Awakening the Kind Heart: How to Meditate on Compassion with Ven. Sangye Khadro

Awakening the Kind Heart: How to Meditate on Compassion with Ven. Sangye Khadro

Thu Oct 22; Tue Oct 27, 7–8:30pm EDT

Sat-Sun. Oct 24-25, 10:30am-4:30pm 

 IN-PERSON & ONLINE

A truly kind heart already exists in each and every one of us. It’s just a matter of learning how to bring it out and expand it so that we can feel it more often, for more people and more beings—and eventually for all living beings. In this intensive course of study and practice, Venerable Sangye Khadro will teach and lead students in discussions and meditations on the four immeasurables: love, compassion, joy, and equanimity. They are called immeasurable because they extend to all sentient beings. It is the cultivation of these intentions and feelings that open our hearts towards ourselves and others, and they are fundamental aspects of the path of awakening.

While we set out to be kind, it can be quite difficult to practice. Our minds are innately pure but polluted by obscurations such as negative emotions. When we experience anger, jealousy, and pride, they can compromise our good intentions and create the conditions for unskillful reactivity. These obscurations can be identified and eliminated, allowing the true, pure nature of our mind to be revealed, which has the potential to experience boundless compassion. Venerable Sangya Khadro (Kathleen McDonald) is the author of Awakening the Kind Heart: How to Meditate on Compassion (Wisdom Publications), which shares the same teachings and meditations that will be explored in this course. As our teacher, Lama Zopa Rinpoche said, “This book will help you find happiness and true satisfaction and help you live a life of benefit to others.”

Venerable Sangye Khadro ordained as a Buddhist nun at Kopan Monastery in 1974. She took bhikshuni (full) ordination in 1988. While studying at Nalanda Monastery in France in the 1980s, she helped to start the Dorje Pamo Nunnery. Venerable Sangye Khadro has studied with many Buddhist masters including Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Lama Yeshe, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey, and Khensur Jampa Tegchok. At her teachers’ request, she began teaching in 1980 and has since taught in countries around the world, occasionally taking time off for personal retreats. Venerable has authored several books, including the best-selling How to Meditate and How to Meditate on the Stages of the Path. She now teaches and lives at Sravasti Abbey in Washington state.