft and fluffy, like a baby chick. So Compassionate Seeing might suggest putting things in a slightly fuzzy focus and airbrushing over certain unpleasant truths. But the opposite is actually true. Compassionate Seeing allows us to view theworld in sharp definition, without the dist...
March 2, 2017
Compassion is Not a Feeling
(This is an excerpt from Chapter One of the forthcoming bookPractice Makes PURPOSE: Six Spiritual Practices that Will Change Your Life and Transform Your Community)
The great enemy of curiosity and wonder is self-absorption. When you or I are preoccupied by our own worries and projects, we stop being curious about what is happening around us and within us. Self-absorption is the opposite of compassion. With this in mind, we should always take care that our spiritual practice does not have the...
The great enemy of curiosity and wonder is self-absorption. When you or I are preoccupied by our own worries and projects, we stop being curious about what is happening around us and within us. Self-absorption is the opposite of compassion. With this in mind, we should always take care that our spiritual practice does not have the...
February 23, 2017
Compassion 1.0 and 2.0
I recently completed the bookThinking Fast and Slowby Daniel Kahneman, and it got me to thinking about the nature of compassion. In the book, Kahneman identifies two "systems" or modes of thought, which he calls "System I" and "System II." System I thinking is almost instantaneous, requires little energy, and relies on heuristics ("rules of thumb"). System II is conscious and effortful, and uses up energy. System I knows the answer to 2+2, but System II is what you invoke when you have to get...
February 15, 2017
The Secret of Happiness
The following is an excerpt from Chapter Six of the forthcoming bookPractice Makes PURPOSE: Six Spiritual Practices that Will Change Your Life and Transform Your Community.
Once there was a spiritual community of brothers who lived together in the desert and shared a common life. They all ate the same food, wore the same dress, and slept on the same straw mattresses. Among these brothers, there was one who was always complaining. He complained about the food, about the clothing, about the livi...
Once there was a spiritual community of brothers who lived together in the desert and shared a common life. They all ate the same food, wore the same dress, and slept on the same straw mattresses. Among these brothers, there was one who was always complaining. He complained about the food, about the clothing, about the livi...
February 9, 2017
A Bargain with the Universe
(This is an excerpt from Chapter One of the forthcoming book Practice Makes PURPOSE: Six Spiritual Practices that Will Change Your Life and Transform Your Community)
At this point, I want to offer you a simple tool that can help you practice Compassionate Seeing. It’s important to remember that this is only a tool; there is a basic rule that governs all aspects of spiritual practice: “Do what works, don’t do what doesn’t work.” So if this tool doesn’t work for you, look for something else that...
At this point, I want to offer you a simple tool that can help you practice Compassionate Seeing. It’s important to remember that this is only a tool; there is a basic rule that governs all aspects of spiritual practice: “Do what works, don’t do what doesn’t work.” So if this tool doesn’t work for you, look for something else that...
February 2, 2017
The Two Movements of Compassionate Seeing
(This is an excerpt from Chapter One of the forthcoming bookPractice Makes PURPOSE: Six Spiritual Practices that Will Change Your Life and Transform Your Community)The First Movement - Recognizing the DifferenceCompassionate Seeing has two movements, both of which are encoded in the universal spiritual prescription we know as the “Golden Rule”: treat others as you would want to be treated in their place. The first movement of Compassionate Seeing is recognizing the difference between ourselve...
January 24, 2017
The Great Convergence: How Businesses and Nonprofits are Moving Together to Create Massive Social Impact
Keynote address delivered January 24, 2017, in honor of the one-year anniversary ofFirst Step Staffingin Atlanta, Georgia.
It is 1595, and four ships set sail from the Dutch port of Antwerp, bound for Banten, the main spice port of West Java. They are following a “secret” route they have learned through espionage from the Portuguese, who at that time dominated the lucrative spice import market. The Portuguese regard them as little more than pirates, a threat to their monopoly, and they are att...
It is 1595, and four ships set sail from the Dutch port of Antwerp, bound for Banten, the main spice port of West Java. They are following a “secret” route they have learned through espionage from the Portuguese, who at that time dominated the lucrative spice import market. The Portuguese regard them as little more than pirates, a threat to their monopoly, and they are att...
January 18, 2017
The Deeper Meaning of Compassion
(This is an excerpt from Chapter One of the forthcoming bookPractice Makes PURPOSE: Six Spiritual Practices that Will Change Your Life and Transform Your Community)
What does “compassion” mean to you? The word compassion comes from the Latin wordscum,meaning “with,” andpatere,meaning “to suffer or experience.” Compassion is often understood in the narrow sense of “to suffer with,” to identify with those who endure misfortune or hardship. But this is only a part of what compassion is all about....
What does “compassion” mean to you? The word compassion comes from the Latin wordscum,meaning “with,” andpatere,meaning “to suffer or experience.” Compassion is often understood in the narrow sense of “to suffer with,” to identify with those who endure misfortune or hardship. But this is only a part of what compassion is all about....
January 10, 2017
How to Practice Compassionate Seeing
(This is an excerpt from Chapter One of the forthcoming bookPractice Makes PURPOSE: Six Spiritual Practices that Will Change Your Life and Transform Your Community)
Ending the cycle of judgment and blame requires Compassionate Seeing, the first and most fundamental of the Six Spiritual Practices. Compassionate Seeing is a moment-by-moment commitment to viewing ourselves and others with complete and unconditional acceptance; no exceptions. Here are some simple ideas for how you can start practi...
Ending the cycle of judgment and blame requires Compassionate Seeing, the first and most fundamental of the Six Spiritual Practices. Compassionate Seeing is a moment-by-moment commitment to viewing ourselves and others with complete and unconditional acceptance; no exceptions. Here are some simple ideas for how you can start practi...
