Wading into Oceanic Compassion: Releasing Overwhelm through Awe and Noble Silence

Have you ever felt compassion fatigue and wondered what to do about it? As we open to the Four Noble Truths, it's inevitable that we hit some walls. Sometimes on our path we will need to regulate the nervous system and meet feelings of overwhelm with what I call awe (openness to life as it is). Two words describe the practice of compassion in Early Buddhism, karuna (the mental attitude of benevolent and boundless awareness) and anukampa (the verbal and bodily actions originating from the former).  

In Early Buddhism, we emphasize karuna as the second of the Four Divine Abodes of the Heart. Karuna is in the definition of Right Resolve (the second of Noble Eightfold Path). It also leads to the second jhana described as noble silence, which in turn supports and feeds compassion. Compassion and wisdom are the two wings to awakening. Without compassionate qualities of the heart, wisdom alone is powerless to take us to awakening, or freedom from suffering. 

My hope is to spend a day with you practicing this compassionate, boundless awareness together without turning it into anukampa (a call to action), so that we can experience cetovimuti  (liberation of awareness or emptiness).

Ben Lasso and Robert Rhyne will round out the daylong program with the practice of Insight Dialogue on the same theme of compassion. This will help us to explore the topic more deeply within our own experience and also to find pointers to keep our inner, noble silence within an active life.

• For our potluck lunch together, please bring one or more dishes to share, and if possible, please label the ingredients to accommodate those with food allergies.
• Plenty of residential street parking is available on side streets.

We look forward to sharing our heart together on the 19th,

robert & ben