One enlightenment tactic is broader and broader empathy: if you are empathetic for a person, I am empathetic for people; if you are empathetic for animals, I am empathetic for rocks as well.
To win, move from the individual particular, to the abstract universal.
Going meta is not love: true empathy is staying here in the messy particulars.
empathy
Caring is turbulence
Fluctuating moods come from caring about others: to connect is to risk stability.
Simplistically, you can sit on the shore, drown, or learn to surf. The problem is that surfing requires an inhuman mastery of persistent balance.
There must be an effortless way to do all three simultaneously: collapse the wave.
Empathy transforms individuals into us
Comforting a hurting friend hurts, because we support (share and enable) their emotions to support them.
Empathy is taking on their hurt. We lose ourselves for solidarity, in order to pull them from solitude, transforming the distinct people into “us.”