Thursday, June 17, 2010

The Three Faces of Compassion

According to Stephen Gilligan, compassion has three energies or faces:
Tenderness in the face of pain;
Fierceness in the face of injustice;
Mischievousness in the face of resistance.

I especially like the addition of the third face because it makes me smile, but also because it's clear that creativity is needed to fully live compassionately.

(Thanks to Tracey Dawson for the idea in her ordination paper!)

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