Boundless Compassion
Course Resources
Week 1 - Embodiment
References:
Altruism by Matthieu Ricard, Chapter 4
"empathic resonance with pain can lead, when it is repeated many times, to emotional exhaustion and distress. It affects people who emotionally collapse when the worry, stress, or pressure they have to face in their professional lives affect them so much that they become unable to continue their activities. Burnout affects people confronted daily with others’ sufferings, especially health care and social workers..
Over the course of discussions with Tania and her collaborators, we noted that compassion and altruistic love were associated with positive emotions. So we arrived at the idea that burnout was in fact a kind of “empathy fatigue” and not “compassion fatigue.” The latter, in fact, far from leading to distress and discouragement, reinforces our strength of mind, our inner balance, and our courageous, loving determination to help those who suffer. In essence, from our point of view, love and compassion do not get exhausted and do not make us weary or worn out, but on the contrary help us surmount fatigue and rectify it when it occurs.
When a Buddhist meditator trains in compassion, she or he begins by reflecting on the sufferings that afflict living beings and on the causes of these sufferings. To do this, the meditator imagines these different forms of distress as realistically as possible, until they become unbearable. This empathic approach has the aim of engendering a profound aspiration to remedy these sufferings. But since this simple desire is not enough, one must cultivate the determination to put everything to work to relieve them. The meditator is led to reflect on the profound causes of suffering, such as ignorance, which distorts one’s perception of reality, or the mental poisons, which are hatred, attachment-desire, and jealousy, which constantly engender more suffering. The process then leads to an increased readiness and desire to act for the good of others."
Week 2 - Theravada Tradition
Mudita/Sympathetic Joy Meditation
References
Chant - The Four Boundless Qualities:
I will abide pervading one quarter with a mind imbued with loving-kindness, likewise the second, likewise the third, likewise the fourth, so above and below, around and everywhere, and to all as to myself.
I will abide pervading the all-encompassing world with a mind imbued with loving-kindness, abundant, exalted, immeasurable, without hostility and without ill will.
I will abide pervading one quarter with a mind imbued with compassion, likewise the second, likewise the third, likewise the fourth, so above and below, around and everywhere, and to all as to myself.
I will abide pervading one quarter with a mind imbued with gladness, likewise the second, likewise the third, likewise the fourth, so above and below, around and everywhere, and to all as to myself.
I will abide pervading one quarter with a mind imbued with equanimity, likewise the second, likewise the third, likewise the fourth, so above and below, around and everywhere, and to all as to myself.
Please Call me By My True Names
The Four Brahma Vihara qualities by Caroline Jones and Paul Burrows: Metta, [kindness] the love that connects, is an antidote to all forms of aversion. It is not attachment. If it slides into sentimentality, karuna [compassion] brings the heart back into balance. Karuna, the love that responds, is an antidote to cruelty. It is not pity. If it slides into sorrow, mudita [appreciative joy] brings the heart back into balance. Mudita, the love that celebrates, is an antidote to envy. It is not competitive. If it slides into agitated excitement, upekkha [equanimity] brings the heart back into balance. Upekkha, the love that allows, is the antidote to partiality. It is not indifference. If it slides into disconnection, metta brings the heart back into balance.
Metta for Challenging Times - Larry Yang: May I be loving, open, and aware in this moment; If I cannot be loving, open, and aware in this moment, may I be kind; If I cannot be kind, may I be nonjudgmental; If I cannot be nonjudgmental, may I not cause harm; If I cannot not cause harm, may I cause the least harm possible.”
Week 3 - Mahayana Tradition
Resources:
Playlist of Namo'valo chanting in the Plum Village tradition.
Reflection Questions from the session:
What do you know or trust that is bigger than you? What is your relationship to faith and devotion? What person, deity, landscape or idea helps you to touch fearlessness? Hold that in your heart as we chant Namo’valokiteshvaraya, mantra of the Bodhisattva who listens at ease to the cries of the world
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How do you access beyond-self compassion, not bound to a sense of sef or other? Can you feel into the Tathagatagarbha, Buddha Nature/seed of awakening? Do you trust that you can awaken? Even full of heartbreak and rage and distraction? In the Deep Listening Meditation, listen to the Heart of Compassion, rest into your True Home.
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Contemplative Reading from the Shurangama Sutra
“First I redirected my hearing inward in order to enter the current of the sages. Then external sounds disappeared. With the direction of my hearing reversed and with sounds stilled, both sounds and silence ceased to arise. So it was that, as I gradually progressed, what I heard and my awareness of what I heard came to an end. Even when that state of mind in which everything had come to an end disappeared, I did not rest. My awareness and the objects of my awareness were emptied, and when that process of emptying my awareness was wholly complete, then even that emptying and what had been emptied vanished. Coming into being and ceasing to be themselves ceased to be. Then the ultimate stillness was revealed.”
Week 4 - Vajrayana Tradition
Week 4: Video Recording
Resources:
Om Tare Tutare Ture Soha - Tara mantra chant
We didn't get the chance to practice Tonglen together so here is a recording if you'd like to try it:
Tonglen/Giving and Receiving, Pema Chodron, 12-minute practice:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-x95ltQP8qQ
Tonglen/Giving and Receiving, Pema Chodron, 45-minute practice:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_XPJhGwjbU
“May all sentient beings have happiness and its causes.
May all sentient beings be free of suffering and its causes.
May all sentient beings not be separated from sorrowless bliss.
May all sentient beings abide in equanimity, free of bias, attachment, and anger.”
Week 5 - Karuna = Sila
Week 5: Video Recording
Resources:
- Vietnamese invocation of the Buddha and Bodhisattvas in Sino-Vietnamese, led by Thay:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3J3lW34nik0&list=PLqIl33x0hpsj9gM173CQHXexXxOyXBoiv&index=7
- Manzanita Village 5 Practices/Precepts: https://www.fivechanges.com/five-precepts/
- Audre Lorde, Uses of the Erotic - https://www.centraleurasia.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/audre_lorde_cool-beans.pdf
May all sentient beings have happiness and its causes.
May all sentient beings be free of suffering and its causes.
May all sentient beings not be separated from sorrowless bliss.
May all sentient beings abide in equanimity, free of bias, attachment, and anger.