Step 11: Recognition

In this step the key is our experience of the other - what Karen Armstrong calls the “moment of recognition” when one realizes there is no difference between “us” and “them”

Armstrong suggests allowing oneself to be open to the TV images that assault us during the evening or morning news. Instead of feeling numbed by all the bad news we see and hear, use the images as a focal point for meditating on the Immeasurables

Step 11: Recognition

The Four Immeasurables...

• Love• Compassion• Sympathetic Joy • Equanimity.

Step 11: Recognition

May all sentient beings have happiness and its causes,

May all sentient beings be free of suffering and its causes,

May all sentient beings never be separated from bliss without suffering,

May all sentient beings be in equanimity, free of bias, attachment and anger.

Armstrong comments that when we reach out to “touch”: the suffering of others we leave our own behind 

Step 11: Recognition

Emmanuel Levinas (12 January 1906 – 25 December 1995) was a Lithuanian-born French Jewish philosopher and Talmudic commentator.

“The humanity of the human is not discoverable through mathematics, rational metaphysics or introspection. Rather, it is found in the recognition that the suffering and mortality of others are the obligations and morality of the self”.

Step 11: Recognition

The philosophy of Levinas defines "Alterity"

 The ability to distinguish between self and not-self

Can a person maintain their humanity if there is not another with whom to interact?

Step 11: Recognition

The encounter between Jacob and his estranged brother Esau

Jacob says to Esau...

Seeing your faceI see the Face of GodThat you are pleased with me

Step 11: Recognition

The encounter between Jacob and his estranged brother Esau

Are we able to see ourselves in another person’s suffering or is it too distant? 

What do you think is needed to be able to fully recognize the experience of the other?

How do we encourage people to fully hear the stories of the other?