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Zusatztext “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 compassionate world.” — Tricycle Informationen zum Autor Karen Armstrong Klappentext One of the most original thinkers on the role of religion in the modern world-author of such acclaimed books as A History of God! Islam! and Buddha-now gives us an impassioned and practical book that can help us make the world a more compassionate place.Karen Armstrong believes that while compassion is intrinsic in all human beings! each of us needs to work diligently to cultivate and expand our capacity for compassion. Here! in this straightforward! thoughtful! and thought-provoking book! she sets out a program that can lead us toward a more compassionate life.The twelve steps Armstrong suggests begin with "Learn About Compassion" and close with "Love Your Enemies." In between! she takes up "compassion for yourself!" mindfulness! suffering! sympathetic joy! the limits of our knowledge of others! and "concern for everybody." She suggests concrete ways of enhancing our compassion and putting it into action in our everyday lives! and provides! as well! a reading list to encourage us to "hear one another's narratives." Throughout! Armstrong makes clear that a compassionate life is not a matter of only heart or mind but a deliberate and often life-altering commingling of the two. Preface Wish for a Better World In November 2007, I heard that I had won a prize. Each year TED (the acronym for Technology, Entertainment, Design), a private nonprofit organization best known for its superb conferences on “ideas worth spreading,” gives awards to people whom they think have made a difference but who, with their help, could make even more of an impact. Other winners have included former U.S. president Bill Clinton, the scientist E. O. Wilson, and the British chef Jamie Oliver. The recipient is given $100,000 but, more important, is granted a wish for a better world. I knew immediately what I wanted. One of the chief tasks of our time must surely be to build a global community in which all peoples can live together in mutual respect; yet religion, which should be making a major contribution, is seen as part of the problem. All faiths insist that compassion is the test of true spirituality and that it brings us into relation with the transcendence we call God, Brahman, Nirvana, or Dao. Each has formulated its own version of what is sometimes called the Golden Rule, “Do not treat others as you would not like them to treat you,” or in its positive form, “Always treat others as you would wish to be treated yourself.” Further, they all insist that you cannot confine your benevolence to your own group; you must have concern for everybody—even your enemies. Yet sadly we hear little about compassion these days. I have lost count of the number of times I have jumped into a London taxi and, when the cabbie asks how I make a living, have been informed categorically that reli...
