Engaged Compassion

byLobsang Tenzin Negi, Dalai Lama (Introducer)

Seven Practices to Cultivate Resilience, Connection and a Joyous Life

Leverage your biology to support the healing of anxiety, isolation, deep sadness and conflict with this research-tested program for actively practicing compassion.

Tasked by the Dalai Lama to find new ways of sharing ancient Tibetan wisdom with the modern world, Lobsang Tenzin Negi has been at the forefront of compassion science for over 25 years. The culmination of this work, his pioneering Cognitively-Based Compassion Training (CBCT) is more effective than mindfulness in reducing anxiety and depression, and helps to nurture kinder, more collaborative societies too.

Guiding us through 8 basic steps, Dr Negi reveals that compassion is a natural instinct, and shows how CBCT can shift our internal wiring to unlock this simple superpower. Each chapter blends traditional Buddhist stories, contemporary anecdotes from across the world, scientific evidence, practical advice, guided meditation and a three-step exercise, to give us a comprehensive and memorable method for improving our lives.

'Love thy neighbor as yourself.' Like you, I often heard this as a child, but I didn’t know anyone who did. It was a nice idea, but we can’t just tell ourselves what to feel, and no one seemed to know how to actively cultivate kindness and compassion. That is, until I encountered the Buddha’s teachings. Here is a path that explains a series of meditative techniques that enable genuine empathy and compassion to grow in us. For me, the key was contemplating the kindness of others—not just friends and family, but also strangers and people I didn’t like or trust. As I practiced these meditations over time, I began to see that I’ve been the recipient of tremendous kindness in my life. Gratitude and compassion for others arose in me naturally, replacing anger and cynicism. These and other meditative techniques are clearly explained in Cognitively Based Compassion Training. Try them and join the Dalai Lama’s 'compassion revolution'.

Thubten Chodron, author of Working with Anger and Open Heart, Clear Mind

About Lobsang Tenzin Negi

Geshe Lobsang Tenzin Negi, PhD, (aka Satya Dev Negi) is the cofounder and director of the Emory-Tibet Partnership, a multi-dimensional initiative founded in 1998 to bring together the foremost contributions of the Western scholastic tradition and the Tibetan Buddhist sciences of mind and healing. He is also professor of practice in Emory University’s Department of Religion. In 2018, he launched, with the Dalai Lama, SEE Learning, a free compassion curriculum for children. Called by Daniel Goleman “SEL 2.0,” it has reached educators and parents around the world.

Geshe Lobsang, a former monk, was born in Kinnaur, a small Himalayan kingdom adjoining Tibet. He began his monastic training at the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics and continued his education at Drepung Loseling Monastery in south India, where he received his Geshe Lharampa degree in 1994, the highest academic degree granted in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.
Details
  • Imprint: Torva
  • ISBN: 9781911709244
  • Length: 320 pages
  • Price: £17.99
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