Where Compassion Begins: A HANDBOOK FOR INCARCERATED PERSONS - Foundational Practices to Enhance Mindfulness, Attention and Listening from the Heart

Compassion is sometimes confused with empathy, or even sympathy. It is neither, though it includes some aspects of both. Compassion begins when we allow ourselves to really hear and attune to suffering, that of others, as well as ourselves. And hearing and perceiving this anguish, we are moved to do something about it. What takes compassion beyond sympathy or empathy is that it includes action, action that is considered, skillful and beneficial.

Council is a foundational practice that builds...