Year-long Immersion
Third Sunday of the month
9:00am - 10:30am CT
(time zone converter)
A Year of Compassionate Action
During this year-long immersion, we’ll come together in community each month to learn something about compassion and the application of compassion in our daily lives. Our vision is that participants will come together as a community and get to know each other.
“In the Buddhist tradition, compassion and love are seen as two aspects of the same thing: compassion is the wish for another being to be free from suffering; love is wanting them to have happiness.”
-- His Holiness the Dalai Lama
Compassionate action is moving from feeling into taking helpful action. Each month we will host a guest teacher who will share a teaching and a practice around compassion. We’ll also go into breakout sessions in order to give voice to our experience from month to month.
“The brahmaviharas are four prized emotions or mindstates that give us a framework to cultivate positive behaviors and minimize harmful ones. They are called the “divine abodes” because they are the mindstates in which all the enlightened ones reside. They are also known as the “four immeasurables” or “four limitless ones” because they represent love and goodwill toward all sentient beings, without limit.
The four brahmaviharas are:
Loving-kindness (Pali: metta)
Compassion (karuna)
Sympathetic joy (mudita)
Equanimity (upekkha).
The late Buddhist teacher Ayya Khema described the brahmaviharas as “the only emotions worth having.” By cultivating the four immeasurables, you not only develop limitless love but undo what the Buddha called their “near enemies”: indifference, pity, envy, and jealousy.” -- Lions Roar Article “What Are the Four Brahmivaharas?”