Topics Include: 1) The placement of compassion or karuna in the Eightfold Noble Path and the Four Noble Truths. 2) The importance of compassion in the fade of the immense suffering in the world. 3) Compassion as a verb not a noun, as a practice that we bring into the world. 4) The difficulties of being compassionate toward ourselves. 5) The act of compassion is the path to awakening: the secret of the Four Noble Truths. 6) The problem of political division in our society: Trump supporters and the neurological basis for their sense of victimization, blame, hatred and retribution. The classical definition of suffering and the basis for compassion. 7) Examples of great compassion in the world. Finding our own capacity for compassion in our lives. 8) Understanding compassion in two ways: First to purify ourselves first to purify others; second, to practice true selflessness in the world. 9) Learning the selflessness or “emptiness” of compassion: compassion without any sense of self reference. 10) Learning to instill renunciation, loving kindness and compassion as guiding principles in our lives.
December 19, 2020
48 min.