Edwin Rutch is the founder of Empathy Tents and the Center for Building a Culture of Empathy. In this show, he demonstrates how active listening can be used in a radical way– by bringing together Joey Gibson, a Patriot Prayer rally leader, and activist Rev. Megan Rohrer, a leader of counter-protests to the Patriot Prayer rally,… read more
January 3 Differences of opinion should never mean hostility. -Gandhi (Young India 3-17-1927) Gandhi created this pair of sandals for his “opponent” in South Africa, General Jan Smuts, which were clearly worn very often. Where there is more than one person, there will be differences of opinion. How we handle differences of opinion is a… read more
You are Not My Enemy. Violence is My Enemy. A Call to Militant Empathy by Peijman Kouretchian (Photo by Mica Stumpf) The streets look like war. Two NYPD police officers were just “assassinated” apparently as revenge for the Eric Garner chokehold death. This is the first major physical attack on actual police officers… read more
“I think we all have empathy. We may not have enough courage to display it.” –Maya Angelou (Botticelli’s La primavera is set in a bitter orange grove. . . What does this have to do with our show? Read below…) Empathy and compassion are essential to personal well-being. They are also skills we can develop that help… read more
Nonviolent Communication is one way of applying the principles of nonviolence into our way of being in the world, and it facilitates our deepening relationships with others when the practices are internalized and made fluent by the person trying to use them. In this series of videos, Marshall Rosenberg, founder of the NVC practice, introduces… read more
by Michael Nagler Police brutality, suppression of dissent, heartless cruelty toward the disadvantaged, xenophobia and other forms of racism, Freikorps-type vigilante groups, corporate domination subjugating law and government, election fraud and war — America has virtually all the telltale characteristics of fascism, not just some. And it could not be otherwise, because the culture of… read more
Turning Our Backs on Consumerism By Eknath Easwaran As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world—that is the myth of the “atomic age”—as in being able to remake ourselves. —Mahatma Gandhi In one of my favorite Sanskrit stories from ancient India, an… read more
Originally published as “September 11 and Satyagraha” on Tikkun.org on September 8, 2011 by Michael N. Nagler As the news of Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination spread through India on the first day of February, 1948, an American journalist was stunned by the intensity of the grief swirling around him. An Indian friend explained to him, “You… read more
