dharmatalks

Dharmacharya Gurudas Sunyatananda, the 46 year-old, American-born spiritual teacher and founder of the Contemplative Order of Compassion, announced on Friday that he wants to make a digital copy of his popular book, The Dharma of Compassion: One Monk’s Reflections on the Teachings of the Enlightened & Anointed Ones, available to anyone who requests one.

In this book, drawing on the essential and timeless teachings of Buddha Sakyamuni and the historical Rabbi Jesus the Nazarene, Dharmacharya Gurudas Sunyatananda (known in the secular world as Dr. Francis-Maria Gianmichael Salvato, M.Sc.) invites readers to reflect on practical ways to apply these powerful teachings to our own lives, as a means of freeing ourselves and others from suffering. This collection of excerpts from the various Dharma talks and articles written by the visionary founder of the Lojong Ashram and Monastery, and spiritual advisor of the Spiritus Project — an intentional community of Buddhist contemplatives, dedicated to living the diverse charisms of Buddhist, Franciscan, Quaker and Benedictine spirituality in a postmodern world — are sure to provoke and inspire a deeper look within for any spiritual seeker.

“We wanted to do something special to herald the launch of The Charter for Compassion,” Sunyatananda told students at his Lancaster, Pennsylvania hermitage, “And this seemed like a good way to prepare people’s hearts and minds to begin considering the paramount importance of compassion and finding common ground.”

The Charter for Compassion brings together voices from all cultures and religions, seeking to remind the world we already share the core principles of compassion. Headed by The Council of Conscience, a group of eighteen multi-fath, multi-national leaders crafted the Charter from the world’s online submissions, making this effort a truly global initiative.

Since it was first published, in 2007, The Dharma of Compassion, has been used by church groups, interfaith communities, yoga centres and classroom settings as a text for initiating interreligious dialogue, and for discovery of common ground among people of various faiths. Written from a non-theistic perspective, the text is one of the few such texts to offer insight into the teachings of the Buddha and the Christ without seeking to engender a particularly religious viewpoint. For this reason, communities of Secular Humanists and atheists have even found the text to be a useful tool in creating bridges of compassion between themselves and open-minded individuals from various spiritual traditions.

To get your free digital-edition of the book, just send an email requesting it to: gurudas.sunyatananda@gmail.com