September 2020
Hello to each of you. With so much happening on many levels in our country and beyond, I’m increasingly aware of the crucial need for compassion. I feel extremely blessed to have kinship with you in regard to compassion, knowing we are sending forth as much loving kindness as we can in this whirlwind of change, loss, anxiety, hostility, confusion, and much more. Thanks to each of you who stay connected by sending in suggestions for resources and your messages on how you are currently engaged in BC programs.
New BCF Programs for BCF section of the website
Another set of resources prepared this time by Michelle (Mickey) Reed regarding the use and application of Zoom for virtual retreats is ready to be launched on the site. Stella deVenuta has also sent a complete set of files with specific content and details of a virtual retreat she has led. However, this posting will now wait until October. My website manager, Heather Glenn, has a family emergency and her full attention belongs there. Please remember Heather and her young son, Oliver, in your loving kindness prayers. If you would like to have an image of Oliver for your meditation, you can find this and information regarding his health condition at his Caring Bridge site.
Join in Remembrance
September 21, International Day of Peace promoted by the U.N. General Assembly
There are over 70 million refugees across the globe. Displaced children and families are separated, suffer and die fleeing from war, violent assaults, economic hardship and environmental degradation across the world. You might want to visit this site to gain renewed compassion for the suffering of this important group of humanity.
Resources
An excellent question arrived recently, inquiring if the resources mentioned in the BCF newsletters have been gathered into one place. I responded that I do not have enough space in my days (or nights) to do this but it’s a great suggestion. I wonder if there’s a BCF who would give time to creating a file with lists of songs, another for videos, one for new books, and quotes – gathered from past newsletters. These files would then be placed on the BCF site with regular updates.
Songs
Compassion, by Lucinda Williams (Her voice reminds me of Leonard Cohen, the Canadian singer) This is a song for listening / you’ll need to have the lyrics in order to hear the words. You can find those lyrics here. There is also a YouTube where she sings Compassion.
Compassion by Prince If your group likes music with a bit of ‘hip,’ try Compassion by Prince. Here’s the YouTube . And here are the lyrics.
Books and Articles
The chapter on empathy is exceptional. Also, the one on “engagement” which focuses on compassion fatigue and burnout. In the section below on “quotes” you’ll find some thoughts from this book that you might find useful in your presentations or study discussions.
From Elaine Olson: “I am currently reading Anne Lamott’s book, Almost Everything: Notes on Hope. She writes about the wisdom she has learned from her life experience. This morning I read the chapter “Don’t Let Them Get You to Hate them”. Throughout this chapter, Ms. Lamott writes of the ‘hate” that grows within her during these difficult political times, with reflections on the transformative power of “awareness” and how this changes her. Throughout the chapter, I kept thinking about the teachings on compassion regarding awareness, attitude, and action.”
How Tuning In to Your Body Can Make You More Resilient, by Linda Graham, Greater Good Science Center. Graham writes: “…practices outlined in my book that you can use to cultivate more calm in the body, restore your natural physiological equilibrium, and access a deeper sense of safety and well-being that primes your brain for more resilient learning and coping.” You can find some of these practices at this website. (relate this to self-compassion)
A thought provoking article, one that I believe must be brought into our consciousness if our planet is to survive. “Learning the Language of Nature,” (Gratefulness.org has many articles related to compassion.)
Video
Jack Kornfield “The Peaceful Heart” This talk explores how the combination of compassion and equanimity can give rise to a peaceful heart even in times of turmoil and great change.
Quotes
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If we fall over the edge, and we will sometimes, all is not lost. Empathic distress might serve as an instigating force that pushes us into compassionate action to end the suffering of others and ourselves. We need some degree of arousal, some level of discomfort, in order to mobilize our compassion. We just need to be sure we don’t get stuck in the swamp of distress, because it can exhaust us and drive us away from caring for others. If we can learn to distinguish self from others, without creating too much distance between another and us, empathy will be our ally as we serve.
One final intuition: perhaps we don’t slip into the skin of others so much as we invite others to inhabit us, to slip into our skin, into our hearts, thus making ourselves bigger, more radically inclusive. Empathy is not only a way to come alongside suffering in our small boat, it is a way to become the ocean. I believe that the gift of empathy makes us larger – if we don’t drown in the waters of suffering. And empathy that is alchemized through the medium of our wisdom gives us the energy to act selflessly on behalf of others.
~ Standing at the Edge, Joan Halifax
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A third kind of imagination is one that allows us to see a different future. John Paul (Lederach) has called this the “creative imagination,” the ability to envision the future in a way that rehumanizes all the players and creates the possibility for transformative change, even against all odds. This species of imagination points to resilient purpose and revolutionary patience, the capacity to be not afraid or impatient as we imagine a vaster horizon than we had believed possible. – Standing at the Edge, Joan Halifax
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In Buddhism’s traditional four causes of suffering we must now add a fifth: the suffering caused by racism, sexism, poverty, and all the other forms of human injustice. Only when seeing that clearly will our compassion be complete. ~ Ann Gleig, “The Fifth Sight: The Heart of Social Justice.” ` Lions Roar, Sept. 2020
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I started a practice of seeing others based on the Zulu word Sawubona, which is a common greeting in parts of South Africa. It means, ‘I see you,” and the response is, “I see you too,” or “I am here.” ~ Lion’s Roar, “I See You, I Am Here: The Secret to Heartfelt Communication,” Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu
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He could’ve stood there and yelled back. He could have run away. It could have made him cruel and mean, in the moment or forever after. He may well have been prodded in those directions. But instead he remained cool, and those two words helped him recenter in the midst of what not only was a career-on-the-line situation, but probably felt like a life-threatening one. ~ Stillness, Ryan Holiday
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I will be away for my own annual retreat from the 19th to the 26th and will not have access to WiFi so if you have any communication with me I will be back to you soon after the 26th. You can count on my remembering you in prayer during the retreat.
with much gratitude for each of you,
Bathe in the Current of Divine Life
…theologies and symbols and creeds, though inevitable, are transient and become obsolescent, while the Life of God sweeps through the souls of (people) in continued revelation and creative newness. To that divine Life we must cling. In that Current we must bathe. In that abiding, yet energizing Center we are all made one, behind and despite the surface differences of our forms and cultures.A Testament of Devotion, Thomas R. Kelly.
