What bores the listener bores the speaker too.

Empathy is a respectful understanding of what others are experiencing. Instead of offering empathy, we often have a strong urge to give advice or reassurance and to explain our own position or feeling. Empathy, however, calls upon us to empty our mind and listen to others with our whole being.

When our communication supports compassionate giving and receiving, happiness replaces violence and grieving.

People heal from their pain when they have an authentic connection with another human being.

The most dangerous of all behaviors may consist of doing things 'because we're supposed to.

We only feel dehumanized when we get trapped in the derogatory images of other people or thoughts of wrongness about ourselves.

The Chinese philosopher Chuang-Tzu stated that true empathy requires listening with the whole being: The hearing that is only in the ears is one thing. The hearing of the understanding is another. But the hearing of the spirit is not limited to any one faculty, to the ear, or to the mind. Hence it demands the emptiness of all the faculties. And when the faculties are empty, then the whole being listens. There is then a direct grasp of what is right there before you that can never be heard with the ear or understood with the mind.