Ahimsa Center
Bipin and Rekha Shah Conference on Nonviolence
Care, Compassion, and Mindfulness
November 7-9, 2014
Cal Poly Pomona, Bronco Student Center, Ursa Major Suite
Conference Description
Care, Compassion and Mindfulness (CCM) is the theme of the 6 th biannual conference on nonviolence hosted by Ahimsa Center at Cal Poly Pomona in suburban Los Angeles.
Care is the concern we feel for the well-being of others and ourselves; of those with whom we have close bonds, and of those with whom we share only the common bond of humanity. Care also extends to our concern for animals and the nature. Care is essential for the health of relationships that make up the web of life, and it is care that makes life meaningful. Care is also at the heart of compassion - our empathetic response to suffering, which is an inescapable fact of human existence. Suffering arises from hurt and from loss, including a loss of life; at work the causes of suffering may range from physical or emotional injuries to a loss of job. Suffering also results from natural disasters and from human perpetrated calamities such as wars, mass shootings, and acts of terrorism. Compassion can help heal the wounds of suffering, and make life whole again. Mindfulness is attention to one’s thoughts and actions as well as to wellbeing of others. It is also self awareness, including awareness of one’s environment –social, political and ecological; and awareness of others’ circumstances. Cultivated through a variety of meditational practices, mindfulness makes caring more effective and compassion more curative. As an integrated whole, CCM is a manifestation of ahimsa or nonviolence in practice.
This conference will draw upon scientific research and practice-based insights from a variety of disciplines and professions to further our understanding of the ways in which we can cultivate care, compassion and mindfulness in our individual selves, in our families and communities, and in world at large. The cultivation of CCM calls for a radical transformation in how we relate to each other as human beings, and how we relate to other beings and to nature; and it calls for rethinking our personal lives, work lives and civic lives. The conference program will feature presentations that:
Distinguished Key and Invited Speakers
- Christopher Key Chapple, Doshi Professor of Indic Studies and Theology, Loyola Marymount University.
- James R. Doty, Founding Director, Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education, and clinical professor of Neurosurgery, Stanford School of Medicine.
- Jenny Phillips, Cultural anthropologist, writer, psychotherapist, and producer of documentary, Dhamma Brothers.
- Lobsang Rapgay, Research Psychologist and Director of the Clinical Training program for Mental Health Professionals at the Mindfulness Awareness Research Center, UCLA.
- Samani Charitra Pragya, Vice Chancellor, Jain Vishwa Bharti University, India.
- Jeff Smith, Co-founder and CEO, Lunar Design, San Francisco.
- Michael Tobias, Historian of Consciousness, global ecologist, author, filmmaker, and President of Dancing Star Foundation.
- B. Alan Wallace, President, Santa Barbara Institute of Consciousness Studies, and Chairman, Thanyapura Mind Centre.
- Gianfranco Zaccai, Chairman, President & Chief Design Officer, Design Continuum, Boston.
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