Dalai Lama Compassion Conference 2021

Dalai Lama
Compassion Conference

October 14-18, 2021

Peter Y. Chou
WisdomPortal.com

Preface: On October 13, 2021, a longtime friend sent me a link for this free event on Dalai Lama's theme on Compassion (October 14-18, 2021). Best viewed on Google Chrome. I tuned in to these talks at later time, since
my LINC-405 Zoom class is 6:00-7:00 pm, and Dodgers-Giants 5th Playoff game starts at 6:07 pm. So I was a day behind these talks & meditation sessions. Fortunately, they had 48 hours to tune in to their programs before taking
it offline. While watching each of these speakers, had half of my 13" laptop screen open to my Yahoo Email Draft. Typed interesting messages, and scrolled back the video, to record quotes mentioned and their authors. So it took longer than the time for each talk. Went to bed at 5 am-6 am during this symposium, and at 9 am on Oct. 20. The conference has been a tremendous success! Over 65,000 people signed up to be part of this remarkable gathering. Melvin McLeod, Editor of Lion's Roar, introduced each day's seession. Below are my notes of this enlightening conference on compassion that will make our lives happier. Since my notes are sketchy and incomplete, it's better
to order their special package @ $197 of illuminating insights and 18 guided meditations. Notes in [brackets] are
my own and not from presenters as well as approximate time listened to these sessions.

Each day offers teachings on one of five themes, inviting us to cultivate
deeper reserves of compassion and find strategies for putting it into action.

DAY 1: The Transformative Power of Compassion (October 14, 2021)
What is compassion? We kick off by considering the basics of developing compassion,
and asking why it's such an important quality. Discover insights into universal
responsibility & explore why compassion holds the key to happiness in a suffering world.

Tara Brach:
Meditation Teacher,
Psychologist and Author

[Tara's podcast has over 3 million downloads each month]

Talk: "Radical Compassion" (37:15)
Cites Martha Postlethwaite's poem "Clearing" (2010)
Do not try to serve
the whole world
or do anything grandiose.
Instead, create
a clearing
in the dense forest
of your life
and wait there
patiently,
until the song
that is yours alone to sing
falls into your open cupped hands
and you recognize and greet it.
Only then will you know
how to give yourself
to this world so worthy of rescue.
[Listening @ 10/14: 11:15-11:55 pm]

Guided RAIN meditation (11:23)
Explore stressful situation and your feelings.
Place your hand on your heart.
Sense healing from your teacher.
Sense kindness & love around you.
Cites Diane Ackerman's poem
"School Prayer" (2000)
In the name of the daybreak
and the eyelids of morning
and the wayfaring moon
and the night when it departs,

I swear I will not dishonor
my soul with hatred,
but offer myself humbly
as a guardian of nature,
as a healer of misery,
as a messenger of wonder,
as an architect of peace.

In the name of the sun and its mirrors
and the day that embraces it
and the cloud veils drawn over it
and the uttermost night
and the male and the female
and the plants bursting with seed
and the crowning seasons
of the firefly and the apple,

I will honor all life
— wherever and in whatever form
it may dwell— on Earth my home,
and in the mansions of the stars.
[Listening @ 10/14, 12:05-12:20 am]

Robert A.F. Thurman:
Professor Emeritus, Columbia University;
President, Tibet House US; Translator; Author

[Met Professor Thurman at his Stanford Buddhist Lecture, 3-3-2006]

Talk: "Freedom: The Womb of Compassion" (78:16)

Everyone wants to be happy.
Love is powerful energy.
Compassion is essence of human nature.
We don't want to suffer as well as others.

Wisdom is the root of openness.
Empathy is compassionate to others.
Buddha said "Let's be free, be happy"
Freedom is a nurturing membrane—
Freedom from bondage.

Becoming enlightened is true happiness.
More compassionate you are,
the more happy you are.
This is the secret.

Animals eat, beget, and die.
But humans have a higher calling.
Everyone loves friends.
The more the better on Facebook.

Practical to love your enemy.
David Carradine played "Grasshopper"
in the "Kung Fu" TV series show,
stays calm and defeats the enemies.

Muhammed Ali is the greatest boxer:
"Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee."

Compassion is the key to sucess.
Be a hero to yourself. Be more free.
Life is not mission impossible.
"Way of the Bodhisattva"—
My way is kindness.

Gene Kelly dancing in the rain
is flowing with energy.
The pain of others is also mine
when I expand my empathy to others.

The less I say "What about me?",
we weed out self-occupation,
and we experience more of bliss.

"What about them"— what will make them happy.
Women are better leaders because they'll mom the nation.
[Listening @ 10/15, 10:38-11:58 pm]

Guided Meditation: "The Bliss of Compassion" (20:14)
Imagine yourself in a favorite place.
Surrounded by host of friends.
Feel presence of loved ones.

Notice other people's unhappiness & stress.
Feel other's pain. Think of your own heart center,
channeling in oxygen. Prana life energy flowing
through you. Leaves supplying oxygen to you.

Lift up dark energy of pollution
in others. Exhale light to all others.
98% of dark matter & dark energy that are
invisible. Infinite transparent energy
of generosity and bliss come through you.

Align with the most powerful energy—
compassion & bliss. Nirvana is freedom
from suffering. Send rainbow of light to
soothe others, to heal others, and bring
them peace. They will feel more loving.
Shambala, New Jerusalem, Heaven on Earth is here.
[Listening @ 10/16, 12:00-12:20 am]

Thupten Jinpa:
Principal English translator to H.H. Dalai Lama,
and founder of Institute of Tibetan Classics

Talk: "How to Make Compassion a More Active Force
in Our Lives and the World" (42:17)

Compassion has been focus for thousand of years.
Foundation of all the religions is compassion.

Science will show that compassion is
a biological process in human beings.

Dalai Lama's three points on compassion—
1) Draw attention to power of compassion.
(Making space for others make us better;
Start of life: baby flesh contact with Mom;
End of life: aged ones need help from young)
2) Natural effect of compassion
(relationship & social connection important)
3) Conscious effort to cultivate compassion
(Mahayana Sutra: compassion above all,
loving kindness comes after, equanimity
not easily shaken up, courage comes in,
patience is by-product)
Paying attention is essential to awareness.
Dalai Lama: "Toward Faith"
"Simple touch with mother"
[Listening @ 10/16, 12:22-1:04 am]

Tenzin Gyatso:
14th Dalai Lama
"Mission: Joy" film 1 (22:59)

At very start of the film (Spring 2005), introducing the joyful,
respectful friendship between Archbishop Desmond Tutu
and His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and featuring them
discussing ability we all have to transmute difficulty
into compassion and joy.

They met first 1990 in Newark, NJ.
Both are mischievous and playful.
Dalai Lama: Joy is satisfaction.
Tutu is always laughing.

Tutu: You were away from Tibet for 56 years.
Why are you not more morose?
(video of Dalai Lama's escape from Tibet to India)

Dalai: As a refugee, I learn more.
Where you receive much love, that is your home.

Tutu: You are spreading more love & compassion.
[Listening @ 10/16, 1:08- 1:30 am]

Karen Brailsford:
Author and Spiritual Guide,
Author of Sacred Landscapes of the Soul:
Aligning with the Divine Wherever You Are

Talk: "The Four Chambers of a Compassionate Heart" (29:39)

Thank you for being here now.
I'm bringing the word with a capital "W"
We're having a harmonic convergence.
We'll experience God's Ta-Da! moment.
Tap my heart with my heartbeat.

My heartbeat, your heartbeat. We are one.
To be compassionate is to embrace humanity.
Recognize our connection with all of life.
I understand that You are in fact me.

Aristotle said the soul is in our heart.
There are 4 sections in our heart—
Availability
Appreciation
Acceptance
Action

To look into someone's eyes
is looking into the soul.
For your soul to enter another's
you need to be in the Now.

Eckhart Tolle: "Make Now the moment in your life."

A mother was groaning when her daughter
made mistake on her violin playing.
I said out aloud—
"Why are you treating my baby like that!"

Compassion in action—
Mother Mary whispers "Let it be"
We're here. We're here for each other.
We're the light, bringing kindness
and compassion to others.
[Listening @ 10/16, 1:35-2:08 am]

Guided Meditation: "The Compassionate Heart" (11:47)
I like to pray lying on my back.
Close your eyes and take a deep breath.
Imagine a bright light springing
from your fingertips, top of your head.

Feel its love, the light of love,
the light of compassion.
Surrender to this light.

Recall a moment when you felt love.
Let this love wash over you.
Remember this love basking in this light.

You're filled with this love—
overflowing with compassion.
Remember this glowing light—
love, kindness, compassion.
[Listening @ 10/16, 2:12-2:27 am]

DAY 2: The Science of Compassion (October 15, 2021)
Explore how Buddhist monks and modern scientists are working together to discover
how meditation and ethical practices can literally change our minds, and our realities.
We'll hear details of exciting new insights from the worlds of neuroscience & psychology,
exploring compassion through a lens where science and spirituality meet.

Daniel Goleman:
Author of Emotional Intelligence

[Daniel Goleman is the only speaker I've heard before beside Prof. Thurman
I knew about his "Emotional Inelligence" and his wife Tara Bennett-Goleman's
funny story in "Emotional Alchemy" arguing with him in a Zen garden.]

Talk: "Why Compassion Matters More Than Ever" (15:03)

Princeton Seminary students crossing the campus and saw a man
moaning & groaning in pain, none stopped as Good Samaritan
to comfort him, as they don't want to be late for their class.
Compassion is alleviating suffering of others.

Artificial Intelligence leads to less employment, as people
are replaced by robots who are more efficient at work.

Three kinds of empathy—
1) See from your perspective
2) Emotional empathy
3) Impactive concern

Mr. Fred Rogers tells children:
"Whenever there is trouble,
look for the helpers."

Practice loving kindness meditation
makes people more generous.

Dalai Lama says governments
have corruption and collusion.
Education not about facts,
but moral grounding.

Bus driver on Madison Ave cared
about his riders, as they got on and off the bus.
"Have a nice day." Learned he was a pastor before.
[Listening @ 10/16, 8:03-8:25 pm]

Guided Refection: "Good Work: Findinding your compassionate purpose" (7:28)

Howard Gardener: Finding what you're good at.
What brings you joy— Csikszentmihalyi's flow:
This is your good work.

Breathe in and out.
Bring awareness back to your breath.

What I love doing?. What I want out of life?
What are my preferences?

What compassionate action feel right for me?
What has meaning for me?
Bring these two things together.
What I love to do & helping others.
[Listening @ 10/16, 8:31-8:40 pm]

Amishi Jha:
Professor, University of Miami,
Author of Peak Mind

Talk: "Kindness & Compassion Begin with Attention" (20:25)

I'm a neuroscientist. Attention allowed the brain
to sense the environment and what to do.
Notice the suffering of others force
us to act. This is compassion.

To act decisively.
We think attention is focus.

Visual stimuli showing a face.
Electrodes on brain
Perception and attention

Show image of apartment— Disturbing image reduce attention.
Neutral image does not reduce attention

Mind wandering—
Group faces— InGroup & Outgroup
More attentive to InGroup than Outgroup
More considerate to InGroup members.

Loving Kindness meditation help us
to expand compassion to others.
"May you be happy"
Compassion is attention in action.
[Listening @ 10/16, 9:41-10:02 pm]

Guided Attention Practice: (Audio)

Sit in an upright stable posture.
Feel breath through your body.
Breathe in and out.
Point flashlight to specific target.
Focus flashlight back to your breath.
Paying attention to your attention.
[Listening @ 10/16, 10:06-10:22 pm]

Tenzin Gyatso:
14th Dalai Lama
"Mission: Joy" film 2 (4:30)

Richard Davidson met Dalai Lama in 1992.
MRI of Meditative & Non-meditative people
with high-bip (hot water) & low-bip (warm water).
Meditating monks don't react to high bips
as non-meditative people, showing less fear.

If we all dedicated the same amount of time
we do to cultivating kindness that we do to
brushing our teeth, "the world would be a
very different place."
[Listening @ 10/16, 10:27-10:33 pm]

Dr. Mark Epstein, MD:
Psychiatrist and Author

Talk: "Compassion and Psychotherapy:
Reflections of a Buddhist Psychiatrist" (25:50)

My favorite children book is for 1-3 year-old kids—
Sandra Boynton's What's Wrong, Little Pookie? (2007)
Child is upset. Mother explores with him.
She's not offering comfort. He's silent.

Peter Fonagy; compassion in action.
Parent soothe the child through mentalization.

Went to Thailand with Jack Kornfield to see
Ajahn Chah: "I love this glass. The glass is already
broken. The wind had blown it over. So I treasure
it so much the more. Every moment is precious."

Saw Ram Dass after his stroke in 1997.
He asked about my patients: "Do you see them as already free?"

Adam Phillips & Barbara Taylor "On Kindness" (2009)
Donald Winnicott in 1947 paper on Wallace Stevens
"Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" (1917)
Mother's 18 ways of anger.

A mother has to tolerate her baby
without any reward later.
Song "Rock-a-Bye, Baby" (1805)
"Rock a bye baby, on the tree top...
And down will come baby, cradle and all."

Adam Phillips "It is kind caring for people just as we find them."
[Listening @ 10/17, 11:28-12:05 pm]

Guided Compassion Meditation: (8:24)

Settle the body into the posture.
Watch emotion as they come and go.
Stay attentive, watchful, and relaxed.

An infinite space where the mind travels.
Notice discomfort but don't let them take over.

Remember the feeling of being wrongly accused.
"No! I didn't do that"
Zero in on that self.

Where is this self that seems so real. Find it.
Thoughts arise and pass away like clouds in the sky.
Right now just as you are.
[Listening @ 10/17, 12:05-12:20 am]

Rick Hanson, PhD:
Psychologist, Senior Fellow at UC Berkeley's
Greater Good Science Center, & NY Times best-selling author

Talk: "Building a Compassionate Brain" +
Guided Practices: in empathy, boundaries, and compassion (48:58)

Neuroplasticity—
Three kinds of breath
1) feeling your chest as a whole
cool air coming in, warm air flowing out
2) Breathing while feeling kindness & love
Feeling of caring for friends and pets.
3) Breathing while cared about
Feel liked and loved by others

Practice is a long journey
Milarepa: "In the beginning, nothing came
in the middle, nothing stayed
in the end, nothing left."

Grandma, how did you stay so wise.
She said "When I was young saw
inside my heart the wolf of love
and the wolf of hate. I chose
the wolf of love all the time."

Donald Hebb, Canadian psychologist
"Neurons that fire together can wire together."
Ventral striatum in the brain supports
compassionate activity.

Charles Sherrington: Brain is an enchanted loan
weaving the tapestry of consciousness.
Brain reacts more to negative experiences than
positive experiences. When we become more
stressed, cortisone comes to brain & kill cells.

1) Enjoy your positive experience.
2) Feel experience in your body
3) What's more enjoyable: dopamine & norepinephrine

Tender concern for someone's suffering.
Sense of compassion. Soft thoughts—
"May you be at peace. May you not suffer."
Hand over heart, whole body of compassion.

Five positive traits—
1) What is new & fresh & different?
2) Beginner's Mind, Child Mind, Don't Know Mind.
3) Why this experience matter to you?
4) Helps to intent: Remember what we want to remember.
5) Experiencing absorbed into you like a sponge.

Beat the negativity & develop a compassionate brain.
Softening of your face when you feel compassion.
Feels good to be loving to others
Spaciousness of compassion spreading in all directions.

Dhammapada 9:122
Do not think lightly of merit, saying,
"It will not come to me." By the constant fall of waterdrops,
a pitcher is filled; likewise the wise person, accumulating
merit little by little, becomes full of merit.

Have an experience of compassion.
Enrich & staying with it for longer time.
Absorb and let compassion sink into you.
Link positive and negative material
[Listening @ 10/17, 12:24-1:30 am]

DAY 3: Compassion in our Daily Lives (October 16, 2021)
All our highest aspirations are tested in the day-to-day business of living—
in our families and friendships, our workplaces and communities. We look at how
developing self-compassion and radical self-love is crucial to making our dream
of compassionate action a reality.

Sharon Salzberg:
Co-founder,
Insight Meditation Society

Talk: "Compassionate Action: The Power of the Heart in Challenging Times" (27:27)

Everybody wants tone happy.
The force of ignorance makes life miserable.
Where does happiness really lie?

Google "compassion" (445,000,000 results)
Buddhist: Empathy— trembling of the heart
Aware of our experience movement of the heart.

Movement to whether we could help others.
We're exhausted seeing suffering of others.
Planting a seed and let Nature take its course.
Letting go so things becomes possible.

Went with Joseph Goldstein to Soviet Union,
where you can't teach meditation.

In 1979 in Barre, MA, Dalai Lama went to
Amherst. I broke my foot and was in crutches.
I was in the back. His Holiness had a radar of
who is suffering the most-- me. He went through
the crowd of 100 and asked me "What happened?"

Who do we pay attention to?
We live in a interconnected universe.
I am part of the whole.
Compassion aligned with wisdom.
[Listening @ 10/17, 9:50-10:22 pm]

Guided Loving-Kindness Meditation:
Evoking Compassion and Equanimiy (14:10)

Balance of compassion & equanimity.
Compassion is quivering of the heart.
Equanimity is spacious stillness
that recognize things as they are.

Work on the balance in this meditation.
Which phrases mean the most to you.
Feel your breath most distinctly.
Attention to just one breath.

May I offer my care and presence
without conditions, knowing they may be met
by gratitude, anger, or indifference.

May I find the inner resources to give.
May I remain in peace and let go
of all expectations.
May I offer love knowing I can't
control suffering or death.

I care about your pain,
yet can't control it.
I wish you happiness and peace,
but can't make choices for you.

May See my limits compassionately
just as I see the limits of others.
Return to your breath and just rest.
[Listening @ 10/17, 10:35-10:56 pm]

Marina Abramovic:
Artist and Founder of
Marina Abramovic Institute (MAI)

Talk: Guided Abramovic Method "Glass of Water" exercise (17:29)

Put glass of water in front of you.
Water gives life to every cell of your body.
Water clears all impurity away.
Water molecule change when you're angry.

Observe surface of water—
it's reflective. Enjoy the clarity
and transparency & purity.
Enjoy the beauty. Love this water.
Smile to this water. Feel good about it.

Slowly touch the glass. with both hands.
Feel the coldness of the glass.
See how the water takes the shape of the glass.

Generate the most positive feeling to the water.
Concentrate only on this action.
Ready to leave the glass.
Be aware of your heart beating.

Lift the glass to the lip of your mouth.
Close your eyes. Feel coldness of the glass.
Smell the water. Put your lips
to the water without swallowing it.

Take first sip without swallowing it.
Just swallow. Feel water entering your body going
down to all the molecules of your being.
You don't have to drink the whole glass,
just follow the process.
[Listening @ 10/17, 10:58-11:24 pm]

Practice: Lying in Nature (1:17)

Lying under the trees.
Pine, eucalyptus, tree in bloom, trees in flower.
Press below you into the earth.
Nourish every molecule of you
and be one with Nature
[Listening @ 10/17, 11:30-11:35 pm]

Practice:Eye gazing (41:42)

Look into my eyes.
Blink, blink, blink.
[Viewing @ 10/17, 11:37 pm-12:25 am]

Tenzin Gyatso:
14th Dalai Lama

An Exclusive Interview with the Dalai Lama:
"The Ultimate Happiness" (69:18)
(By Melvin McLeod, July 29, 2016)

In this exclusive conversation, the Dalai Lama talks about human
goodness, why the self doesn't (and does) exist, and how caring
for others is the ultimate source of your own happiness.

Didn't have time to tune in to this podcast on Day 3 of Conference (Oct. 16, 2021).
Fortunately Lion's Roar has the complete text of Melvin McLeod's interview.
I'm including some highlights of what Dalai Lama said—

Caring about others' well-being is the best way to achieve your own happiness.
It may appear you are more concerned about others' well-being than your own,
but in reality you get the maximum benefit.

Ultimate source of a happy mind & healthy body is your own mental attitude.
Thinking only about yourself— having a very self-centered attitude—
creates a lot of anxiety, loneliness, fear, and anger. This is very bad
for your own peace of mind & for your health. Scientists say constant
fear and anger do great damage to your immune system.

Children who receive maximum affection from their parents and friends are
usually very happy. But if their parents show them a negative face, or punish them,
they will be very unhappy. That's human nature. There is no need for philosophy,
no need for research. Everybody experiences that, right from the beginning of life.

I often tell people that my first guru who taught me about compassion was my mother...
Fortunately, my mother was very, very compassionate, so I received maximum affection
and benefit from her. It's the same for all human beings.

Therefore, the conclusion is that affection and concern for others' well-being
is the best way to achieve your own happy life, healthy body, and longer life.
You don't need drugs or tranquilizers if you keep more affection in your heart.
I have practiced that and I've found immense benefit to myself.

Now, you mentioned no-self, or less self. [Laughs] If you really want to develop
an altruistic attitude, and in order to do that minimize self-centered feeling,
you need a sense of strong self! We need to understand how Buddhism defines no-self.
Buddhism says we have no soul. No-self means we do not have a self that is independent,
singular, and permanent. That kind of self is not there. That is what Buddhists mean
when we talk about no-self.

But this does not mean denying the existence of self. Self is there. Nobody can deny that.
[Laughs] When you try to improve yourself, when you try to minimize destructive emotions,
you need a sense of strong self. You need to feel, "I can do it. I can change my mind.
I can reduce anger, hatred, & distance from others." For that, you need a strong sense of self.

I express the Buddhist way of practice as utilizing human intelligence to the maximum,
and in that way transforming our destructive emotions. Like other religions, Buddhism
stresses the importance of faith, but faith must be combined with wisdom. Similarly,
love and compassion also must combine with wisdom.

Science is a method to try to know reality. Scientists are like many ancient Buddhist scholars,
like Nagarjuna. They investigate!... The Buddha may have said something in certain texts,
but we cannot accept it if it goes against the scientific evidence.

Whether we accept a religious faith or not is up to the individual. But once we accept
a spiritual tradition— any spiritual tradition— then we should be serious.
We should be sincere and without too much expectation. You should follow the spiritual path
with will and determination. Then, gradually, you will have deeper and deeper experiences.
Mental development takes time— it's not like a machine. It takes weeks, months, years, decades.
[Viewing @ 10/27, 9:30-10:50 pm]

Anne Lamott:
Writer, Dusk, Night, Dawn:
On Revival and Courage

Conversation with Robert Thurman: "Loved and Chosen" (47:46)

AL; Always be glad with you.
Jesus says we must be like little children.
Anyone wearing blue shirt. You're loved and chosen.

RT: That's me!

Matthew 15:1-28
"Lord, my daughter is demon-possessed."

AL: She is a Canaanite. Why should Jesus heal her.
My kids like stories of people behaving badly.
God is Love. Jesus is Love.
Opposite of faith is not doubt but certainty.
Read John 13:11
"For he knew who was going to betray him,
and that was why he said not every one was clean."

RT: Simon to betray Jesus.

AL: Jesus washes all the disciples feet.
Jesus looks beyond our depravity.
Grace and mercy are free and given away.

RT: Buddha realized his past lives.
Even the bad guy was his mother in past life.

AL: Jesus came to heal Lazarus, and wept.
Mary and Martha are worried.
Timothy Radcliffe: GOD is love.

Hebrew Bible: Genesis 42
Joseph with cloak of many colors.
Brothers are jealous and showed
cloak with blood. Joseph went
to Egypt and became a prophet.

Compassion is the love arising from suffering.
William Blake: "I wake sweet joy"
in Four Zoas (1797)

RT: Wonderful woman with lute
People who fell down
arise and drink your bliss.
Buddha is not the Lone Ranger
and left town. Holy Ghost is the Mother.

AL: Lotus and lily are beautiful flowers of love.
Cites Thich Nhat Hahn:
"Breathing in, I calm body and mind.
Breathing out, I smile."
[Listening @ 10/18, 12:22-1:21 am]

Tenzin Gyatso:
14th Dalai Lama

Dalai Lama Archives: "Finding Peace of Mind" (2:56)

Christian Howard:
Design Strategist
and Teacher

Talk: "TheCompassionate Collective" (38:26)

I'm in Los Angeles with Tonga people.
How to turn to compassionate people.
In Bay Area, Larry Yang:
Awakening together in
compassionate arms of others,

Get over ethnic identity,
In NYC, find meditation group
with black people, most place
are white people.

How is dharma relevant to our life.
Spiritual exploration needs
intimacy and tenderness.

Buddhist has two dimensions—
The ultimate or absolute.
The conventional or relative.
The ultimate is transcendent of our being.

John Wellwood: spiritual bypass
to use absolute truth to deny our
relative human needs
Not humans learning to be Buddhist,
but Buddhist learning to be fully human.

Less focus on ultimate enlightenment.
The messiness is the method.
Use relative reality to create compassion.
Center compassion as motivation for change.

Learn the kitchen of our ancestors
to share food with others.
Are the people in your life your chosen family.
Do you see yourself in a loving community?
Where are spaces where you can be free?

Beloved community is all encompassing.
Even apart we can be together via Zoom.
Music and stories are medicine for us.
[Listening @ 10/18, 1:32-2:34 am]

DAY 4: The Compassionate Society (October 17, 2021)
Current events have shown a desperate need for more compassionate systems—
from government to the judiciary to employment. What can we do to address the damage
that social injustice and discrimination do to our societies? And what values should
we promote in their place?

Jan Willis:
Professor Emerita of Religious Studies,
Wesleyan University

Talk: "What Would a Compassionate Society Look Like?" (36:47)

3 ways of a compassionate society—

1st Model: Buddha founded community (sangha) that's radical.
Aryan society was rigid: 4 castes, person from
one caste can't eat with someone from another caste.
Priests, Soldiers, Merchants, Servants

All caste members can join as well as women.
Society guided by ethical traditions.
One shouldn't kill. Equality and compassion.

Dhammapada: Verse 5
"Through hatred, hatreds are never appeased;
through non-hatred are hatreds always appeased—
and this is a law eternal."

Eternal Law is Karma.

Dhammapada: Verse 183: "Abstention from all evil, the doing of good deeds,
and the purification of the mind, is the admonition of the Enlightened Ones."

Do no harm. Practice what is good.
Desmond Tutu: Ubuntu
Zulu term meaning "humanity".
"I am because you are" or "humanity towards others".

2nd Model of Society is envisioned
by Martin Luther King, Jr.
I was marching with him when I was 15 years old
in the streets of Birmingham, Alabama (1963).
Beloved Community also radical.
Recognize each other's basic humanity.
In non-violent community.
MLK's website: Beloved community
love & peace over fear & violence.
Love & compassion
Dalai Lama: "My religion is kindness.
Help one another."

Belonging is being cared by others
in your community.

I come from the Baptist tradition.
Luke 10:25-27 & Matthew 22:37-39—
Jesus, Which is the greatest commandment
"1st: You shall love God with all your heart
with all your soul, and with all your mind.""
2nd: Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself."

Parable of the Good Samaritan
Luke 10:29-37— Priest & Levite passed wounded man.
Good Samaritan helped wounded man.

MLK: The Good Samaritan practiced dangerous action.

3rd Model is advanced Natasha Marin's
Black Imagination (2020): loved & valued.
She's a young back woman.

Describe and imagine a world where
you are safe, loved, and valued.
I'm healthy, black, and whole at the same time.

We are peaceful and each of us are equal.
We bring us of who we are.
[Listening @ 10/18, 7:20-8:00 pm]

Meditation: A reading and guided loving-kindness meditation (15:20)

A meditation of loving kindness
After George Floyd was killed by police—
"Black Lives Matter" movement (2013)
"Say Her Name" movement (2015)

Look at all the names of innocent people
killed by police brutality.
Brian Stevenson: the key word is proximity.
Sandra Bland is not in a separate
parallel universe. Get to know her.

Recite the Metta Prayer:
May you be free from danger.
May you now have physical well being
May you now have mental well being
May you know the ease of well-being.
This we pray— Safety, joy, being valued.

Buddha the activist, holding sign
"Black Lives Matter"
[Listening @ 10/18, 8:26-8:44 pm]

Greg Fischer:
Mayor of Louisville, Kentucky

Talk: “How We Are Making Louisville the 'City of Compassion'” (26:04)

I'm speaking from Louisville, Kentucky,
home of Thomas Merton and Muhammed Ali—
"Be great. Do great things."
Louisville is not just survive but thrive.

Thomas Merton had oneness epiphany on March 18, 1958:
"In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut,
in the center of the shopping district,
I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization
that I loved all those people, that they were mine
and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one
another even though we were total strangers...
There is no way of telling people that they
are all walking around shining like the sun."

In 1968, Thomas Merton said
When everything is taken away,
what do we have left?

Merton met Dalai Lama (Nov. 1968),
and recognized their similarity.

Highlight what unifies us.
Lifelong learning, healthy city,
and compassion, shining like the sun.

Compassion is not soft, it's strong social muscle.
Need to move forward on the path.
Start with social service to the city.

My Mom taught me to help others.
Festival of Faith project (1995).
Graffiti "Muslim leave the city" (9-18-2015)
Hundreds showed up to clean up
the graffiti. Love will always win.

Hindu shrine vandalized (1-30-2019).
Breonna Taylor killed in Louisville
and George Floyd in Minneapolis.

At the root of social protest
is searching for compassion.
In our failure, we yearned for higher values.

We awarded $12 million to Breonna Taylor's family.
100 nights of protest in Louisville.

Dalai Lama visit to Louisville in 2013
I'm speaking near
Fourth Street and Walnut Ave
where Merton had his epiphany, and
Muhammed Ali Center in Louisville.
[Listening @ 10/18, 9:30-10:00 pm]

Pamela A. Yoyetunde:
Founder, Buddhist Justice Reporter

Talk: "Cultivating Wisdom While Under Siege" +
Guided Heart Sutra practice (44:09)

Uptick in hatred an violence.
We're under siege by disease.
When we choose ignorance,
we turn on each other.

Shantideva text (700 AD),
Bodhisattva vows—
May I be a lamp in the darkness
A resting place for the weary
A healing medicine for all who are sick
A vase of plenty, a tree of miracles
And for the boundless multitudes of living beings
May I bring sustenance and awakening
Enduring like the earth and sky
Until all beings are freed from sorrow
And all are awakened.

Richard Rubinstein, MD (?)
"My focus is to treat motivated patients with knee conditions
and keep that person active and ultimately healthy.

Prayer of Saint Francis—
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me bring love.
Where there is offence, let me bring pardon.
Where there is discord, let me bring union.
Where there is error, let me bring truth.
Where there is doubt, let me bring faith.
Where there is despair, let me bring hope.
Where there is darkness, let me bring your light.
Where there is sadness, let me bring joy.
O Master, let me not seek as much
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love,
for it is in giving that one receives,
it is in self-forgetting that one finds,
it is in pardoning that one is pardoned,
it is in dying that one is raised to eternal life.

Even when you are killed.
have no angers toward your killers.

Absence of the delusion of independence.
According to Buddha we're not independent.
Wise knows everything depends on something else.
Compassion is in all the religions.

Christian symbolism in the riot
of January 6 siege of Capitol Bldg.

Ch. 9 on Wisdom of Santideva
undermine the cause of suffering
IX:1 "The Buddha taught that this multitude of virtues is
all for the sake of wisdom (prajna); hence, by means of
one's desire for the extinction of sorrow, let wisdom arise."

Pride of I is source of suffering.
Ignorance is bliss. Not so!
Jesus Sermon on the Mount.

What sensation you feel
when I say Ignorance is bliss.
Knowledge is bliss.
What you know when you know?

Heart Sutra—
Form is emptiness.
Emptiness is s form.

No body, no mind, no responsibility.
We need to be responsible.
Don't cling to the Heart Sutra chants.
Need new chant for Westerners.

Dalai Lama is a refugee
who refuses to retaliate.

Meditation—
All five aggregates are empty.
here is no separate eye, ear, nose,
tongue, body, mind; No forms, sounds,
smells, tastes, touchables or objects of mind...
Without hindrance there is no fear...
gate gate paragate parasaṃgate bodhi svaha
(Gone, gone, gone beyond, gone altogether beyond,
O what an awakening, all-hail!)
[Listening @ 10/18, 10:40-11:28 pm]

Wilson Hurley:
Author of Compassion's Compass,
Strategies for Developing Insight, Kindness, and Empathy

Talk: "Steeping Heart & Mind in Compassionate Insight" +
Guided Meditation on mindfulness, self-compassion, and kindness (51:03)

Just wrote book "Strategy Compass"
Followed Dalai Lama for 40 years.
Wrote it try to help people in this traumatized world.
Joke Tweeted "What if UFOs are billionaires from other planets?"

Sylvia Boorstein:
"The mind is like tofu.
It tastes like whatever you marinate it in."

Thomas Prusinky (?) developed it—
Compassion &
O
M
P
Analytical
Selective-Focus
Skills

Tragedy at Sandy Hook (12-4-2012)
killed 26 people, mostly children.

Mind training traditions
Geshe Chekhawa (1102-1176)
learned from Serlingpa.
Seven Point Mind Training

Know this Text to be like a diamond,
the sun, and a medicinal tree.
In these times when the
five degenerations flourish,
transforms them into
the path to enlightenment.

The Commitments Of Mind Training
1. Constantly train in the three general points.
2. Change your attitude, but remain natural.
3. Do not mention faults of others.
4. Do not think about others' affairs.
5. Purify whatever affliction is strongest.
6. Give up all hope of reward.
7. Avoid poisoned food.
8. Do not hold a grudge.
9. Do not respond to malicious talk.

We are in the fourth turning—
Kali Yuga & Apocalypse

Decrease in lifespan of poor & middle class.
Increase of mental afflictions.

Compassion training alters altruism and
neural responses to suffering (Weng, 2013) CBCT
Compassion decrease anxiety (Reddy, 2012) CBCT
Compassion promotes well-being (Jazaieri, 2013) CCT (Stanford)

Research on Compass at George Mason University
Chronic stress compromise
our digestive, cardiovascular and nervous systems

Healthy boundaries for the world.
Inner boundaries for my well-being
to take care of ourselves.

1) Mindfulness: Sets the foundation
2) Review/Glance meditation
3) Analytical meditation
4) Placement meditation

Four Foundations of Mindfulness—
Body, Feelings, Awareness, Mental objects
Keep your breath as your primary focus.
Be aware the objects flowing through your mind.

Practice of Self-Compassion
(Peggy DiVincenzo, 2014)
Recognize with awareness what is happening in this moment.
Pause to be with it and give it full attention.
Locate the emotion in your body.

Being an Inner Gardener—
"My experience is what I agree to attend to.
Only those items which I notice shape my mind."
— William James

Four keys for maintaining your effort—
1) Aspiration/intention: "I want it."
2) Stability/Steadfastness: irreversible trust in practice
3) Joy: always wanting more
4) Resting: taking time to rejuvenate

1. Equanimity can be defined as an unbiased mind
wish to find happiness & avoid suffering for yourself & others
Be more friendly to everyone.
2. Gratitude is a recognition and appreciation
of the help we received & offer thanks to them.
Think of person in front of you. Your Mom
or teacher or friend who helped you.
People who grow your food.
3. Kindness is the wish for all beings to have happiness.
Enhance positive effect & decrease negative emotions
Anger is the most destructive emotion.
If anger about injustice? How to change it.
4. Forgiveness: forgive those who wronged you.
Breath in, happiness & health for yourself.
Breath out, happiness & health for others.

Compassion enhances our happiness.
Makes our lives better.
Expand compassion to everyone, everywhere,

"Compassion's Compass: Strategies for Developing
Insight, Kindness, and Empathy"
https://www.compassmethods.com
[Listening @ 10/18, 11:40 pm-1:07 am]

Tenzin Gyatso:
14th Dalai Lama

Dalai Lama Archives: "Living Together" (3:00)

My country, my religion.
We need to work together

Mentally, emotionally, physically,
we are the same.

Everything is interconnected.
Global economics, global warming.
We need sense of oneness.

Universal responsibility is
feeling for other people's
suffering as our own.
I admire the spirit of Europe Union,
[Listening @ 10/19, 1:20-1:40 am]

DAY 5: Compassion for the Earth (October 18, 2021)
As a species, we are faced with enormous collective challenges with an urgent
need to reimagine our societies as life-sustaining, regenerative, and equitable.
Compassion is essential for all of this. We look at sources of support for dreaming
a new world into being, with wisdom from indigenous shamanic practices and our own
bodies as a basis for sustainable action.

Dr. Mark Hyman:
Founding Director of the Cleveland
Clinic Center for Functional Medicine

Talk: "Healing Humanity and the Planet One Bite at a Time" (48:09)

Regenerate the planet.
Take care of our body & take care of the planet.
Chronic diseases increasing— obesity & diabetes.
Fast-food restaurants & junk food consumed.
11 million people die eating the wrong food.

Use food as medicine.
Eat real food. My books on "Food"—
Cut sugar by 40%, soda by 20%.

Health care spending increasing more than others.
$192,000,000 advertising against GMO.
Food monopoly totals $15 trillion.
ADHD is prevalent in kids.

My Way Café in Boston cooks for better diet.
Japan feeds prisoners Macrobiotic diet
and reduced their violence.
Blacks & poor with 30% population
have 70% death from Covid-19.

1983— $100 million marketing junk food to kids.
2014— $17 billion marketing junk food to kids.

1 in 4 adults have diabetes & pre-diabetes.
Facebook had half a billion dollars
advertising junk food for kids.

Europe labels cigarettes "This will kill you".
We should put this on soda labels.
The skin of the earth is the soil.
30% of soil destroyed recently.
Flood and fire destroys our soil.

It's not the cow. It's the how.
planned grazing to create more
carbon dioxide into the soil.

Regenerative agriculture
from dust to soil.
40% of our food is wasted.
Farmers create aerobic combustion.
[Listening @ 10/20, 1:15 am-2:03 am]

Tenzin Gyatso:
14th Dalai Lama

Dalai Lama Archives: "Our Only Home" (2:32)

In the West, people eat too much meat.
In India, vegetarinism for 1000 years.
Can't live on Moon or neighbor Mars.
This blue planet is our only home.
[Listening @ 10/19, 7:45-7:55 pm]

Wasfa Nazreen:
Activist, Explorer & Educator

[Wasfia Nazreen is mostly known for being the only
and first Bengali in the world to climb Seven Summits
or, the highest mountains of every continent.
Climbed top of Everest on May 27, 2012.]

Talk: "Sunrise from the Roof of the World" (32:27)

Learn more from each other.
I'm from Bangladesh (now 50 years old).
How someone from below the sea level
reached to the top of the world.

Three rivers in Bangladesh come from Tibet.
117 million people live in the Delta.
We didn't know about climate change.
The boss was Mother Nature.

I climbed the highest mountain of every country.
In 1865, Royal Geographical Society named
highest mountain after Sir George Everest.
In Tibetan, it is still called Chomolungma
meaning "Goddess Mother of Mountains".

At the base of Chomolungma, we cite a
powerful prayer (puja): ask forgiveness
in trespassing the Earth Mother,
pounding her with our ice axe,
and to protect us from harm.

Above 26,000 feet, dead zone, body
doesn't work anymore. An avalanche
wiped out Camp #4 going to the top.

When I was in last camp, felt in my
chest a new energy. Saw 250 dead bodies
as you climb up. At 28,000 feet saw
the ridge line. At summit, I was feeling
like a bug, gratitude of my experience.

Felt connected to all other beings.
On May 26, saw perfect triangle projected
by the sun. Gave Dalai Lama an ice cube
from top of Everest, and photos at the
mountaintop to landscape of Tibet.

Compassion and wisdom are like
the wings of a bird, and grow
hand in hand. Lakota prayer:
"Help me seek pure thoughts and act of helping others.
Help me find compassion without empathy overwhelming me."
[Listening @ 10/20, 2:20-3:05 am]

Guided Meditation: "Reconnecting with Mother Earth" (15:11)

Bring a simple aspiration in this practice.
Mother Earth is the most reliable friend we have.
Awareness of the breath. Simply observe
the air and water energy residing in our body.

Earth, water, air, fire, ether all in balance.
The root chakra like anchor of a ship
going down to the depth of earth.

Send back all your negativities to Mother Earth.
She's spinning and rotating. Thank her
for all that she provides us to heal us.

Take the base of the cord from the root chakra
to Mother Earth with gratitude to her.

Bring attention to the heart center.
Visualize light spreading to oceans of the earth.

This vast blue home spreads compassion to all.
Bring the body and mind together.

Mother Earth is going through transit now.
May we all be free.
[Listening @ 10/20, 3:45-4:02 am]

Alberto Villoldo, MD:
Founder, The Four Winds Society,
author of Grow a New Body

Talk: "The Shaman's Way of Meditation and Healing" (44:56)

Shamans are wisdom keepers of the earth.
50,000 years ago (Upper Paleolitic) or late Stone Age,
we had the great leap forward (human creativity born).
Cave paintings in Lascaux and Altamira.

Molecular archeology research at Stanford.
Mitochondria Eve left Africa 85,000 years ago.
One ceremony that we all share— the Fire Ceremony.
Discovery of ceremony 35,000 years ago.

Psychosomatic health at SF State University.
Mind can heal and kill (stress).

Inca Shaman was given a Bible by the Spanish.
He put it to his ear and didn't hear anything,
and threw it to the ground "Your God does not speak."
The Spaniard God spoke 15,000 years ago.
Inca: "My God spoke to me this morning."

A friend prays to create parking space, and it worked.

I was at Canyon in Southwest.
Met an old woman with wrinkled face likes she's 200 years old.
She asks tell me what I'm searching. I said "I'm looking for Daddy."
I asked her. She said "The canyon walls am I, the grass amI, the child am I."

1) The Healer
2) Shamanic Reality
Awaken the Third Eye (6th chakra, Ajna)
3) Receive transmission (serpent, jaguar, hummingbird, eagle)
Quetzalcoatl (The Morning Star is an Evil One) and was banned.
4) Healer's Rites based on Medicine Man healing our ignorance.
Shamans don't diagnose, they heal.
5) Mother Earth (Gaia)
6) Awakening of the Fathers (High Altars Keepers)
Bliss state (Neocortex) experience Oneness
and interconnectnees with the cosmos.
7) Earth Keeper— responsibility & stewardship for planet,
Each of us bring a small piece of the puzzle to the fire.
8) Highest Rite of Co-creators: Buddhahood & Christhood
Rumi: I have cease to exist.
Only you the Spirit is here.

Time that flies like an arrow.
Shaman's time turns like a wheel.
Step outside of time.
The 8th chakra is above the head,
an halo, outside of time, between birth.

We have 12-15 breaths a minute.
4-4-4 breath (YouTube)
Go to quiet place for practice.

Expand this luminosity around you, behind you.
you're in a bubble of light, outside of time.
Become your own Buddha.
[Listening @ 10/20, 4:10-5:00 am]

Stephanie Kaza:
Professor Emerita,
University of Vermont

Talk: "Courage for Earth: Acting with Compassion" (37:44)

Sharing some slides
Taught at Vermont
I'm concerned about environment.

Thank my teachers—
Robert Aiken, Thich Nhat Hahn, Joanna Macy,
Gary Snyder, Sulak Sivaraksa, Kobun Chino Osogawa

Call to Compassion
World of light and water, ocean, trees and forest
took me. to Buddhism, Seek wisdom in Zen.
Intimacy of no separate self.
All beings connected to life.

Everyone struggling with change and stress.
How can religious and spiritual teachings
support compassionate action?
Religions give us groundings.
Build community for compassion.

Buddhist ethical guidelines based on non-harming.
The me & mine society of egoism
needs Buddhist philosophy.
Thich Nhat Hahn:
Interbeing— grounded presence for all beings.

Earth Ethics—
Cultivate compassionate protection of life.
Cultivate respect for love.
Cultivate simplicity & generosity.
Cultivate deep listening & truthful speech.
Cultivate discernment & polish clarity.

Ethical actions strengthen courage
and manifest compassion.
Non-harming: the root of compassionate action.
Fostering contentment, absence of craving.
"The whole earth is my true body".

Non-ego based action.
Mindfulness training in prisons.
Taking a practice path approach
Practice ethical guidelines with others.

Upaya: finding skillful means
to relief suffering.
Develop Equanimity.
Stay centered in changing times.

Green wisdom: letters speak to us.
Wild mind of original face.
[Listening @ 10/20, 5:30-6:18 am]

Guided Meditation: "Courage of the Ancestors" (16:52)

Draw on to build compassion.
Clear your mind and put them on a shelf.

Take a few deep breath.
Grounding in place for sustaining compassion.
Name your closest river or stream.
Calling the flowing water from high to low.
Let it flow past you, through you.
you're part of the river, the river is you.

Call the mountain— its solidity.
How this stone underlies all organic life.
This stone supports you. This stone is part of you.

Remember the flowing water and solid stone.
We are this watershed of this land.
Honor the ancestors of these places.
Acknowledge these peoples who came before us.
They are here with you by your watershed and land.

Broaden this circle to immigrants who came here.
How they have shaped this place.
Enslaved who have been evicted.
Call to specific place that gives you strength.
Take yourself there.Who else is there with you.
Greet them as your familiars.
Sense of stability and equanimity there.

Imagine an ancestor a spiritual guide or teacher.
see their face in front of you, their glowing eyes.
they are at your side, walking with you.
They are pillars of courage to save compassion.

Touching deep time of water & stone.
Feel this person by your side.
Silently offer thanks to your ancestors.
[Listening @ 10/20, 6:22-6:40 am]

Robert A.F. Thurman:
Professor Emeritus, Columbia University;
President, Tibet House US; Translator; Author

Talk: Conclusion of Summit with
Lion's Roar Editor-in-Chief Melvin McLeod (7:43)
Thank "Lion's Roar" for the kindness of your heart.

Like to recommend a recently published book (9-21-2021)—
"Regeneration: Ending the climate crisis in one generation"
This book is all positive.
Have to invite Paul Hawken to next year's conference.

Melvin: Thank Tibet House. The essential role of compassion
will benefit our lives. Dedicate the merit of learning
about compassion in this event.
[Listening @ 10/20, 6:48-6:55 am]