Practices of Compassion: An Exploration and Experience

This volume grew out of a remarkable Contemplative Seminar on Practices of Compassion held in Hyderabad at the end of January 2016. The event was initiated by Lama Doboom Tulku, organized by World Buddhist Culture Trust and conducted by Professor M. Darrol Bryant. Unlike typical conferences, this event incorporated practices of compassion led by participants from their own spiritual practices. Each day began and ended in silence, the participants sat in silence, danced together, shared spiritual practices and learned from one another. Papers were written and circulated in advance. There was no reading of papers, but only discussion. It proved to be a deeply moving experience of practices of compassion for all the participants.
At the end of the seminar, there was a spontaneous conviction that this experience and exploration of compassion should be shared with a wider audience. There were contributions from Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Jain, Sikh, Jewish, and other spiritual streams. Later some additional contributions were invited as well.
The volume is a many-leafed flower exhibiting the rich diversity of practices of compassion found in the human family. It is also a testimony to the centrality of silence as the way to compassion. It is the journey within that manifests in actions without. It is not a conceptual journey but a journey of the heart.

About the Author :
Lama Doboom Tulku was born in the Kham region of Tibet in 1941 and recognized as the reincarnation of the previous Doboom Tulku at the age of two. At the age of 12, he joined Drepung Monastery in Central Tibet and studied Buddhist Philosophy. He came to India in 1959, and lived in a monastic camp in West Bengal to continue his studies. At the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies then under the auspices of Sanskrit University, Varanasi, he studied Buddhist Philosophy and received a Geshe-Archarya degree in 1972. He was awarded an honorary doctorate degree in Buddhist Studies by the Mahachulalongkorn Buddhist University of Bangkok in 1999. From 1972 until March 2011, he worked in various academic, cultural and administrative institutions of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He pursued a millennium project of World Festival of Sacred Music which became a worldwide event with festivals at over a dozen venues in different continents. He is currently engaged in inter-religious and cross-cultural activities through art and culture, as the Founder Managing Trustee of World Buddhist Culture Trust (www.wbct.org).
M. Darrol Bryant is the founding Director of the Centre for Dialogue & Spirituality in the World's Religions at Renison University College/University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. From 1973 until 2007 he taught at Renison University College and retired as a Distinguished Professor Emeritus. The author/editor of more than 25 volumes including God: The Contemporary Discussion, Religion in a New Key (3rd ed.), Muslim-Christian Dialogue: Promise & Problems and most recently a three volume series on Ways of the Spirit: Celebrating Dialogue, Diversity & Spirituality, Ways of the Spirit: Voices of Women, and Ways of the Spirit: Persons, Communities, Spiritualities. In 2017, he published his 750 page Guide to Religion in the Modern World. He has been engaged in the dialogue of religions since the late 1970s and has been in India more than 20 times.
Yanni Maniates (www.insideoutjourneys.com), MS, is Director of Eco-Ministry, Forum 21; Event coordinator, The Interspiritual Network; Co-editor, The Eco-Activist Newsletter; Editor, "Steering Toward the Omega Point: Roundtables 2,3 and 4;" and Curator, Self-Care to Earth-Care. In the 80's he was the Director of a large organization that hosted many major international, interfaith, ecumenical conferences. Also, he was the Director of a medium sized publishing company in NYC for 5 years. As well, has been teaching Meditation, Intuitive Development and Hermetic and Perennial Wisdom teachings for nearly 30 years. The primary focus of his work has been to help people experience the "still, small voice within" or as he prefers to call it, "The Embrace." He is the author of six mini-books on Meditation and Intuition and three Meditation CDs.