Cultivating Compassion

The massive disruptions caused by climate change, the Covid-19 Pandemic, war, and ever-rising inequalities have presented the world with challenges across social and economic life, health and education, policy, politics, and community life. Compassion is a central Buddhist value and practice but is also essential to our survival. Defined as feeling genuine concern about the suffering of others and, critically, coupled with a commitment to attempt to alleviate or prevent it. The desire and commitment to help are what differentiates compassion from similar emotions like empathy and sympathy. Compassion demands the courage to turn toward suffering with clarity and skilful means. Hence, we have the Buddhist recognition that compassion is inseparable from wisdom, in the analogy of the two wings. This book is titled, Cultivating Compassion: Going Beyond Crises as it is rooted in this perspective while presenting different approaches which aim to advance our understanding of the questions and dilemmas posed by the current global crises and the cultivation of compassion.

Contents: A Humanistic Buddhist Response to Crises through MettaVerses - From Self to Our Shared Humanity - Compassion and Kindness as Tools for Transformation - A Humanistic Buddhist Approach to the Contemporary Climate Crisis - Buddhist- Informed Humanistic Responses to Gender- Based Violence - Social Connection in the Attention Economy: Cultivating Compassion on Commercial Social Media - Compassion, Belief and Macrocompassion - For the benefit of all . . . : Towards Reading the Dharma for Practices of Diversity and Celebration - Compassion and Beyond: How Can Buddhism Help Address Contemporary Crises? - Bodhisattvas in Action: Turning Crises into Sacred Leadership - Resisting Genocide through D'harawal Relatedness: Understanding the Appin Massacre and the Story of How Wiritijiribin the Lyrebird Came to Be - Teaching with Heart: Reflections on Compassionate Pedagogy in Higher Education - The Role of Humanistic Buddhism in Improving the Response of Modern Medicine to Contemporary Challenges - Transcending Cultures East and West: Ethnographic Research Methodology as a Path of Compassion - Hopeful Monsters: Can Art Build Empathy? A Sculptural Exploration of Social- Emotional Macroevolution - Walking the Paths of Compassion Amidst Conflict - Abundance from Dukkha: The Pandemic from a Third- World Perspective.