Images of Compassion (NVC)

Wisdom Quarterly; InternationalPeaceAndConflict.org

Joint Vesak celebration 2011, Los Angeles (A. Wells/Wisdom Quarterly)

  
The "Compassion Course" is based on over 24 years of experience as a writer and trainer -- with the last 11 spent studying, living, and teaching nonviolent communication (NVC).

  

Imagine this work open and available to everyone. There are no time or money constraints.

 

This year, 2012, marks the second time the course is offered. The 2011 Compassion Course (just ended) had over 500 participants from every continent. It has been a resounding success (check out the quotes below).

  

As a global community there is a Yahoo! group that connects us daily. There are also monthly conference calls to further expand our connection and learning. Weekly emails with course concepts, stories, and practical applications of the material that empower us to be more compassionate are share. We increase our well-being, passion, and drive with lessons that teach ways of thinking, speaking, and acting (the three modes of generating karma) to allow conflict without harming others. More

• Wanderlust Fest (Suburban City Chix)

Read More

Guanyin (Virgin) Day, Los Angeles

GuadalupeCelebration.com; Wisdom Quarterly

LA  Honors Lady of Guadalupe

Guadalupe, Goddess of Mercy

Q: Who hears the cries of the world? Who is the goddess of compassion, the merciful, the yin to the world's yang-gods? A: Guanyin also known as Guadalupe.

Today's massive celebration featuring prayer, music, and speakers venerating the Lady of Guadalupe in Los Angeles (a city named after  her) is co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Catholic Archdiocese and Knights of Columbus.

• "The City of Angels" (Spanish, Los Angeles) by its full name is: El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles del Río de Porciúncula ("The town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels by the river Porciuncula")

The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum is hosting a massive “Guadalupe Celebration” today. The event hopes to honor the Mexican version of Guan Yin, the Virgin [Mary] of Guadalupe, who is known as 

the Patroness of the Americas.

  

She hears the cries of the world

The Celebration will bring together tens of thousands of Catholics from across the ethnically diverse five-million member Catholic Archdiocese, as well as the faithful from around Southern California and beyond.

   

“At certain times, the Church gathers together for an event that provides the opportunity for the expression of faith in a very public way,” said Archbishop José Gomez. “In this celebration we will renew our devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe and our commitment to continue the process of evangelization that she began on this continent nearly 500 years ago.”
   
“We [the KOC] are pleased to be able to cosponsor this event with the Archdiocese of Los Angeles,” said Carl Anderson, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus. “We strongly believe that Our Lady of Guadalupe has an important message to share with all of us and has an important role to play in unifying the faithful of this hemisphere.” More

Read More

Who hears the cries of the world?

Wordnik.com; 123Chic; Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly

Kwan Yin is Avalokiteshvara (123Chic)

“...Tara was not originally the same as Kuan-yin, though the fact that she accompanies Avalokita and shares his attributes may have made it easier to think of him in female form.
  
“The circumstances in which Avalokita became a goddess are obscure. The Indian images of him are not feminine, although his sex is hardly noticed before the Tantric period.”

“Of most teachers we are told that they saw some deity, such as Avalokita or Tara.” - Sir Charles Eliot, Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 2

  
“The helpers and saviors of humankind such as Avalokita and Tara are often depicted in the shape of raging fiends, as hideous and revolting as a fanciful brush and distorted brain can paint them.” - Ibid., Vol. 3

  
“The great bodhisattvas, such as Avalokita and Mañjuśrî, are splendid angels of mercy and knowledge who are theoretically distinguished from buddhas because they have indefinitely postponed their entry into nirvana in order to alleviate the sufferings of the world.” - Ibid., Vol. 1

  
“Mr. Wells knows that he is indebted to oriental thought and thinks that European religion in the future may be so too, but I do not know if he realizes how nearly his God coincides with the Mahayanist conception of a Bodhisattva such as Avalokita or Mañjuśri.” - Ibid., Vol. 1

Read More