Ep. 289 – Engaged Compassion: Geshe Lobsang Tenzin Negi

The Buddha taught a path of awakened living, but how does that manifest in today’s world of constant connectivity and widespread suffering?

How do we keep our hearts open without being defined or hardened by the pain that surrounds us, whether personal, collective, or historical? How do we navigate the paradox of holding both pain and joy, without mistaking suffering for punishment or personal failure? Can we infuse our compassion with wisdom and perspective to find the agency to take meaningful action in our communities? In her new series, Engaged Compassion, Sharon delves into these questions and more, engaging in candid conversations with a diverse group of teachers, activists, and changemakers.

For the seventh episode in the series, Sharon’s speaks with teacher Geshe Lobsang Tenzin Negi, marking his first appearance on the Metta Hour.

Geshe Lobsang Tenzin Negi, PhD, 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. 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.

In this conversation, Geshe and Sharon speak about:

• How Geshe grew up in the Himalayas

• Becoming a monk at age 14 in 1974

• Geshe and Sharon’s first meeting

• Center for Contemplative Science and Compassion-Based Ethics

• Cognitively Based Compassion Training

• What neuroscience says about compassion

• Tania Singer’s research work

• Richie Davidson’s discovery with neuroplasticity

• The inner qualities that are actually skills

• Putting compassion into real action

• How discernment must guide compassion

• Story of the starfish on the beach

• How small acts of kindness affect others

• Developing the inner disposition for kindness

• Is compassion fatigue actually compassion?

• The natural reciprocity of compassion

• “Compassionomics” by Stephen Trzeciak

• Why self-compassion is a struggle

• Accepting the human condition

• Drepung Loseling Monastery

• H.H. Dalai Lama’s SEE Learning Program

Additional Resources

Geshe Lobsang closes out the conversation with a guided gratitude practice from his book, Engaged Compassion. Learn more about Geshe Lobsang’s work right here. Get a copy of his new book right here and explore the SEE Learning Program right here.

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