Episode 25: Compassion, Wisdom and Training
Episode 25 of M3CS’s Contemplative Science Podcast saw Dr Paul Condon come on to the show to talk about his work researching and creating frameworks for the training of compassion in our daily lives.
For the full podcast, check out the episode here.
In this episode, we cover...
How Paul defines compassion, in comparison to sympathy and empathy.
His work co-creating Sustainable Compassion Training with John Makransky.
Field of care practice and how it helps us access our internal love and compassion.
Dr Paul Condon is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Southern Oregon University, visiting lecturer for the Centre for Buddhist Studies at Rangjung Yeshe Institute and fellow of the Mind & Life Institute. Together with John Makransky he has co-authored the Sustainable Compassion Training model.
Here are some of the key insights from the conversation...
Recent studies have delved into the relationship of perceived efficacy and compassion.
”If we perceive that we have some efficacy to engage in compassion and to help one another, it actually motivates our efforts to actually up-regulate our compassion, and then interact and reach out and try to help others... if we think and perceive that we're actually going to have some benefit for others.”
Studying compassion scientifically requires a wide range of behavioural measures.
”I think it's like that metaphor of the blind man and the elephant... each person touches the elephant and sees or reports something slightly different and not the whole picture. I think all these measures are like that - each measure is giving us a slightly different understanding of compassion, but no one measure alone is going to give us the full picture.”
Our emotions are all internal processes fed by external stimuli.
”Joy comes from the inside out rather than the outside in. The outside is just the trigger for the thing that’s happening inside of you. That would be a great skill to learn, to open to the sense of being supported in love. I can’t think of something that would be more transformational for a culture.”
The best place to find Dr Paul Condon is here.
See you next week!
