Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life - Softcover

"Rich with wisdom and provocative ideas that stimulate deeper thinking and encourage individuals to identify a particular contribution to the global effort." --"Christian Science Monitor" "Leaning on the wisdom of disparate faiths and belief systems, Armstrong lays out a pluralistic and, ultimately, secular way to spread compassion that's easy to believe in." -"Washington Post" "Charming. . . . Exquisitely intelligent." --"Financial Times" "Impressive. . . . She seeks to retrain us from an ego-fuelled outlook of partiality and prejudice to an informed, expanded humanity." --"The Globe and Mail" "When I hear that Karen Armstrong, the widely respected religion scholar...has a new book called "Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life, "I figure it's about big stuff--and she does not disappoint." --Laurie Abraham, "Elle" "[An] important and useful book that will help many readers take on humanity's most important task: creating a better, more compassion

In this important and thought-provoking 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 self-love, 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.