Origin of the Compassion Renaissance: October 23, 1987

 

On October 23, 1987, in the living room of a home located in a small city in northern India at the foot of the Himalayas, Dharmasala, was planted the seed of a new scientific revolution. On that day the first of a series of many colloquies called Mind and Life Dialog, with the subject-name of “Dialogues Between Buddhism and the Cognitive Sciences,” hosted by Tenzin Gyatso, the fourteenth Dalai Lama. Present were Western experts in computer science, chemistry, biology, neuroscience, cognitive science and cognitive psychology. In that week-long dialog the Dalai boldly presented the following challenge:

You scientists have done a remarkable job mapping the pathologies of the human mind. But you have done little or no work on the positive qualities like compassion, let alone their potential for cultivation. Contemplative traditions, on the other hand, have developed techniques to train our mind and enhance the positive qualities like compassion.

So why not use your powerful tools now to study the effects of these contemplative practices? Once we have better scientific understanding of the effects of these trainings we can offer some of them to the wider world, not as spiritual practices but as techniques for mental and emotional well-being.

[Thupten Jinpa, A Fearless Heart: How the Courage to Be Compassionate Can Transform Our Lives, Hudson Street Press, May 5, 2015, p. xxiii.]

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Compassion Renaissance History

Chronology of the Compassion Renaissance

Bibliography of Major Books on Compassion Neuroscience

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