Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life
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Review
`Karen Armstrong's 12-step guide to becoming a better human being is a profound and lucid mixture of philosophy, theology and self-help. It's a perfect detox for the soul...as a write, she has many strengths: she is spry, eloquent, pacy. Unlike so many proselytisers, she manages to assert her ideas without being pompous or self-important...Crucially, Armstrong has a knack for grappling with complex ideas in the lightest of ways...She also displays an impressive degree of emotional intelligence...She uses her scholarly knowledge not as a blunt instrument with which to embarrass and humiliate the befuddled reader, but as a generous frame on which to lay many soft, welcoming cushions of learning' --The Times, January 7, 2011
`marks a new publishing departure. It sees Armstrong combine in this brief volume both her usual high quality historical scholarship and an explicit self-help programme that echoes her rousing lectures... challenging, persuasive self-help book that seeks to distil the very best of religion' --The Independent, January 7, 2011
`As an uplifting start to the year, her warm, wise book makes calorie-control look like thin gruel instead' --I, January 7, 2011
`one of the charming things about Armstrong's book is its deliberate descents into bathos. We move from the high thoughts of the old sages to the demands of everyday life...we move from an exquisitely intelligent exposition of Sophocles's Oedipus Tyrannus to a meditation upon how we might overcome a personal dislike of a colleague or family member' --Financial Times, January 11, 2011
`Because this is Karen Armstrong, there are flashes of sheer brilliance' --Scotland on Sunday, January 11, 2011
`straightforward without being simplistic...frequently fascinating'
--Metro
`This is a very impressive book, impressive for its wide-ranging scholarship, for the depth of its insights, and for the hopefulness of its vision' --Church Times
`marks a new publishing departure. It sees Armstrong combine in this brief volume both her usual high quality historical scholarship and an explicit self-help programme that echoes her rousing lectures... challenging, persuasive self-help book that seeks to distil the very best of religion' --The Independent, January 7, 2011
`As an uplifting start to the year, her warm, wise book makes calorie-control look like thin gruel instead' --I, January 7, 2011
`one of the charming things about Armstrong's book is its deliberate descents into bathos. We move from the high thoughts of the old sages to the demands of everyday life...we move from an exquisitely intelligent exposition of Sophocles's Oedipus Tyrannus to a meditation upon how we might overcome a personal dislike of a colleague or family member' --Financial Times, January 11, 2011
`Because this is Karen Armstrong, there are flashes of sheer brilliance' --Scotland on Sunday, January 11, 2011
`straightforward without being simplistic...frequently fascinating'
--Metro
`This is a very impressive book, impressive for its wide-ranging scholarship, for the depth of its insights, and for the hopefulness of its vision' --Church Times
Book Description
After the bestselling The Case for God, Karen Armstrong makes the case for compassion - an urgent appeal to establish empathy and altruism at the centre of our private and public lives.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
62 of 65 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Karen Armstrong will be familiar to many readers as a historian of religion, but with this new book she is trying something new - a project, long dear to her heart, to create a 'twelve-step" style programme (à la Alcoholics Anonymous etc) to return spiritual practice to the centre of life. In particular, she is interested in how the world could change if everyone practised compassion on a daily basis.
Each chapter of the twelve in the book ask the reader to focus on something different to develop this body of compassion - meditating on someone you dislike, for example, or thinking about which of your most dearly-held beliefs are simply knee jerk, and could be less tightly-held-onto. I like the fact that she combines such deep knowledge of religious history with these practical exercises, and her suggestion that the book be read week by week in a discussion group seems a good one.
Although in Chapter One she argues that the focus on compassion is common to all the world's religions, the overall idea feels most heavily influenced by Buddhism, and mentions of mindfulness and meditation add to that impression. She clearly hopes that the book will still appeal to Christians Jews and Muslims, though, and is careful to detail how each of these traditions values compassionate thinking.
The one part of the book I found the least convincing was the introduction, which spent a lot of time discussing our evolutionary origins and the place of altruism in our lives in a way that I thought didn't strictly hold with much current scientific thinking. Lots of stuff about reptile brains that jars with The Evolution of Co-Operation (Penguin Press Science)Get past that, and there's lots to think about. Now acting on it is the next task...
Each chapter of the twelve in the book ask the reader to focus on something different to develop this body of compassion - meditating on someone you dislike, for example, or thinking about which of your most dearly-held beliefs are simply knee jerk, and could be less tightly-held-onto. I like the fact that she combines such deep knowledge of religious history with these practical exercises, and her suggestion that the book be read week by week in a discussion group seems a good one.
Although in Chapter One she argues that the focus on compassion is common to all the world's religions, the overall idea feels most heavily influenced by Buddhism, and mentions of mindfulness and meditation add to that impression. She clearly hopes that the book will still appeal to Christians Jews and Muslims, though, and is careful to detail how each of these traditions values compassionate thinking.
The one part of the book I found the least convincing was the introduction, which spent a lot of time discussing our evolutionary origins and the place of altruism in our lives in a way that I thought didn't strictly hold with much current scientific thinking. Lots of stuff about reptile brains that jars with The Evolution of Co-Operation (Penguin Press Science)Get past that, and there's lots to think about. Now acting on it is the next task...
27 of 29 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Never before has compassion in religion been so sorely needed, we are reminded by this one time Roman Catholic nun, best selling religious historian and passionate campaigner for religious liberty. It would be difficult to disagree with this statement. But this is a book not just for the faithful religious. As she quotes the Dalai Lama as saying in his Ethics for the New Millennium (New York, 1999), p. 19: "whether a person is a religious believer does not matter much. Far more important is that they be a good human being."
And this book sets out to help us all be just that.
The book starts with a promotion of the Charter for Compassion, the brainchild of Armstrong, created and launched by her in 2009 with the help of TED (Technology Entertainment and Design known for its "Ideas Worth Spreading" conferences - and if you are not familiar with TED you should rectify that straightaway!). The Charter's aim is to bring compassion back to the heart of moral and religious life, and in involving the major faiths in its creation the Charter demonstrates that despite their differences the religions can work together for justice and peace. The Charter thus counters the voices of extremism, intolerance and hatred.
We are all invited to sign up to this Charter, to pledge our selves to a compassionate way of life, (although again this does not insist on us being religious, just compassionate) and this book is here to help us achieve this, to help us to translate the Charter into practical and realistic action across the globe.
The book is a self-help book that is very far from the self-interest genre that justifiably comes in for some criticism. This is a book to help save the world by healing our own behaviour, an idea very close to my own heart, as expressed in my own book, Healing This Wounded Earth: with Compassion, Spirit and the Power of Hope. As Armstrong points out, and as I have done before her, responsibility for this broken world has to start with the individual. We cannot expect our leaders to adopt humane and compassionate policies unless we change ourselves.
As given away in the title, this book is written along the lines of the Alcoholics Anonymous 12 point plan, and if we follow the steps carefully and diligently we will surely be able to modify our behaviour and the world will become a better more compassionate place. And we will certainly be happier. Armstrong has no illusions that this will be easy - it will be a lifelong process for us, as we will have to struggle all the way against self hatred and discouragement. But the steps are well explained, and supported with plenty of background information and encouragement at each stage. I was not absolutely sure about her explanations in the Preface of the evolution of the human brain - they may be viewed by the scientifically inclined as perhaps being a little too simplistic, but I do not think this matters to the overall theme. Suffice to say that it seems we may be hard wired for compassion as well as for cruelty and that is encouraging!
I heartily recommend the twelve-step process she outlines - to aspire to become truly compassionate persons. It is not, she assures us, beyond our capacity, but our vital work is indeed just beginning when we get to the last page of the book.
And this book sets out to help us all be just that.
The book starts with a promotion of the Charter for Compassion, the brainchild of Armstrong, created and launched by her in 2009 with the help of TED (Technology Entertainment and Design known for its "Ideas Worth Spreading" conferences - and if you are not familiar with TED you should rectify that straightaway!). The Charter's aim is to bring compassion back to the heart of moral and religious life, and in involving the major faiths in its creation the Charter demonstrates that despite their differences the religions can work together for justice and peace. The Charter thus counters the voices of extremism, intolerance and hatred.
We are all invited to sign up to this Charter, to pledge our selves to a compassionate way of life, (although again this does not insist on us being religious, just compassionate) and this book is here to help us achieve this, to help us to translate the Charter into practical and realistic action across the globe.
The book is a self-help book that is very far from the self-interest genre that justifiably comes in for some criticism. This is a book to help save the world by healing our own behaviour, an idea very close to my own heart, as expressed in my own book, Healing This Wounded Earth: with Compassion, Spirit and the Power of Hope. As Armstrong points out, and as I have done before her, responsibility for this broken world has to start with the individual. We cannot expect our leaders to adopt humane and compassionate policies unless we change ourselves.
As given away in the title, this book is written along the lines of the Alcoholics Anonymous 12 point plan, and if we follow the steps carefully and diligently we will surely be able to modify our behaviour and the world will become a better more compassionate place. And we will certainly be happier. Armstrong has no illusions that this will be easy - it will be a lifelong process for us, as we will have to struggle all the way against self hatred and discouragement. But the steps are well explained, and supported with plenty of background information and encouragement at each stage. I was not absolutely sure about her explanations in the Preface of the evolution of the human brain - they may be viewed by the scientifically inclined as perhaps being a little too simplistic, but I do not think this matters to the overall theme. Suffice to say that it seems we may be hard wired for compassion as well as for cruelty and that is encouraging!
I heartily recommend the twelve-step process she outlines - to aspire to become truly compassionate persons. It is not, she assures us, beyond our capacity, but our vital work is indeed just beginning when we get to the last page of the book.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Karen Armstrong's 'Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life' is a hopeful book that helps us to navigate life when we come to realise that: 'Suffering is a law of life and it is essential during this step to acknowledge our own pain.' (From the third step: Compassion for yourself'). Drawing on a range of faith traditions Karen draws out the 'Golden Rule' and other common threads between the faiths that show us how to become more compassionate with ourselves and each other in our multicultural, ever more complex world.
It is in recognising the pain in our own lives and realising and integrating it that we can then reach out to others. In Step 11: Recognition - Karen shows how a woman called Christina Noble came to recognise her own devastating pain as a child in Ireland when she looked into the eyes of a street child in Vietnam. The recognition flashed across her consciousness that there is no 'us' and 'them' and that all humans suffer and everybody is in pain. Living a compassionate life is acknowledging this pain and working with it understanding that we are all one and have the same needs whatever our circumstances.
The author draws on many faith traditions showing that all of them at the core are pointing to the same way of being and acting in the world. As we become increasingly multicultural we need to find a way of living together that is compassionate.
The exercise on 'Maitri' (loving-kindness) from the Buddhist tradition on pages 34 and 76 is one that anyone from any tradition can usefully take up as a daily practice and one I learnt many years ago in Nepal and it fitted in well with my own tradition. Karen shows how we might fruitfully learn from other traditions and thus learn to empathise with all. This creates a more neutral approach to each other and the interculturual society we live in.
To sum up we need to become 'A person who impartial, fair, calm, gentle, serene, accepting and open-hearted ...' (p.178). The twelve steps invite us all to become this person by reflecting on such topics as 'Empathy'; 'Mindfulness'; 'Action'; 'Concern for Everybody';'How Should We Speak to One Another?'
Karen Armstrong is always a good read and I am never disappointed. Her books are well researched and invite further reading. There is an extensive reading list at the end of the book. There is always plenty to reflect upon.
It is in recognising the pain in our own lives and realising and integrating it that we can then reach out to others. In Step 11: Recognition - Karen shows how a woman called Christina Noble came to recognise her own devastating pain as a child in Ireland when she looked into the eyes of a street child in Vietnam. The recognition flashed across her consciousness that there is no 'us' and 'them' and that all humans suffer and everybody is in pain. Living a compassionate life is acknowledging this pain and working with it understanding that we are all one and have the same needs whatever our circumstances.
The author draws on many faith traditions showing that all of them at the core are pointing to the same way of being and acting in the world. As we become increasingly multicultural we need to find a way of living together that is compassionate.
The exercise on 'Maitri' (loving-kindness) from the Buddhist tradition on pages 34 and 76 is one that anyone from any tradition can usefully take up as a daily practice and one I learnt many years ago in Nepal and it fitted in well with my own tradition. Karen shows how we might fruitfully learn from other traditions and thus learn to empathise with all. This creates a more neutral approach to each other and the interculturual society we live in.
To sum up we need to become 'A person who impartial, fair, calm, gentle, serene, accepting and open-hearted ...' (p.178). The twelve steps invite us all to become this person by reflecting on such topics as 'Empathy'; 'Mindfulness'; 'Action'; 'Concern for Everybody';'How Should We Speak to One Another?'
Karen Armstrong is always a good read and I am never disappointed. Her books are well researched and invite further reading. There is an extensive reading list at the end of the book. There is always plenty to reflect upon.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
We have no 'reptile brain'
The common misconception, repeated in this book, is that we have deep within our brain a 'reptile brain'. Read more
Published 11 months ago by K. Martin
Disappointing
Having read the review for this book in The Times newspaper, I thought this would be a thoroughly enjoyable and "must read" book. However, I was very disappointed. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Mr. R. Lapthorn
Two Steps Missing - Animals and Earth
8-10 March 2011, three dozen of us came to the Brahma Kumaris Retreat Centre near Oxford. We joined in a "Journey to Compassion," a pilgrimage linking Compassion, Forgiveness,... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Mr. Richard F. Boeke
A powerful tool for cultivating compassion
Karen Armstrong says the principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions. The call is always to treat others as we wish to be treated. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Niki Collins-queen, Author
Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life by Karen Armstrong
This lady is one very well read and thoughtful writer. I am quite ancient, and reasonably well acquainted with the English language but I still needed a dictionary now and then!! Read more
Published 16 months ago by Lone Eagle.
Great read
I love Karen Armstrong's book. But this is more than a read, it's a way of life. She writes compellingly so that you know that there is another way
Published 16 months ago by Catherine Brady
Wish everyone would buy it and put it into practice
This book arrived promptly, was in new condition and as described.
Karen Armstrong is a wonderful writer, able to convey complex ideas and arguments in such a way that the non... Read more
Karen Armstrong is a wonderful writer, able to convey complex ideas and arguments in such a way that the non... Read more
Published 16 months ago by C. G. Darrall
Karen Armstrong is an inspiration.
This book seems like a culmination of the amazing research and study which Karen Armstrong has completed. I have read all her work, and heard her speak. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Ms Wes Healey
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