A process for developing personal compassion to engage in compassionate community for a more compassionate world

Welcome to Compassionate Sunday. We’re working through Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life by Karen Armstrong, one step per month.

The month of March is devoted to The Second Step: Look at Your Own World. If you’d like to share a post about what you learned about compassion (The First Step) or what you’re seeing in your world, use the link list below or join the discussion in the comments or on Facebook.

For the last week of each month’s explorations, I’m taking the advice from the Reading Group Guide found on the Charter for Compassion’s website:  to resolve to introduce one new practice into my life, an action that will be “a dynamic and positive force for change.”

Last month, to follow up on The First Step to learn about compassion, I signed up for a massive open online course, a MOOC on religious literacy. I fell behind last week in the midst of giving presentations on Cuba, but I’m confident that I’ll catch back up to the class. We’re being exposed to cultures all over the world and I’m learning things that I didn’t know that I didn’t know — the best kind of learning!

For this month, to follow up on The Second Step to look at my world, I intend to keep looking, as I did last week, through the Ferguson Commission Report. At this point in the history of St. Louis and for at least the next 5 to 10 years, every action by individuals or organizations needs to connect to one or more of the Calls to Action in the Ferguson Commission Report. There’s a call to action for any project that we might undertake and many projects to be designed from the calls to action.

So, there’s the what and why. I’m still working out the how. How do I make consultation of the Ferguson Commission Report a habit or a practice? I’ve been working, recently, on a new version of my Guidebook, a tool I use to help guide me through projects. I’m going add the Ferguson Commission to the list of resources that I consult during the Best Friend Forever phase, when my project is beginning to take shape.

What practice could you develop for looking at your world with a lens of compassion?