To empathise with another soul does not mean you should join in the suffering; that is what you must refuse to understand! To join in the suffering is merely the ego's interpretation of empathy which it uses to further the sense of dependence upon that which cannot be real. The capacity to truly empathise is borne from the love of the Universe and is best allowed to be used in the ways of the love of the Universe as it dictates. The Universe does not understand suffering and would not have you teach that understanding. The Universe does not relate through your ego to another ego, it does not join in pain. It asks instead that you understand that to heal pain cannot be accomplished by a foolish attempt to enter the pain and thereby lighten it by sharing the delusion. Make no mistake, the ego always empathises to weaken and by weakening is to attack. If you sit quietly by and let the Universe relate through you, you will empathise. I wish for you a lifetime of peace and true understanding my friend.