Ep. 168 - How (and When) Do We Practice Compassion For Those Who Cause Harm?
About this episode
Ethan explores the complexities of generating compassion for those who cause harm and offers a three-step model for transformation.
Ethan tackles an age-old dharma question: how do we generate compassion for those who do harmful things? Should we even try, or does that make things worse? In the age of ICE lawlessness, totalitarian governments, and coming to terms with toxic relationships of all kinds, this question intensifies. This conversation often feels misunderstood. Whether the perpetrator is a dictator, a difficult ex, or a manipulative boss—or whether the harm is something we ourselves have caused—the question of building compassion and opening the bodhisattva's heart often delivers more confusion than clarity. Using a memory of hearing a college lecture by the long-imprisoned Tibetan monk Palden Gyatso , Ethan offers a simple (but never easy) three-step model of how to go about the difficult process of acknowledging and transforming the negative karma related to harmful actions. In 2025, with your subscriptions, we were able to release more episodes than any previous year. This was only possible with your subscriptions. Please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber here. Paid subscribers to The Road Home will receive occasional extras like guided meditations , extra podcast episodes and more…
More episodes of The Road Home with Ethan Nichtern
- Ep. 174 - Mindfulness in Hell and Making A Dharma Mix Tape with Oneika Mays
- Ep. 173 - Fail Like A Legend: Confidence, Longing, and The Eight Worldly Winds, Revisited
- Ep. 172 - Invoking The Muse: Dharma Art with Josh Ritter
- Ep. 171 - How To Make Use of Your Broken Heart
- Ep. 170 - Worldly Enlightenment and The Path of The "Householder" with Lou Sharma
- Ep. 169 - On Mindful Democracy with Jeremy David Engels
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