True Empathy

True Empathy as described in A Course in Miracles, The Forgiveness of Illusions

To empathize does not mean to join in suffering, for that is what you must refuse to understand. That is the ego’s interpretation of empathy, and is always used to form a special relationship in which the suffering is shared. The capacity to empathize is very useful to the Holy Spirit, provided you let Him use it in His way. His way is very different. He does not understand suffering, and would have you teach it is not understandable. When He relates through you, He does not relate through your ego to another ego. He does not join in pain, understanding that healing pain is not accomplished by delusional attempts to enter into it, and lighten it by sharing the delusion.

The clearest proof that empathy as the ego uses it is destructive lies in the fact that it is applied only to certain types of problems and in certain people. These it selects out, and joins with. And it never joins except to strengthen itself. Having identified with what it thinks it understands, the ego sees itself and would increase itself by sharing what is like itself. Make no mistake about this maneuver; the ego always empathizes to weaken, and to weaken is always to attack. You don not know what empathizing means. Yet of this you may be sure; if you will merely sit quietly by and let the Holy Spirit relate through you, you will empathize with strength, and will gain in strength and not in weakness.

Mikey's Note: So, true empathy is about seeing others for what they really are, regardless of what's going on - immortal spirit. And that's how you'll see yourself. As the Course teaches, 'As you see him, you will see yourself. ' It's not about joining in suffering and making it psychologically real. If you see someone as a suffering body and helpless victim, then that's how it will register in your unconscious mind about yourself. And as Arten and Pursah put it in The Disappearance of the Universe, 'An important component of your forgiveness is that you want to teach people, silently, that they are not bodies. That's how your mind learns for certain that you are not a body. As the Course puts it, ‘I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.’ And, ‘As you teach so shall you learn.’

But don't forget the Course isn't about behavior, it's about being a right thinker. Seeing others as they really are doesn't mean you have to hang around with them. The Course is not about giving up the use of discernment and common sense in your everyday life. Like Pursah puts it in Your Immortal Reality, 'Remember, the Course is done at the level of the mind. If you’re a woman and a man is trying to rape you, kick him in the balls.' So, you can forgive and see them as immortal spirit after the fact. In fact, you'll eventually have to in order to be free. As the Course teaches, 'To forgive is to heal,' and, 'To heal is to make happy.' And one more, 'Forgiveness, truly given, is the way in which your only hope of freedom lies.'

If you so desire, you can join the fan page for my book, Dude, Where's My Jesus Fish?: A Compilation Highlighting the Blunt and Uncompromising Teachings of Arten and Pursah on A Course in Miracles. I post daily quotes on there from The Disappearance of the Universe, Your Immortal Reality, and A Course in Miracles. Here's the link: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dude-Wheres-My-Jesus-Fish/168442433183009?sk=info

Giddy up!