On Empathy...

empathy - the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner; also: the capacity for this

He does not join in pain, understanding that healing pain is not accomplished by delusional attempts to enter into it, and lighten it by sharing the delusion. --A Course In Miracles

When somebody you care about is hurting physically or emotionally, many of us think we have to feel bad to show them that we care and hopefully that'll make them feel better. The quote from The Course is saying that thinking is insane. How can you heal somebody by feeling bad and trying to have the same feelings they're going through? It's saying we shouldn't make the hurt seem more real and multiply it by us getting into a negative state ourselves. I also don't think it's saying you gotta be a cold-hearted S.O.B. There's other, more productive ways to make people feel better than empathizing. Cheer them up if you think the time is right. Maybe don't even do anything physically. Just tell them in your mind that whatever they're feeling bad about isn't real. After all, I believe our minds are not separated. So even if you think of healing and do nothing else, it'll have some positive effects. I'll get into mind thing in another post.