(JP/Jerry Adiguna)

Despite her restless visit in Jakarta recently, British author Karen Armstrong, 68, showed no signs of fatigue as she spoke vigorously about compassion ' the thing that actually connects all of her writings.

'Whether I was writing about fundamentalism, Jerusalem, the history of God, the Prophet Muhammad or Buddhism, that's what came up, and that's what need me start to look at it,' she said.

Armstrong's first book, Through the Narrow Gate, was released in 1982. But her name rose to global fame when she released the History of God in 1993 and instantly became a big hit.

Her other books, Islam: A Short History, The Battle for God: Fundamentalism in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam; Muhammad: A Prophet for Our Time and The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions, also received warm response as well as generated debates.

Of all her books she has written, Armstrong's most favorite one is The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions.

'I loved it. Because it was about compassion, and it was about these wonderful people, Confucius, Buddha, and Socrates, Jesus, Muhammad, it was a fascinating period of history and I learned a lot,' she said.

But it never crossed her mind at all that she would become one of the world's finest religion writers like she is now, although the young Armstrong always won prizes for her essays at school.

The failures in her previous jobs had forced her to make a living from writing, she added.

Armstrong once wished to be a university professor, but she failed to get her doctorate. Then she decided to become a school teacher, but she also had to quit because of ill health. Her next attempt was to work for a television company, but then again, she failed to find a long-lasting career there as the company collapsed amid an embezzlement scandal.

'I failed at everything else I did and there's nothing else for me but to be a writer,' Armstrong said, laughing.

But she never regretted it as she found herself in great pleasure when she was writing.

Every morning, she cannot wait to get into her writing room and always looks forward to learning something new. Her curiosity in finding reasons of something and why things fit to each other always amuse her.

'Writing is hard, but there's a satisfaction to it, rather like ballet dancing; it looks ethereal, but the dancers' toes are bleeding. And they all have aches and pains, but there's a satisfaction at the end of it,' she said.

Her thorough works have placed her as one of the world's finest religion authors, and earned her many awards, including TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) prize in 2008.

Upon winning the award, she expected TED to help her spread the idea of compassion through Charter for Compassion-- a cooperative effort to restore not only compassionate thinking, but more importantly, compassionate action to the center of religious, moral and political life.

Her wish to see the world that is full of compassion has slowly materialized as people from various walks of life have agreed to sign the Charter. Since its establishment in 2009, more than 95,000 people have signed it, including the Dalai Lama and Queen Noor of Jordan.

'We had no expectation at all, it's been a surprise to us. And it was unusual for TED to give the prize to religiousness. Nevertheless, they got behind this and they did a great job, they have never expected it, neither did I ' taking off in the way it has,' she said.

'And that shows that there is a real hunger for this, because of rule of compassion is built into our
humanity.'

Armstrong said the huge appreciation from people in signing the charter had shown that people had started to try to become more compassionate as they were living in a violent world.

Some people, she said, were really trying to be compassionate as they knew that states were 'violent, based on force basically, however benign it may seem.'

She believed that no matter how oblivious the states were, they would be interested to be more compassionate if it becomes more of a force from the people, the businessmen, activists and politicians.

'Government will not listen to me, but the business, they will listen to. Some mayors have also stepped forward to affirm the charter to create an alternative mode of living in the cities,' she said.

For her, compassion itself means to endure something with somebody else, and to put herself in somebody else's shoes.

 'But it's not a feeling because feeling come and go. In Buddhism, it means to take responsibility for the pain of the world, and this is something that we have to take very seriously,' she said.

And for her, the most powerful memory about compassion happened when she was still a young nun, and her superior was dying.

Armstrong was often labeled as difficult young girl, but the farewell's words from her superior had in some way turned her into a strong and compassionate person.

'You're a very good girl, and remember I told you that, she said. I've never forgotten it. At times when I feel anything but good, I remember that, because that time, she was feeling terrible but she took that time to take trouble to me,' she said.

When she looked back at her life journey and her accomplishments, Armstrong said although she was often exhausted for having to make international trips as part of her job, she did not want to quit whatever she was currently doing because she had not done enough.

'I think we have a duty to learn and keep going and never sit back and say I've done enough. I hope I never should be. And if we come to die, the world is tiny little bit better because we've been in it, then life has a meaning,' she said.

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