Idiot Compassion

Chogyam Trungpa, the Tibetan master who created the Shambhala lineage in the United States, used to talk about idiot compassion.

Pema Chodron, who is popular because she translates Tibetan Buddhism into a modern, psychological idiom that people in the United States can easily understand, calls idiot compassion “enabling,” a term most people know.

At first glance, giving people what they want looks like compassion. In many cases, it may be. But take the example of a recovering alcoholic who wants a drink. Buying a drink for that person is idiot compassion because you are…