Dalai Lama XIV Bstan-ʼdzin-rgya-mtsho - The wisdom of compassion: stories of remarkable encounters and timeless insights

About the Author

Tenzin Gyatso, His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, is the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people. His tireless efforts on behalf of human rights and world peace have brought him international recognition. He is the recipient of the Raoul Wallenberg Congressional Human Rights Award, the Albert Schweitzer Humanitarian Award, the Congressional Gold Medal, and the Nobel Peace Prize.

Victor Chan is the author of the Tibet Handbook: A Pilgrimage Guide. Together with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, he co-authored The Wisdom of Forgiveness: Intimate Conversations and Journeys. In 2005 he founded the Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education in Vancouver with His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

About the Book

The Wisdom of Compassion offers rare insights into the Dalai Lamas life as he interacts with remarkable people from all walks of life. In these deeply engaging behind-the-scenes stories we also see how he approaches the world with humour and optimism.

As he empathizes with those who are suffering, and demonstrates the tangible benefits of practising forgiveness and compassion, the Dalai Lama reveals the many lessons he has learned, including how:

his collaborations with leading neuroscientists, psychologists, teachers and students around the world have taught him how to educate the heart;

his inspiring friendship with a blind Irishman, the only person he calls his hero, has taught him how one can overcome adversity;

through his encounters with illiterate grandmothers learning to harness solar power for their communities, a beggar girl, and his soulmate, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, he has discovered how compassion can be translated into action.

Enhanced by the Dalai Lamas seven decades of practice, The Wisdom of Compassion can help readers to lead more fulfilling lives and shows that, when we open our hearts and minds to others, we are on the surest path to true happiness.

Acknowledgments

While working on The Wisdom of Compassion, I have benefited from the wisdom as well as the compassion of countless people, and Im grateful to have received such an enormous amount of encouragement and support.

I have had the honor of working closely with Geoff Kloske, the publisher of Riverhead Books, and have enjoyed our many meetings and conversations. Geoff took valuable time out to travel to Canada to attend the 2009 Vancouver Peace Summit featuring the Dalai Lama, an event that I helped convene. He critiqued the manuscript brilliantly and has been a true believer in what we are trying to accomplish. Geoff has a wonderful assistant and editor in Laura Perciasepe, who is one of the most welcoming persons I know in New York. Lauras faith in the project has been enthusiastic and indefatigable. Together they nurtured the book, with a great dollop of patience, to fruition. Im enormously grateful to them. Noah Lukeman is my literary agent for both The Wisdom of Forgiveness and The Wisdom of Compassion. He has been a good friend and advocate for more than a decade. Ive had the help of many friends who read the manuscript (in part or in whole) and who provided valuable comments: Bonnie Richards, my sister; Anna Kaye and Alex Lau; Ross McDonald; Susan Alexander; Peter Wing; Claire Weeks; Carolyn Walker; Ray Rhamey; Pierre Omidyar; Gretchen Clark; Roberto and Cicci Vitali. Daniel Wood, Barbara Pulling, and Laurie Wagner read versions of the manuscript and provided detailed suggestions. They are wonderful mentors, and they have been consistently helpful with my writing through the years. I met Barbara Standley briefly but serendipitously at a Brooklyn writers festival. As a keen student of Buddhism, she graciously offered her assistance, and I benefited from her long experience as an editor. Merrie-Ellen Wilcox helped with the copyediting.

Several friends are featured in the book: Richard Moore, Florrie Moore, Charles Inness, Matthieu Ricard, Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, Susan Davis, Bunker Roy, Craig Kielburger, Richard Davidson, Aaron Beck, Eckhart Tolle, Sir Ken Robinson, Kim Schonert-Reichl, Paul Ekman, and Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu. They were all generous with their time and allowed me to interview them at length, providing context and depth to several chapters.

Im grateful for the friendship of the former and current secretaries in the Private Office of the Dalai Lama: Tenzin Geyche Tethong, Chhime Chhoekyapa, and Tenzin Taklha, a paragon of professionalism and goodwill. His Holinesss representatives Lobsang Nyandak Zayul (New York), Thupten Samdup (London), and Tempa Tsering (New Delhi) have been good and reliable friends over the years. Thanks also to Don Eisenberg and Tenzin Choejok, the social media masterminds in the office. Im particularly indebted to Ngari Rinpoche, His Holinesss brother, and his wife, Rinchen Khando. Over the past decade they have tirelessly provided fine Tibetan meals, wise counsel, and, above all, steadfast friendship. They have taken to heart the Dalai Lamas compassionate worldview and practice it with unwavering diligence in their daily lives.

Samdhong Rinpoche, Lobsang Sangay, former and current Kalon Tripas, provided moral support and encouragement. Im thankful to Adam Engle and Diego Hangartner of the Mind & Life Institute for friendship and assistance, especially during the annual conferences in Dharamsala. Thanks also to Jetsun Pema, Thupten Jinpa, Geshe Lhakdor, Tashi Wangdi, Tenzin Priyadarshi, Tenzin Namgyal Tethong, Lodi Gyari, Jim Doty, Rajiv Mehrotra, Robert Thurman, and Dr. and Mrs. Tseten Sadutshang, who are all trusted confidants of His Holiness. My family and I are especially grateful for the gracious hospitality extended to us in Leh, Ladakh, by His Holinesss sister Jetsun Pema, who served for more than four decades as president of the Tibet Childrens Villages.

In my travels with the Dalai Lama, I have met many remarkable people; their impact has been felt, but their names are too many to mention. I am especially grateful for the friendship of Austin Hearst, Frank Giustra, Christy Louth, Alison Lawton, Eric Nonacs, Mordehai Wosk, John Lefebvre, Tony and Margo Phillips, Harald and Sharlene Ludwig, Shannon Belkin, Lynn Green , Gordon Richards, Caroline and Jane Blunden, Larry Brilliant, Pam Omidyar, Patty Gift, James Gimian, Hari Varshney, Praveen Varshney, Marc Kielburger, Matt Banwick, Susan Phillips, Neil Ghosh, Abigail Disney, Chantelle Chouinard, George Wong, Maria LeRose, Tim Kerr, Anthony and Marie-Laure Aris, Peggy Dulany, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Adele Diamond, Daniel and Tara Goleman, Dan Siegel, Joan Halifax, Peter and Jennifer Buffett, Matt and Renee Goldman, Stephen Post, Deepak Chopra, Jeffrey Hopkins, Tenzin Khangsar, Juan Martn Lutteral, Agapi Stassinopoulos, Arianna Huffington, Patricia Graham, Tom and Margot Pritzker, Ashley Judd, David Bornstein, Magnus Bartlett, Lorne Mayencourt, Kevin England, Sam Sullivan, Lynn Zanatta, Mairead Maguire, Marjorie Layden, John Helliwell, Jeff Walker, Robert Ho, Mary Gordon, Swanee Hunt, Ann Veneman, Helene Gayle, Molly Melching, and Mpho Tutu. This book has benefited from their influence and goodwill.

I owe special thanks to my fellow trustees at the Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education: Brenda Eaton, Evan Alderson, Tom Rafael, Jim Hoggan, Martha Piper, Gwyn Morgan, Geoff Plant, Marjorie-Anne Sauder, and Philip Steenkamp. They joined the board because the Dalai Lamas ideals resonated with them, and they have worked to strengthen the Center beyond the call of duty. Id also like to thank the Centers advisors, supporters volunteers, and staff.

Susanne Martin is my wife, my muse, and my true soul mate. She spent countless hours going through the manuscript, editing, shaping, red-lining. Her impact on the book, levelheaded and wise, is profound and heroic. She read and reworked the drafts so many times that she may be able to recite the book by heart. Im profoundly grateful that she has selflessly embraced and helped my endeavors for more than two decades. Our daughters, Lina and Kira, unobtrusively provided moral encouragement. In their subtle ways, they are my best cheerleaders. Poodoo the cat, inimitably aloof, soothed me over the course of the writing and occasionally offered welcome distractions.