In association with hhdlstudycirclemontreal.org
| Incubator of compassionate action.
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| Dear Friends,
In the mid-2010s, University of Virginia researchers discovered something unsettling: when asked to sit alone with their thoughts for just 15 minutes, many students chose to give themselves electric shocks rather than face the silence. Left alone, the mind floods with regrets of the past, anxieties of the future, and the endless story of “me.” To escape, we’ve built a civilization of distraction. Yet contemplative scientists have now proven that with practice, the restless “me-network” of the brain can quiet, and a deeper “we-network” awakens — shifting us from the narrative self to experiential presence, from isolation to interbeing. |
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| Twelve centuries ago, a Tibetan prophecy described this very threshold. As beloved elder Joanna Macy shared before her recent passing: “There comes a time when all life on Earth is in danger, and the Shambhala warriors must emerge.” These warriors realize that the gravest dangers are not caused by an outside enemy or fate, but arise from our own “relationships, priorities, and habits.” So armed with just two weapons, they step into training: compassion (the fuel that makes us unafraid of the world’s suffering) and the wisdom of radical interdependence (knowing that even the smallest act ripples through the infinite web). “The disasters are made by the human mind,” the prophecy reminds us. “They can be unmade by the human mind.” |
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Sangha of Auspicious Companions 
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