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Archives for September 2013

PRACTICE: Week of Compassionate Acts

September 16, 2013 By Elizabeth Pyjov

We would like to share seven compassionate acts, one for each day of the week, for you to try out this month. See if these make your week more enjoyable!

Why? Because we learn by doing. Because, for many of us, structure is helpful. Because these can make your week more rewarding. And because many will be doing it with you.

 
 

Monday

LISTEN

Really let yourself listen to someone, without interrupting, evaluating, or becoming distracted. Listen not only with your ears, but with your whole body. Face the other person directly. Let yourself feel and understand what the other person is going through. Truly give your undivided attention. Listening with your full attention is an expression of compassion. French philosopher Simone Weil wrote: “Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.”

 

Tuesday

MOVING WITH COMPASSION

Try bringing compassion to your daily commute. Today’s suggestion is to strive to be a calmer and more generous driver. Willingly allow cars to pass in front of you. If they need to change lanes, give them plenty of space. When you see a car, consider sending good wishes to the person inside, such as, “May this person be happy and safe.” If someone is rushing or driving rudely, give the driver the benefit of the doubt. What if he is rushing to meet a loved one at the airport? Getting medicine for his grandmother? We don’t know the whole story. A similar thought-process could be used while biking or taking public transportation. Bring a special regard for others, whether you are walking, riding a bike, commuting in a bus, or driving a car.

 

Wednesday

SELF-COMPASSION

Bring attention to your own sensations today. If you are feeling discomfort or pain, allow yourself to feel a sense of warmth and concern for yourself. If you are feeling stressed, maybe find a way to self-soothe: consider taking a few deep breaths or stretching the neck and shoulders. At some point during the day, give yourself permission to do an activity you really enjoy and that is good for you, such as curling up with a book or going for a walk. Let the intention that drives these actions be one of self-care and kindness to yourself.

 

Thursday

GIVE THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT

Today, when you are inclined to judge someone (for example, “What is that person wearing!” or “Well, wasn’t that rude!”), we suggest that you let yourself hold off on judgment, even if it’s for an instant. Acknowledge that you were being judgmental, forgive yourself, and then try to offer that person nonjudgmental kindness in your own mind. For example, replace, “Wasn’t that rude,” with “I hope that person is OK. I wonder if they are having a rough day.” See where this thought-process takes you.

 

Friday

PRACTICE GRATITUDE

Tune up your observation skills to recognize the intricate and virtually infinite network of events, people, and resources that make your day possible. Reflect on the people that grew and harvested the cereal or coffee that you savor in the morning. Observe the furniture you use and contemplate the intellect, creativity, and labor involved in transforming natural resources into objects that literally support your body in your daily activities. Bring to mind the invisible network of generosity that pervades and sustains your life on a day-to-day basis and allow yourself to feel a sense of gratitude. Maybe you can express gratitude to specific people who you might otherwise not acknowledge in the usual rush of the day. Take a moment to simply stop and say, “Thank you. I really appreciate that you can do this for me.”

 

Saturday

LIVE BY A VALUE

At the beginning of the day, think of a value that is really important to you. This could be something general like “courage,” “kindness,” “perseverance,” “generosity,” or something specific like “being there for my family” or “taking care of my health.” Choose something that is personally meaningful. Spend 2-5 minutes writing about why this value is important to you and how you have demonstrated commitment to it in the past. As you go through the day, try to let this value guide your actions and decisions.

 

Sunday

MAKE A SPACE BEAUTIFUL

Cleaning and organizing may not seem like compassion, but surrounding yourself and others with a cleaner and more beautiful space can be a compassionate act. Our mental space reflects and is reflected in the physical spaces that we inhabit. It can sometimes be hard to settle and focus the mind in a chaotic room, while a luminous, fragrant room can make us feel better. Today, make a space more beautiful, whether it is your room, your workspace, or a public space like a park or beach, and enjoy leaving the anonymous mark of a loving mind for the next person who uses that space. That person might even be you!

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About the Author

Elizabeth Pyjov graduated from Harvard University in 2010, magna cum laude, with a degree in Romance Languages and Literatures and Classics as a secondary field. She has worked for the Global Justice in New York City, Italian television at RAI International in Rome, the United Nations in Geneva, and at the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education at Stanford Medical School. Elizabeth is fluent in Russian, French, Italian, Spanish, and English. She successfully received the CCT certification from the Stanford Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education in June 2013. She taught Stanford’s Compassion Cultivation Training to students in and around Stanford in the Fall of 2013.

Filed Under: Practice

PERSONAL STORY: Guided by the Alphabet

September 16, 2013 By James R. Doty

A brief period of meditation and contemplation each morning can serve to put the daily stresses of life into perspective. Each morning and sometimes throughout the day, I go through a mnemonic which I have found very useful. I created this mnemonic after I was asked to give a speech to a group of students about to begin medical school at an event now common throughout the U.S. called the “White Coat Ceremony”. As part of the ceremony, the students receive a white coat, take the oath of Hippocrates (or equivalent), and then a doctor who nominally epitomizes the highest ideals of medicine gives an inspiring speech to set the tone as they begin their careers as physicians. I was honored to be the speaker at the medical school from which I graduated many years ago. I wanted to create an easy way for the students to remember a set of core values that would serve them not only during their careers in medicine but also for their futures as human beings on this earth.

I am motivated to share the mnemonic with you because a number of people have told me that it has had an impact on their lives. One person was so moved that she created a mala (prayer beads with one wooden bead representing each letter and an extra gold bead representing “The Golden Rule”) that she shares with others during her work as director of the largest homeless shelter in the U.S. You can view a video about the beads here.

I hope that you will also find “the alphabet” useful.

C is for Compassion—be compassionate to yourself and recognize that everyone is suffering and therefore deserves your compassion.

D is for Dignity—every human being, regardless of their situation or circumstance, deserves to be treated with respect and dignity.

E is for Equanimity—life will always have its ups and downs, and while one often wishes the ups could last forever, it is not our lot as humans. So don’t grab too tight on the ups … often it is the downs that teach us the greatest lessons about who we are. So try to be calm and steady regardless of whether you feel up or down … neither is going to last.

F is for Forgiveness—because people are going to disappoint us, and until we can forgive them, it is like drinking poison and somehow thinking that is going to kill the other person. And it doesn’t work. Also, the reality is that at some point each of us is going to disappoint someone or not live up to another’s expectations. How would you wish to be treated in that circumstance?

G is for Gratitude—appreciating how fortunate we are and having gratitude for what we have.

H is for Humility—being humble is very hard. The reality is that recognizing we are no more important than any other person and looking at each person as an equal allows us to serve without feeling superiority or pity.

I is for Integrity—personal integrity. It is a slippery slope when one compromises one’s personal values for something of far, far less value.

J is for Social Justice—understanding that each of us has a personal responsibility toward those less fortunate than ourselves.

K is for Kindness—kindness is actually the implementation of compassion. Compassion, in its scientific definition, is the recognition of another’s suffering and the desire to intervene and relieve suffering. Kindness is actually compassion in action.

Finally, L is for Love—love is a glue that connects us all and when freely given is returned many times over.

 
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About the Author

James R. Doty, MD, is a Clinical Professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at Stanford University and the Director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education at Stanford University School of Medicine. As Director of CCARE, Dr. Doty has collaborated on a number of research projects focused on compassion and altruism including the use of neuro-economic models to assess altruism, use of the CCARE developed compassion cultivation training in individuals and its effect, assessment of compassionate and altruistic judgment utilizing implanted brain electrodes and the use of optogenetic techniques to assess nurturing pathways in rodents. Dr. Doty is also an inventor, entrepreneur and philanthropist having given support to a number of charitable organizations including Children as the Peacemakers, Global Healing and Family & Children Services.

 

Filed Under: Personal Story

SCIENCE: The Compassionate Mind

September 16, 2013 By Emma Seppala

Decades of clinical research has focused and shed light on the psychology of human suffering. That suffering, as unpleasant as it is, often also has a bright side to which research has paid less attention: compassion. Human suffering is often accompanied by beautiful acts of compassion by others wishing to help relieve it. What led 26.5 percent of Americans to volunteer in 2012 (according to statistics from the US Department of Labor)? What propels someone to serve food at a homeless shelter, pull over on the highway in the rain to help someone with a broken down vehicle, or feed a stray cat?

What is Compassion?

What is compassion and how is it different from empathy or altruism? The definition of compassion is often confused with that of empathy. Empathy, as defined by researchers, is the visceral or emotional experience of another person’s feelings. It is, in a sense, an automatic mirroring of another’s emotion, like tearing up at a friend’s sadness. Altruism is an action that benefits someone else. It may or may not be accompanied by empathy or compassion — for example, in the case of making a donation for tax purposes. Although these terms are related to compassion, they are not identical. Compassion often does, of course, involve an empathic response andan altruistic behavior. However, compassion is defined as the emotional response when perceiving suffering and involves an authentic desire to help.

Is Compassion Natural or Learned?

Though economists have long argued the contrary, a growing body of evidence suggests that, at our core, both animals and human beings have what APS (Association for Psychological Science) Fellow Dacher Keltner at the University of California, Berkeley, calls a “compassionate instinct.” In other words, compassion is a natural and automatic response that has ensured our survival. Research by APS Fellow Jean Decety, at the University of Chicago, showed that even rats are driven to empathize with another suffering rat and to go out of their way to help it out of its quandary. Studies with chimpanzees and human infants too young to have learned the rules of politeness also back up these claims. Michael Tomasello and other scientists at the Max Planck Institute in Germany, have found that infants and chimpanzees spontaneously engage in helpful behavior and will even overcome obstacles to do so. They apparently do so from intrinsic motivation without expectation of reward. A recent study they ran indicated that infants’ pupil diameters decrease (a measure of attention) both when they help and when they see someone else helping, suggesting that they are not simply helping because helping feels rewarding. It appears to be the alleviation of suffering that brings reward — whether or not they engage in the helping behavior themselves. Recent research by David Rand at Harvard University shows that adults’ and children’s first impulse is to help others. Research by APS Fellow Dale Miller at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business suggests that adults have the same impulse; however, worrying that others will think they are acting out of self-interest can stop them from acting on the impulse to help.

It is not surprising that compassion is a natural tendency, since it is essential for human survival. As has been brought to light by Keltner, the term “survival of the fittest,” often attributed to Charles Darwin, was actually coined by Herbert Spencer and Social Darwinists who wished to justify class and race superiority. A lesser known fact is that Darwin’s work is best described with the phrase “survival of the kindest.” Indeed in The Descent of Man and Selection In Relation to Sex, Darwin argued for “the greater strength of the social or maternal instincts than that of any other instinct or motive.” In another passage, he comments that “communities, which included the greatest number of the most sympathetic members, would flourish best, and rear the greatest number of offspring.” Compassion may indeed be a naturally evolved and adaptive trait. Without it, the survival and flourishing of our species would have been unlikely.

One more sign that suggests that compassion is an adaptively evolved trait is that it makes us more attractive to potential mates. A study examining the trait most highly valued in potential romantic partners suggests that both men and women agree that kindness is one of the most highly desirable traits.

Compassion’s Surprising Benefits for Physical and Psychological Health

Compassion may have ensured our survival because of its tremendous benefits for both physical and mental health and overall well-being. Research by APS William James Fellow Ed Diener, a leading researcher in positive psychology, and APS James McKeen Cattell Fellow Martin Seligman, a pioneer of the psychology of happiness and human flourishing, suggests that connecting with others in a meaningful way helps us enjoy better mental and physical health and speeds up recovery from disease. Furthermore, research by Stephanie Brown, at Stony Brook University, and Sara Konrath, at the University of Michigan, has shown that it may even lengthen our life spans.

The reason a compassionate lifestyle leads to greater psychological well-being may be explained by the fact that the act of giving appears to be as pleasurable as the act of receiving, or more so. A brain-imaging study headed by neuroscientist Jordan Grafman from the National Institutes of Health showed that the “pleasure centers” in the brain, i.e., the parts of the brain that are active when we experience pleasure (like dessert, money, and sex), are equally active when we observe someone giving money to charity as when we receive money ourselves! Giving to others even increases well-being above and beyond what we experience when we spend money on ourselves. In a revealing experiment by Elizabeth Dunn, at the University of British Columbia, participants received a sum of money; half of the participants were instructed to spend the money on themselves, and the other half was told to spend the money on others. At the end of the study, which was published in the academic journal Science,participants who had spent the money on others felt significantly happier than those who had spent the money on themselves.

This is true even for infants. A study by Lara Aknin and colleagues at the University of British Columbia shows that even in children as young as two, giving treats to others increases the givers’ happiness more than receiving treats themselves. Even more surprisingly, the fact that giving makes us happier than receiving is true across the world, regardless of whether countries are rich or poor. A new study by Aknin, now at Simon Fraser University, shows that the amount of money spent on others (rather than for personal benefit) and personal well-being were highly correlated, regardless of income, social support, perceived freedom, and perceived national corruption.

Why is Compassion Good for Us?

Why does compassion lead to health benefits in particular? A clue to this question rests in a fascinating new study by Steve Cole at the University of California, Los Angeles, and APS Fellow Barbara Fredrickson at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The results were reported at Stanford Medical School’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education’s (CCARE) inaugural Science of Compassion conference in 2012. Their study evaluated the levels of cellular inflammation in people who describe themselves as “very happy.” Inflammation is at the root of cancer and other diseases and is generally high in people who live under a lot of stress. We might expect that inflammation would be lower for people with higher levels of happiness. Cole and Fredrickson found that this was only the case for certain “very happy” people. They found that people who were happy because they lived the “good life” (sometimes also known as “hedonic happiness”) had high inflammation levels but that, on the other hand, people who were happy because they lived a life of purpose or meaning (sometimes also known as “eudaimonic happiness”) had low inflammation levels. A life of meaning and purpose is one focused less on satisfying oneself and more on others. It is a life rich in compassion, altruism, and greater meaning.

Another way in which a compassionate lifestyle may improve longevity is that it may serve as a buffer against stress. A new study conducted on a large population (more than 800 people) and spearheaded by the University at Buffalo’s Michael Poulin found that stress did not predict mortality in those who helped others, but that it did in those who did not. One of the reasons that compassion may protect against stress is the very fact that it is so pleasurable. Motivation, however, seems to play an important role in predicting whether a compassionate lifestyle exerts a beneficial impact on health. Sara Konrath, at the University of Michigan, discovered that people who engaged in volunteerism lived longer than their non-volunteering peers — but only if their reasons for volunteering were altruistic rather than self-serving.

Another reason compassion may boost our well-being is that it can help broaden our perspective beyond ourselves. Research shows that depression and anxiety are linked to a state of self-focus, a preoccupation with “me, myself, and I.” When you do something for someone else, however, that state of self-focus shifts to a state of other-focus. If you recall a time you were feeling blue and suddenly a close friend or relative called you for urgent help with a problem, you may remember that as your attention shifted to helping them, your mood lifted. Rather than feeling blue, you may have felt energized to help; before you knew it, you may have even felt better and gained some perspective on your own situation as well.

Finally, one additional way in which compassion may boost our well-being is by increasing a sense of connection to others. One telling study showed that lack of social connection is a greater detriment to health than obesity, smoking, and high blood pressure. On the flip side, strong social connection leads to a 50 percent increased chance of longevity. Social connection strengthens our immune system (research by Cole shows that genes impacted by social connection also code for immune function and inflammation), helps us recover from disease faster, and may even lengthen our life. People who feel more connected to others have lower rates of anxiety and depression. Moreover, studies show that they also have higher self-esteem, are more empathic to others, more trusting and cooperative and, as a consequence, others are more open to trusting and cooperating with them. Social connectedness, therefore, generates a positive feedback loop of social, emotional, and physical well-being. Unfortunately, the opposite is also true for those who lack social connectedness. Low social connection has been generally associated with declines in physical and psychological health, as well as with a higher propensity for antisocial behavior that leads to further isolation. Adopting a compassionate lifestyle or cultivating compassion may help boost social connection and improve physical and psychological health.

Why Compassion Really Does Have the Ability to Change the World

Why are the lives of people like Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Desmond Tutu so inspiring? Research by APS Fellow Jonathan Haidt at the University of Virginia suggests that seeing someone helping another person creates a state of “elevation.” Have you ever been moved to tears by seeing someone’s loving and compassionate behavior? Haidt’s data suggest that elevation then inspires us to help others — and it may just be the force behind a chain reaction of giving. Haidt has shown that corporate leaders who engage in self-sacrificing behavior and elicit “elevation” in their employees, also yield greater influence among their employees — who become more committed and in turn may act with more compassion in the workplace. Indeed, compassion is contagious. Social scientists James Fowler of the University of California, San Diego, and Nicholas Christakis of Harvard demonstrated that helping is contagious: acts of generosity and kindness beget more generosity in a chain reaction of goodness. You may have seen one of the news reports about chain reactions that occur when someone pays for the coffee of the drivers behind them at a drive-through restaurant or at a highway tollbooth. People keep the generous behavior going for hours. Our acts of compassion uplift others and make them happy. We may not know it, but by uplifting others we are also helping ourselves; research by Fowler and Christakis has shown that happiness spreads and that if the people around us are happy, we, in turn, become happier.

Cultivating Compassion

Although compassion appears to be a naturally evolved instinct, it sometimes helps to receive some training. A number of studies have now shown that a variety of compassion and “loving-kindness” meditation practices, mostly derived out of traditional Buddhist practices, may help cultivate compassion. Cultivating compassion does not require years of study and can be elicited quite rapidly. In a study Cendri Hutcherson, at the California Institute of Technology, and I conducted in 2008 with APS Fellow James Gross at Stanford, we found that a seven-minute intervention was enough to increase feelings of closeness and connection to the target of meditation on both explicit measures, but also on implicit measures that participants could not voluntarily control; this suggests that their sense of connection had changed on a deep-seated level. Fredrickson tested a nine-week loving-kindness meditation intervention and found that the participants who went through the intervention experienced increased daily positive emotions, reduced depressive symptoms, and increased life satisfaction. A group led by Sheethal Reddy at Emory with foster children showed that a compassion intervention increased hopefulness in the children. Overall, research on compassion interventions shows improvements in psychological well-being, compassion, and social connection.

In addition to questionnaire measures, researchers are finding that compassion interventions also impact behavior. APS Fellow Tania Singer and her team at the Max Planck Institute conducted a study that looked at the effects of compassion training on prosocial behavior. These researchers developed the Zurich Prosocial Game, which has the ability to measure an individual’s prosocial behavior multiple times, unlike many other prosocial tasks that only measure prosocial behavior in individuals once. Singer found that daylong compassion training did in fact increase prosocial behavior in the game. Interestingly, the type of meditation seems to matter less than just the act of meditation itself. Condon, Miller, Desbordes, and DeSteno (in press) found that eight-week meditation trainings led participants to act more compassionately toward a person who is suffering (give up their chair to someone in crutches) — regardless of the type of meditation that they did (mindfulness or compassion).

More research is needed to understand exactly how compassion training improves well-being and promotes altruistic behavior. Research by Antoine Lutz and APS William James Fellow Richard Davidson at the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that, during meditation, participants display enhanced emotional processing in brain regions linked to empathy in response to emotion-evoking cries. A study led by Gaëlle Desbordes at Massachusetts General Hospital indicated that both compassion and mindfulness meditation training decreased activity in the amygdala in response to emotional images; this suggests that meditation in general can help improve emotion regulation. However, compassion meditation did not reduce activity for images of human suffering, suggesting that the compassion meditation increased a person’s responsiveness to suffering.

In collaboration with Thupten Jinpa, personal translator to the Dalai Lama, as well as several Stanford psychologists, CCARE has developed a secular compassion training program known as the Compassion Cultivation Training Program. Preliminary research spearheaded by Stanford’s Philippe Goldin suggests that it is helpful in reducing ailments such as social anxiety and that it elevates different compassion measures.

Given the importance of compassion in our world today, and a growing body of evidence about the benefits of compassion for health and well-being, this field is bound to generate more interest and hopefully impact our community at large. CCARE envisions a world in which, thanks to rigorous research studies on the benefits of compassion, the practice of compassion is understood to be as important for health as physical exercise and a healthful diet; empirically validated techniques for cultivating compassion are widely accessible; and the practice of compassion is taught and applied in schools, hospitals, prisons, the military, and other community settings.

Establishing a Compassion Center at Stanford University School of Medicine

The Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE) at Stanford University School of Medicine was founded in 2008 with the explicit goal of promoting, supporting, and conducting rigorous scientific studies on compassion and altruistic behavior. In 2005, His Holiness the Dalai Lama spoke at Stanford University before 5,000 people. During his visit, he shared the stage with a number of prominent neuroscientists and psychologists in a dialogue about the brain and emotions. James Doty, clinical professor of neurosurgery at Stanford University, was so inspired by the event that he created an informal research group of scientists to pursue research on compassion. He called this group “Project Compassion.”

In 2008, following a meeting with the Dalai Lama during which an invitation was extended to again visit Stanford to speak on compassion, His Holiness made a spontaneous donation to CCARE — the largest he has ever given to a non-Tibetan cause. Following that visit and on the receipt of two other significant donations, “Project Compassion” was formally integrated into the Stanford Institute for Neuro-Innovation and Translational Neurosciences as “The Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education.”

Founded and directed by Doty, CCARE is established within the Stanford Institute for Neuro-Innovation and Translational Neurosciences. CCARE has collaborated with a number of prominent neuroscientists, behavioral scientists, geneticists, and biomedical researchers to closely examine the physiological and psychological correlates of compassion and altruism. CCARE has also developed a secular compassion education program with Thupten Jinpa.

Doty has a longstanding interest in the fundamental motivations of individuals to do good. This interest stemmed out of personal experience. A neurosurgeon with a background that involved poverty, hopelessness, and neglect as the child of an invalid mother and alcoholic father, Doty is no stranger to suffering. Through a series of acts of compassion by and love from strangers, however, he found his life transformed.

Despite the emotional challenges and financial difficulties of his life as a child and young adult, Doty was able not only to attend college but to complete medical school, a long-standing dream, and to go on to become a successful neurosurgeon, entrepreneur, inventor, philanthropist, and father of three. Deeply inspired by the compassion he received as a child, Doty now devotes much of his time to promoting compassion in society through research, education, events, and writing.

“I have received the greatest gift in my life and that is seeing the power of compassion to result in transformation,” Doty says.

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About the Author

Emma Seppala, Ph.D. is the Associate Director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education at Stanford University. She is also a Research Scientist and Honorary Fellow with the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center for Investigating Healthy Minds. She received a B.A. in Comparative Literature from Yale University, a Master’s Degree in East Asian Languages and Cultures from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in Psychology from Stanford University. She completed her postdoctoral studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she was promoted to an Associate Scientist Position. See more at:http://www.emmaseppala.com/about/#sthash.V0doWVUE.dpuf

 

Republished with permission from the Association of Psychological Science.

Filed Under: Science

HISTORY: Anton Chekhov’s Compassion for Daily Struggles

September 16, 2013 By Walter G. Moss

Over one hundred fifty years after his birth, Anton Chekhov is as relevant as ever.  He is one of the most widely translated and imitated writers in the world, known for classic works such as The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, and The Cherry Orchard. His works are performed as far afield as Tokyo, Santiago, and New Delhi. One could argue that no other writer had more influence on modern drama and short fiction, and some would go much further. Chekhov’s legacy lives on in his literature and all the writers he has influenced, but also in his contributions as a human being who advocated justice, compassion for those who struggled, and concern for the environment.

Chekhov’s Compassionate Spirit

Numerous scholars, activists, and writers admire both Chekhov’s work and how he lived his life. Chekhov scholar Simon Karlinsky reflects on his humanitarian activities: “his life was one continuous round of alleviating famine, fighting epidemics, building schools and public roads, endowing libraries, helping organize marine biology libraries, giving thousands of needy peasants free medical treatment, planting gardens, helping fledgling writers get published, raising funds for worthwhile causes, and hundreds of other pursuits designed to help his fellow man and improve the general quality of life around him.”

The Russian novelist Vasily Grossman writes in his novel Life and Fate: “Chekhov is the bearer of the greatest banner that has been raised in the thousand years of Russian history—the banner of a true, humane Russian democracy, of Russian freedom, of the dignity of the Russian man.” The controversial and provocative African-American intellectual Cornel West writes about Chekhov’s compassion and significance:

I find the incomparable works of Anton Chekhov … to be the wisest and deepest interpretations of what human beings confront in their daily struggles … His acute sense of the incongruity in our lives is grounded in a magnificent compassion for each of us … Chekhov leads us through our contemporary inferno with love and sorrow, but no cheap pity or promise of ultimate happiness. (The Cornel West Reader, xv-xvi)

Chekhov listened to and understood his fellow man. His stories and plays frequently center on everyday issues that are timeless, such as loneliness, love, family, aging, and death. But it is not just Chekhov’s writing that is relevant for us today, but the values he stands for: humility, tolerance, pragmatism, and compassion.

Humility in the Face of the Mystery of Life

It is very likely that Chekhov’s tolerance stemmed from his humility. He realized that life was a mystery, and neither he nor anyone else had all the answers. His opposition to dogmatism arose from this understanding. A doctor by training, Chekhov attempted to approach reality with scientific pragmatism, as well as imaginative insight. For example in the short story “The Duel” (1891), the main characters emphasize that “nobody knows the real truth.”

In an age and country of dogmatic utterances about political truths comparable to our own, Chekhov’s realization of truth’s complexity made him more tolerant, open-minded, and pragmatic than many other intellectuals. He believed that ideology skewed the understanding and depiction of reality. He regarded “trade-marks and labels as a superstition,” and disliked being labeled, as he said, by those “determined to regard me either as a liberal or as a conservative.” Chekhov’s recognition of the complexity of truth also made him wary of any religious certainties. In 1897, he wrote in his Notebook, “Between ‘there is a God’ and ‘there is no God’ lies a whole vast tract, which the really wise man crosses with great effort.”

Seeing life unskewed by ideological blinders, he realized it was a tragicomedy. Whether depicting the tragic or comic, he hoped that when people realized how badly they lived, they would “create another and better life for themselves.” Chekhov’s tolerance and compassion were linked with his empathy.

Commitment to Environmental Justice

Chekhov’s care for others helped influence his environmental views. He was especially concerned about all the deforestation he saw occurring around him. The speech of his Dr. Astrov in Uncle Vanya (1899) expresses Chekhov’s own views:

Why destroy the forests? The woods of Russia are trembling under the blows of the axe. Millions of trees have perished. The homes of the wild animals and birds have been desolated; the rivers are shrinking, and many beautiful landscapes are gone forever … Man is endowed with reason and the power to create, so that he may increase that which has been given him, but until now he has not created, but demolished. The forests are disappearing, the rivers are running dry, the wildlife is exterminated, the climate is spoiled, and the earth becomes poorer and uglier every day.

Because of his concern for wildlife, Chekhov was also concerned about the effects of pollution. In his short story “In the Ravine” (1890), he depicted the evil consequences of factory pollution for a neighboring village.

Learning from Chekhov

Despite the tuberculosis that eventually killed him at age forty-four, Chekhov seldom complained about his fate and continued to work and care for others until the end of his life. The writer Alexander Kuprin, who knew him in his final years, wrote that he “never tired of hoping for a bright future, never ceased to believe in the invisible but persistent and fruitful work of the best forces of our country,” and that “the motif of the joyous future which is awaiting mankind … was audible in all the work of his last years.”

In the United States, we experience more than our share of hype, self-promotion, partisan know-it-alls, and dogmatic pronouncements. At such a time, it is refreshing and instructive to listen to the wise, tolerant, pragmatic, and empathetic voice of the modest Chekhov, who hated self-promotion and dogmatism and loved beauty, nature, truth, and goodness.

Cornel West said a decade ago that he found inspiration in Chekhov’s “refusal to escape from the pain and misery of life by indulging in dogmas, doctrines … or political utopias.” Similarly, we can find encouragement from Chekhov today. We can follow his example of facing our complex problems with compassion, empathy, tolerance, and a passion for justice. While Chekhov may not be a man of our times, he is certainly a man for our times.

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About the Author

Walter G. Moss is an Emeritus Professor of History at Eastern Michigan University and the author of the two-volume A History of Russia (here and here) and Russia in the Age of Alexander II, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky.For a list of his other recent books, essays, and reviews, see here. 

Republished with revisions from The History News Network.

Filed Under: History

FILM: What is nowhere? Sofia Coppola’s Hollywood

September 16, 2013 By Elizabeth Pyjov

 
 

The Dalai Lama writes in his book Ethics for a New Millennium: “By nature, the satisfaction material gain can provide us with will be limited to the level of the senses. It is obvious that our needs go beyond the merely sensual.” Sofia Coppola communicates a similar idea in her movie “Somewhere” (2010), a smooth and piercing auteur film that explores the gap between the satisfaction of the senses and the core needs of the human being. “Somewhere” is a character study that draws attention to the dangers of a superficial and carefree lifestyle, cautioning against some of the aspirations that today’s mainstream culture imposes – looking young, living luxuriously, and staying free of emotional commitment. The film’s premiere at the 67th Venice International Film Festival received a record-breaking twelve-minute standing ovation and won the Golden Lion award for Best Picture.

The first scene sets the tone for the film. Coppola presents the protagonist driving a fancy black Ferrari in wide circles in a deserted, empty landscape. He drives lap after lap, getting nowhere, evoking a sense of helplessness and entrapment in a vicious cycle. The scene puts us into the protagonist’s emotional state before we know his story.

The driver of the car is Johnny Marco (Stephen Dorff), a successful Hollywood superstar in his thirties who leads the kind of glamorous lifestyle that many would envy. He lives at the exclusive Chateau Marmont Hotel, a central meet-up for L.A. show business. On a regular basis Johnny hooks up with actresses, hires blonde pole dancers, and comes back to his hotel suite to find exclusive parties. In many ways he lives out the modern American dream. Yet Johnny seems bored and detached, as if the extravagance around him has become a dull routine and he is just going through the motions. The way Coppola portrays excess and an unsettled mood together has led a number of critics to compare “Somewhere” to The Great Gatsby and call Coppola’s style “F. Scott Fitzgerald in film.” The description of the constant stream of people at the parties in Gatsby’s mansion could very well apply to the people Johnny sees – and soon forgets – in his room at Chateau Marmont: “In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars.” The people that surround Johnny look nice, but to him they are worth as much (or as little) as many others. Both Johnny Marco and Jay Gatsby seem to live in a world that is, as Fitzgerald puts it, “material without being real.”

Something real enters Johnny’s life when his ex-wife comes by and leaves Cleo (Elle Fanning), his sweet eleven-year-old daughter, with him for part of the summer. Cleo leads a normal, grounded life that is in many ways more mature than her father’s. When she enters into his superficial, empty existence that has long been devoid of meaning, he begins to experience the joy of a real emotional connection. A few weeks later when Cleo goes off to summer camp, Johnny starts to feel more lost than ever, leading him into an existential crisis. At one point, he calls Cleo’s mother in tears and tells her, “I am nothing. I’m not a real person.” Spending time with a daughter he cares for becomes his antidote to emptiness and allows him to recognize a void in his life.

Sofia Coppola, the daughter of director Francis Ford Coppola, is familiar with the celebrity culture and the relationship between a daughter and a superstar father. At one point, Francis Ford Coppola even owned the Chateau Marmont Hotel where “Somewhere” is set. “I can relate to being in that world as a kid and I put in my own memories to make it real,” Coppola shared in an interview about the film. In “Somewhere,” she shows a slice of L.A. life, but not in the way it is usually done – not from the visible outside, but from the invisible deep within. As a way to develop her angle, Coppola incorporates the Foo Fighters song, “My Hero,” with lyrics: “There goes my hero, he’s ordinary.” This hero is of course her character Johnny, who she gives one of the most common names in the country, perhaps signaling that although Johnny’s life is in many ways extraordinary, his needs are no different from the needs of other people. She shows that dodging daily real-life problems is what separates her character from daily real-life pleasure and happiness, trapping him in a space of “nowhere.”

Over the course of the film, Coppola portrays Johnny’s inner journey from the lonely “nowhere” closer to a “somewhere” where there is purpose and meaning. The movie presents the seemingly ordinary events of Johnny’s life that lead him to ask the questions: “Where am I going? And where do I want to be?” At the end of “Somewhere,” Johnny checks out of the Chateau Marmont and drives away. He parks his Ferrari, gets out of the car, and leaving his keys in the ignition, walks away. Smiling, he embarks on a journey by foot, this time literally grounded. It is not clear where he is going, but Coppola infuses the scene with an atmosphere of peace and serenity.

“Somewhere” is slow and artful. Its scenes are shot in real time, and every image has more than one layer of meaning. The images create a storyline that is more intricate and complex than traditional, straightforward action. The film is fresh, unpredictable, and engaging. In a style that is subtle and ironic, Coppola exposes some of the core difficulties of our time, such as alienation and a lack of greater purpose, raising the question: “How can a man have everything, and yet have nothing at the same time?” She also touches on the eternal question: “What actually makes a person happy?” Her answer is love – caring for another person’s needs just as deeply as for one’s own gives life meaning. Caring for his daughter is what created the resilience that allowed Johnny to change his life for the better. In “Somewhere,” Coppola emphasizes what matters by showing its absence, suggesting that the senses cannot satisfy the soul and that an apparently weightless lifestyle can weigh heavily with its meaninglessness. Coppola and His Holiness the Dalai Lama seem to agree on what brings joy – the compassionate heart, connection, and common humanity. And it is something that is accessible to all.

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About the Author

 Elizabeth Pyjov graduated from Harvard University in 2010, magna cum laude, with a degree in Romance Languages and Literatures and Classics as a secondary field. She has worked for the Global Justice in New York City, Italian television at RAI International in Rome, the United Nations in Geneva, and at the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education at Stanford Medical School. Elizabeth is fluent in Russian, French, Italian, Spanish, and English. She successfully received the CCT certification from the Stanford Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education in June 2013. She taught Stanford’s Compassion Cultivation Training to students in and around Stanford in the Fall of 2013.

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