The Road Home with Ethan Nichtern Ep. 168 - How (and When) Do We Practice Compassion For Those Who Cause Harm?
Ethan tackles an age-old dharma question: how do we generate compassion for those who do harmful things? Should we even try, or does that make things worse? In the age of ICE lawlessness, totalitarian governments, and coming to terms with toxic relationships of all kinds, this question intensifies. This conversation often feels misunderstood. Whether the perpetrator is a dictator, a difficult ex, or a manipulative boss—or whether the harm is something we ourselves have caused—the question of building compassion and opening the bodhisattva's heart often delivers more confusion than clarity. Using a memory of hearing a college lecture by the long-imprisoned Tibetan monk Palden Gyatso, Ethan offers a simple (but never easy) three-step model of how to go about the difficult process of acknowledging and transforming the negative karma related to harmful actions.
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