I recently attended a weekend at Upaya Zen Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico engaging in contemplative practice and dialogue exploring both the personal and the transpersonal challenges and possibilities of this question: How Can We Bring About a Compassionate Society?
The weekend was led by Matthieu Ricard, a genetic scientist trained at the Pasteur Institute and a Buddhist monk for the last 40 years, and Roshi Joan Halifax, a social scientist and Founder, Abbot and Buddhist teacher at Upaya. Both Ricard and Halifax are living examples of the answers to this question. Their lives are devoted to both meditative inner reflection and humanitarian social action.
During the weekend, we alternated periods of silence, reflection and meditation with dialogue and inquiry. As a group, we agreed that the solutions to our social and personal problems and challenges require our active engagement, not just reflection and rhetorical and philosophical musings. And more important, these ways of being must be introduced early in life and cultivated in our children allowing these values to be come embedded in the culture and woven into the fabric of our society. Ricard says, "Developing our own positive inner qualities is the best way to help others." Buddhist practices provide a very practical and systematic method for the development of an ethical and compassionate human being.
Roshi Joan Halifax teaches that, "Ultimately Buddhism is about relationships, with ourselves and with the world." She encourages us to use our own experience of pain and deep suffering to cultivate an awakened heart, a resilient and caring heart that is the expression of our own tender humanity, our own true nature. Buddhist practices offer us a method for cultivating our fullest potential as human beings.
The fundamental tenet of "Engaged Buddhism" is compassion in action: The fruit of contemplative and reflective practice is not an isolated self-absorbed person but rather an individual who gets up off the meditation cushion and is genuinely moved to make a difference in the world. That "world" includes the proximal intra-personal and inter-personal relationships of home and family and community as well as the larger context of society, commerce, natural resources, governance and environment. Buddhist practices ask us to examine how we treat ourselves, others and environment.
As the hard inner work of contemplative practice transforms an individual, the ethical and altruistic qualities developed in such practices spill out into life with each and every action and interaction. The great humanitarian elder teacher Joanna Macy encourages us to take the "World As Lover, World as Self" and behave accordingly -- with an informed and intelligent heart and with tenderness -- experiencing our lives with a sense of interconnectedness rather than separateness and isolation, so common in modern societies.
How do we do this? How do we create a compassionate and heartful culture? How do we transform and heal our world? Buddhism teaches that in order to transform our world, our families, our workplaces, our communities, we must transform ourselves through contemplative and meditative practices, through self inquiry and self reflection and through the cultivation of benevolent humanitarian and compassionate ethics and values. We must cultivate the capacity to be genuinely concerned about the welfare of others.
Ricard teaches that at first we may feel that our actions are inauthentic, contrived or fabricated, but if we "practice" new behaviors and new points of view, and experience firsthand the results of actions rooted in generosity and kindness and the wish to benefit others -- if we restrain our selfishness, aggression and anger, and make an effort to cultivate and grow gentleness, kindness and generosity -- our experience becomes our teacher; our experience informs us. Buddhism is very pragmatic. Try this; see what happens. Find out for yourself.
Where to start? First we start with ourselves. First we start with benevolence towards ourselves and others. We study. We contemplate. We reflect. We practice. Slowly, we mature and develop like a seed that will germinate and bear fruit if planted into good soil and watered and tended well.
The path to a compassionate society arises from the intentions and actions of individuals within that society. One small act of kindness and generosity ... one act of tenderness ... one act of selflessness ... each of these moments makes a difference. No act is too small. Strung together, each kind gesture becomes a pearl that makes a beautiful strand of loving kindness with which to encircle self and other, close family, friends, coworkers, community, strangers and world.
Dr. Nalini Chilkov has studied and practiced Buddhism for 38 years. Her path of service includes health and healing focused upon Integrative Alternative Cancer Care and Wellness Medicine.
To learn more about study and practice, teachings, writings and projects of Matthieu Ricard and Roshi Joan Halifax see the links below.
Upaya Zen Center
Zen Peacemakers
Dharma Podcast
Matthieu Ricard
Karuna-Shechen Humanitarian Projects
Books by Joan Halifax
The Fruitful Darkness
Being With Dying: Cultivating Compassion and Fearlessness in the Presence of Death
Books by Matthieu Ricard
Why Meditate:Working with Thoughts and Emotions
Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skill
Follow Dr. Nalini Chilkov on Twitter: www.twitter.com/doctornalini
Jon M. Sweeney: A Contemplative Life: The Final Stage of Spiritual Pilgrimage
~Laura
http://lauracarroll.com
We are as shaped by our culture as we are shapers of culture. Probably more.
The real answer to the problem is what changes we can make to culture that will make more individuals compassionate toward one another.
To address this from the point of view of "we must be compassionate to make society compassionate" requires that a majority of us or the most influential of us are compassionate.
Traditionally compassion is a ruler by which to measure leaders and an important criterion in who we most adore.
That doesn't seem to be the case anymore.
That is probably a large part of the problem. Modern societies moralize productivity and wealth above compassion.
Stop being in denial about our own racist feelings about others.
how has his realization helped you in your healing practice?
thank you
PPL choose how and what they want to contribute to society, there affiliation with religion may or may not be an impact to their good or bad actions.
I am Muslim, I have a really down to earth persona, peaceful, humble, and easy going...I do not harm others and watch what I say...however is Islam a factor to my good manners...I mean I can learn from Islamic teachings, just like I can learn from Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, and Buddha himself, but I think if I did not know about any of these teachings, I would still be a good person, because I made the choice to be that way and lead a happy life...
As for creating a compassionate society...wow, I would to start with reforming corrupted polotics, and clandestine under the table bribery, reform the UN, monetary Fund, and WTO...then again in order for one to actually bring about a compassionate society, he/she must start off with just society, and I am sorry to say it, but achieving freedom is not as easy and lovely as it may sound...
compassionate refers to what ? a structure in the brain ? what is the physical reality of compassion and where is it located if we find the compassion tree then we grow compassion of it
KARUNAVATARAM maybe the tree
why did buddhists retreat back into the palace from which Prince Siddhartha entered the world
peopel who want the compassion tree will find Global Country of World Peace which teaches TRANSCENDENTAL meditationTM technique which the Buddha taught
read " Human Physiology : expression of VED and Vedic literature " Tony Nader MD PHD neurophysiology
human body is made of VEDA Rik Veda and 40 main aspects of VEDA
Buddha is an actual structure in the brain as well as one of the incarnations of Vishnu ~800 BC
when in (TM) stress is healed neutralized released whatever the right word is for transformation of entropy in the body brain into purer higher state of consciousness
distinct from waking dreaming sleeping then manas mind can enter into that structure the compassion tree in the neurophysiology called Buddha
buddhism is too many words as many as the vatican has but secular people like it because it pretends not to beleif in god ; where does compassion come from : from Buddha Buddha is incarnation of Vishnu
existence of problems means buddhists and hindus [ Buddha was indian ]need TM 2x daily 20 minutes
1) Buy into everything that a liberals believe because they know best.
2) Do exactly as your told and no one gets hurt.
3)
I think the goal should be to cut out interacting with anyone who is socially "poisonous" and surround ourselves with people full of compassion. That and paying it forward; compassion does not necessitate putting ones self out for the benefit of another. But, helping the old lady with her groceries or holding the door for strangers certainly is a good start.