Janna Weiss

Topic:  Building Empathic Community: An Empathy Circle Superpower 

9:50  Speaker: Janna Weiss 

Summary 

Janna Weiss, a PhD in ethnobotany and a social justice advocate, discussed the global impact of Empathy Circles at the Empathy Summit. She highlighted the importance of empathy in building peaceful communities, referencing Martin Luther King's quote on peace. Weiss mentioned the Scientific American article on empathy that emphasized the importance of social support for being empathic. She detailed various Empathy Circle formats, including book clubs on Timothy Snyder's On Tyranny and Marianne Williamson's A Politics of Love. Weiss also noted the inclusion of diverse communities, such as Tibetan monks and Extinction Rebellion, and the global reach of Empathy Circles, including training sessions and international collaborations.

Action Items

• [ ] Sign up for the online Empathy Circle Facilitator Training. 

• [ ] Participate in the Empathy Café, Empathy Circles held by Bill Filler and Jonathan Gordon on Thursdays, where new facilitators can practice their skills.

• [ ] Explore Larry Lawhorn's empathymatters.org website to find out more about the Middle East Situation Empathy Circle, the Red and Blue Concerns Empathy Circle, and Internal Family Systems Empathy Circle.

• [ ] Join Janna's Sunday Empathy Circles 

• [ ] Find more Empathy Circles on the Empathy Circle Calendar

Outline

Empathy Summit Introduction and Gratitude

• Ruth Cook introduces Janna Weiss, highlighting her PhD in ethnobotany and her commitment to social justice.

• Janna Weiss expresses gratitude and joy, celebrating the global empathic listening community.

• Emphasizes the importance of building empathic communities and Empathy Circles.

• Quotes Martin Luther King on the need for effective organization for peace, linking it to Empathy Circles.

Empathy Circles and Their Impact

• Janna Weiss discusses the goal of reaching 8 billion people with Empathy Circles.

• Mentions the Scientific American article on the science of empathy, featuring Edwin Rutsch and Lou Zweier.

• Emphasizes the importance of social motivation and mutual support for empathy.

• Describes the versatility of Empathy Circles, using various methods like books, videos, and cards.

Examples of Empathy Circles

• Janna shares experiences of participating in Empathy Circle book clubs and Empathy Circles focused on different topics.

• Mentions the Democracy Circle, with Tim Snyder's On Tyranny, an Empathy Circle with Marianne Williamson's book, A Politics of Love, and Larry Lawhorn's IFS book reading Empathy Circle with Richard Schwartz's No Bad Parts.

• Discusses using videos and cards in Empathy Circles, including Matthieu Ricard's 16-minute video on altruism, How to Let Altruism Be Your Guide. (To see how we divided it up into four 4-min segments: https://empathymatters.org/now/altruism)

• Highlights the use of Felicia Darlings's DEIA Conversation Deck with Empathy Circles, an Empathy Circle with Tibetan monks, and XR Extinction Rebellion Empathy Circles.

Global Reach and Diversity of Empathy Circles

• Janna talks about the global reach of Empathy Circles, including a sand mandala created by Tibetan monks at the Empathy Center in Santa Barbara, and an Empathy Circle with Edwin and the monks.

• Mentions the Empathy Tent at the Dalai Lama's birthday and the involvement of Extinction Rebellion.

• Describes using the 16 Guidelines with Empathy Circles, combining universal human values with the Empathy Circle practice.

• Thanks Larry and Ruth for their participation in 16 Guidelines Empathy Circles, and mentions Larry's additional circles.

Empathy Summit and International Collaborations

• Janna Weiss discusses the creation of the first Empathy Summit and its co-creation with the Foundation for Developing Compassion and Wisdom.

• Mentions the involvement of the Peace Alliance and the 16 Guidelines.

• Highlights the participation of various speakers and organizations in the Empathy Summits.

• Encourages joining the Empathy Circle Facilitator Training. (One-on-one buddy calls for active listening practice are part of the weekly training homework.)

Transcript
https://otter.ai/u/kMVc_nPlH1FGf6Jid4D53RBxzqU?view=transcript

Thank you everyone. Thank you. Edwin, thank you the whole Empathy Summit, Bill, Lou, Cara, Jonathan, everyone, all the wonderful facilitators and participants. So my presentation is basically just gratitude, and joy, and a celebration of just some of the reach of this global empathic listening community. So, Building Empathic Community: An Empathy Circles Superpower. Martin Luther King spoke of building a beloved community. I love this quote, "Those who love peace must learn to organize as effectively as those who love war." War and peace don't look anything alike. 

Peace looks like Empathy Circles, and the more we do them, the more peace there will be in the world. But we're not stopping there, and we're not leaving out those who love war. We hope to reach 8 billion people. Like Edwin said, it's for everyone—"100%" he said, on his Empathy Tent. And I cannot sum up over a decade of work of so many people, but recently, in October, we had this beautiful science of empathy article that came out in Scientific American highlighting and featuring the Empathy Circle, mentioning Edwin and Lou. And here's some quotes from it:

"Empathy is a socially motivated process...Upholding empathy as a social norm motivates people to make the effort."

In other words, if we are intending, motivated, have the goal or the purpose to be empathic and to be kind, we will create that world, and we can support each other in doing that. And the more we practice, the better we get at it. And if we don't support each other and we don't value empathy, then it's more difficult.

And the Empathy Circle is, of course, the heart of this whole empathy movement, if we're building a culture of empathy. Edwin used to hold Cafes, Empathy Circle Cafes, open circles where people can just talk freely. And now Bill [Filler] and Jonathan [Gordon] are holding that space once a week on Thursday, where also new facilitators can practice their new skills.

And there are all kinds of ways to introduce topics that I've experimented a little bit with, and I haven't used cards, but with books, videos and cards. So Empathy Circles are very versatile.

And the first book club that I participated in with Edwin and Joan, his partner, was the Democracy Circle, where we did 10 weeks for the 20 short chapters in On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder, and there was a suggested topic for each of the chapters. So there were two topics, and whatever is alive in you.

And DJ Chandler and Larry Lawhorn and I did this together in January when Marianne [Williamson] was still running for president. Marianne Williamson's book, A Politics, of Love. We chose excerpts for each of nine weeks; the book has nine chapters, so people didn't have to read the book to participate in the Empathy Circle. You could just come read the excerpt together. We had a question for each of the circles, and then and whatever is alive in you, whatever is on your heart and mind.

And Larry is currently doing this reading group. It's not...he doesn't choose excerpts, but they're actually reading the whole book together. So part of the circle is reading the book, and then the Empathy Circle part is discussing whatever comes up for people as they're reading Internal Family Systems with Richard Schwartz.

Larry and I did this together, an Empathy Circle on altruism, an Empathy Circle, using video. This video is 16 minutes long, so we chopped it up into four-minute chunks. How to Let Altruism Be Your Guide by Matthieu Ricard, has at least 2.4 million views online. And we shared the transcript, as well as watched the four minutes at the beginning of the circle.

Felicia Darling, I would love to do this with her. I don't know how she's using the cards, but she's doing Empathy Unchained—it's her book, and she has a conversation deck, and she's using that, she says, "powered by Empathy Circles." 

And there's also in-person. Now this is a breakout room in Santa Barbara. Is just gorgeous. And the before and the after of Empathy Circles, and the Empathy Circle Facilitator Training that Edwin mentioned, and we're reaching further into all kinds of communities. Tibetan monks made this beautiful sand mandala at the Empathy Center, and did an Empathy Circle with Edwin. And you can watch the video, and also Thepo Tulku invited Edwin and the Empathy Tent team to set up an Empathy Tent at the Dalai Lama's birthday in Santa Barbara. And Extinction Rebellion has embraced Empathy Circles and offers Empathy Circles on the Empathy Circle calendar. 

Let's see... And when I saw that you could just put different content into Empathy Circles, I thought it would be really great to use with the 16 Guidelines. I'm also a 16 Guidelines facilitator, and this is another global community of facilitators that practices universal human values. Wendy Ridley put together this PDF, and she suggested, instead of using the book 16 Guidelines, to use this free PDF that the Foundation for Developing Compassion and Wisdom offers freely. And so we just read the excerpt for each of different values, like Kindness, Respect, Patience, Honesty, and then the Conversation Starters—we choose from those for the topics. I want to thank Larry [Lawhorn] and Ruth [Cook], who have been doing these circles with me for the last year and a half. 

Larry has some circles that are not on the Google Calendar, not on the Empathy Circle calendar. So I'll just share that. If you want to find out more about what he's doing, you can go to empathymatters.org. He's starting a Middle East Situation Empathy Circle, with Valerie, and he's got Red and Blue Concerns (and the IFS Circle with Schwartz's book, No Bad Parts).

And then Kathy and Edwin started organizing these large cafés, these events that are precursors to the Empathy Summit. And the first one that I participated in was Police2Peace with Lisa Broderick, who is the founder and director of Police2Peace and Talk with the Cops. And that is the Empathy Café, or Circle, that was featured in the Scientific American article. And then the next one that was at the end of 2022 was with COPESE, the largest network of conflict transformation, peace building and security experts worldwide, with 46,000 LinkedIn members. 

And this is Pascal Gemperli. He also presented at another Summit on empathy trainings around the world that I'm not featuring here. And other organizations have joined, and recently, International Listening Association invited Edwin; I know Jonathan went too. The National Coalition on Dialogue and Deliberation, Listen First, Potluck Action have all been co-sponsors.

So the first Empathy Summit was a creation, a co-creation, of the Foundation for Developing Compassion and Wisdom. Those are the 16 Guidelines folks, with Edwin and Kathy from the Peace Alliance. And I'd also like to acknowledge that there were many speakers, and it's impossible to acknowledge them all here; you can check them out. So Liz Gannon Graydon is the board chair of the Peace Alliance.So these were invited speakers. 

I'll just flip through these beautiful Empathy Summits that we've had. 44 authors, a series of four Empathy Summits. The Empath Empathy Summit that DJ has continued in the Empath Empathy Circle, and Ceferino Cenizo has an Empathy Circle. All these are on the calendar, and I hope that we hear from them in the future. 

And please join us, if you like Empathy Circles, for the Empathy Circle Facilitator Training online...that also features a Buddy Call once a week. We do one-on-one active listening with buddies. So in the course of several trainings, or many trainings, you get to actually grow and meet a lot of people. And it's very, very precious. So thank you so much to everyone.