near-enemies

I__ helped by a gentle notion from Buddhist psychology, that there are __ear enemies_ to every great virtue__eactions that come from a place of care in us, and which feel right and good, but which subtly take us down an ineffectual path. Sorrow is a near enemy to compassion and to love. It is borne of sensitivity and feels like empathy. But it can paralyze and turn us back inside with a sense that we can__ possibly make a difference. The wise Buddhist anthropologist and teacher Roshi Joan Halifax calls this a __athological empathy_ of our age. In the face of magnitudes of pain in the world that come to us in pictures immediate and raw, many of us care too much and see no evident place for our care to go. But compassion goes about finding the work that can be done. Love can__ help but stay present