Paying Attention: An Examination of Attention and Empathy as They Relate to Buddhist Philosophy
Religions January 23, 2022 Jennifer Carmichael 1 citation
The COVID-19 pandemic revealed a decline in empathy for others and the planet, driven by a dualistic mind-body conception and capitalist consumerism that reifies a fixed self. This paper argues that Nagarjuna's Buddhist concept of emptiness, from the Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way, combined with mindful observation of bodily experience, reveals the self as a web of interacting processes within a larger web. This understanding undermines the notion of an inherent self and situates the conventional self as interrelated with the world, facilitating a shift toward empathy. The paper suggests this approach can aid recovery from the pandemic and help build a more empathetic global community.