Happiness Vs Happiness

Barbara Lazear Ascher writes a well formed essay on the concept of compassion. Compassion is something that we do for others out of the kindness of our hearts. She focuses more on the poor, just how we show them sympathy, why do we do such things. Is showing empathy from our hearts or just for them to go away. I enjoyed this essay due to the fact, that she gives humanistic reasons on why people are compassionate, she doesn’t sugar coat anything, and lastly she breaks down the compassion that she sees everyday.

“The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss (...) These people have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen” (Elisabeth Kubler-Ross). Compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern make mankind beautiful, but it also makes it defenseless . When one has concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others, he takes sacrifices, risks, and lives with uncertainty. When man is compassionate, he lives a vulnerable life. Love and compassion bring out the beauty in mankind, but they can also bring out its weaknesses. Because of man’s compassion, he

Are people born with a complete quandary when it comes to compassion or is it something that has always been there? Barbara Lazear Ascher, born in 1946, writes, “On Compassion.” Having lived in New York City, Ascher is able to take first hand examples from the city to show the affection people have towards each other. Ascher is able to illustrate that compassion is something that has to be taught because of the adversity at people’s heels by including tone, persuasive appeals, and the mode of comparing and contrast in her essay, “On Compassion.”

“And yet, it may be that these are the conditions that finally give birth to empathy, the mother of compression. We cannot deny the existence of the helpless as their presence grows. It is impossible to insulate ourselves against what is at our very doorstep. I don’t believe that one is born compassionate. Compassion is

Compassion, by definition, is a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering. In our modern society, compassion plays a major role in the act of kindness. Many people believe that doing a good deed is a selfless act since they do not get nothing in return. Others believe that doing a good deed to make you feel good about yourself is selfish. It is a theory that causes you to ponder on the purpose of compassion. In Barbara Lazear Ascher’s essay, On Compassion, she contemplates this theory. By using a variety of writing techniques, Ascher is able to share her views on compassion in way that speaks to the audience.

Ascher’s essay describes the ways she has seen compassion showed, through voluntary donations, food, shelter. She openly questions what drives humans to be compassionate to each other. As a successful author who

Many people tend to become frustrated with their daily lives and start to have a negative mindset of blaming other people for their problems. In David Foster Wallace’s speech, “This is Water,” he informed the audience of the importance for everyone to know they have a natural default setting, which is the automatic way that a person feels they are the center of the universe and that negative situations are other people’s fault. He also discussed the importance of trying not to act in this natural default setting, and try to think of problems that other people have to go through in their lives. The main purpose of Wallace’s speech was to persuade the audience to fight the urge of staying in their natural default setting to prevent

Within literature, Compassion has been described in many ways though very few descriptions have agreed on how it is best identified (Volpintesta 2011). Crowther et al (2013) describe compassion as a deep emotion that is felt by the individual practitioner allowing them to understand what the patient may be experiencing. Nussbaum (2003) argues that compassion goes beyond just understanding and identifying that emotion, it requires the practitioner to produce a response to the feeling or emotion in order to improve the situation. Dewar (2011) points out that compassion is not only about the recognition of the patients suffering but includes small

Dalai Lama once said “Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive.” But how does one learn how to love or feel compassion for others? People all around the world wonder why the feel compassion for others. Most people feel compassion because it helps them understand how others are feeling so they can respond appropriately to a certain situation. Barbara Lazear Ascher, a former attorney and a current author, focused on compassion and how it is developed by people. Ascher’s purpose is to show that compassion is not something that you are born with, it is something that you have to learn and practice throughout your lifetime. A way to practice compassion is when you see homeless. Ascher’s reaches her

It is well-known that life in this world is hard, always waiting for the ugly truth from people to preoccupied with their own lives to care. We know empathy and compassion only stretch so far. Having seen how uncompassionate people seem to be, Barbara Ascher, the author of on compassion, expressed that having such traits makes us a better people and the adversity at our feet keeps it ever so prevalent. We aren't born with compassion, we are taught such characteristics. Through the use of imagery, rhetorical question, and allusion, Ascher compels her audience that learning compassion and having adversity at our doorstep is a need for our society.

“On Compassion” exhibits the changes in which humans have encountered that contributed to the trait of care and compassion in us

Compassion is a very complex, and often times, confusing aspect of human nature. Compassion is thought by some to be an innate human emotion that is the separating force between humans and animals. Others would argue that compassion in humans is influenced by the environments and situations in which they are exposed to and can be mistaken for selfish ulterior motives or fear. The essay On Compassion by Barbara Lazear Ascher tells her view of compassion through events she has experienced with homeless people, compassion shown towards them, and how these experiences shaped her opinion on the emotion. Ascher explains her perspective on compassion through her thesis in the passage stating “Compassion is not a character trait like a sunny disposition.

One cannot truly change the world without first mastering the art of looking beyond oneself and into the outside world. This idea of looking beyond oneself has been the focus of ancient and modern philosophers throughout the world. In “The Is Water”(2005), a commencement address, David Foster Wallace, a modern day philosopher, implies that people generally view the world from a selfish perspective and elaborates on how the world should work to reverse its self-centered ways. Wallace reveals his topic through a series of anecdotes, each highlighting a different way we are focused on ourselves and then providing a way to view each situation different perspectives. Wallace’s purpose is to point out the faults in thinking only for oneself in order to emphasize as well as open up to a different ideology of thought but remaining to maintain a defensive approach without imposing his views on his audience. Although the address was created for college graduates, his speech is able to apply to a broader audience of readers and listeners today.

The construct we will measure and explore is compassion. The definition of compassion includes the “awareness of the suffering of another coupled with the wish to relieve it” (Radey and Figley, 2007). Compassion is a deep sense associated with altruism and feelings that include condolence, pity, and empathy. We got the idea of compassion when coming up with traits that would be beneficial in a social aspect when dealing with others, especially in difficult moments. The trait compassion was focused on when looking at the traits that we believe are important to have when focusing on the concern of others. It is Compassion is an important trait to have because it is strongly tied to other concern and connect to others. It is important to have

What matters more in the real world in relation to life, its quality or quantity? Why would most unknowingly conform to following these so-called ‘social norms’? What happens when one recognizes an illusion of control, yet cannot let go of actions that determine? What is the definition of true happiness and how does one achieve it? What does it mean to live a good life? Are happy people with many of the latest material goods, people who make do with what they have, or ones who prefer to forego a path of pleasure, or just something else? What is it that can I do to be happier?