Book Picks - Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life, by Karen Armstrong

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.

~The Washington Post

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.The First Step: Learn About CompassionThe Second Step: Look at Your Own WorldThe Third Step: Compassion for YourselfThe Fourth Step: EmpathyThe Fifth Step: MindfulnessThe Sixth Step: ActionThe Seventh Step: How Little We KnowThe Eighth Step: How Should We Speak to One Another?The Ninth Step: Concern for EverybodyThe Tenth Step: KnowledgeThe Eleventh Step: RecognitionThe Twelfth Step: Love Your Enemies

Karen Armstrong is the author of numerous books on religion, including TheCase for God, A History of God, The Battle for God, Holy War, Islam, Buddha, and The Great Transformation, as well as a memoir, The Spiral Staircase. Her work has been translated into forty-five languages. In 2008 she was awarded the TED Prize and began working with TED on the Charter for Compassion, created online by the general public, crafted by leading thinkers in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. It was launched globally in the fall of 2009. Also in 2008, she was awarded the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Medal. In 2013, she received the British Academy’s inaugural Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize for Transcultural Understanding.

Paperback: 15.95

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