Cultivating Compassion: A Buddhist Perspective [Hardcover]

Jeffrey Hopkins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 10, 2001

“Compassion is the heartfelt wish that all sentient beings be free from suffering. We have a responsibility to each other; we cannot act out of mere self-centeredness.”

What compels some people to act compassionately without giving it a second thought, while for others it almost seems against their nature? And what will become of our society if compassion dwindles?

According to Buddhist thought, compassion is society, and esteemed Buddhist scholar-practitioner Jeffrey Hopkins knows that by learning to live from a more compassionate viewpoint, we can create a better life not only for ourselves but for others. Cultivating Compassion is his eloquent, practical guide to tapping our own potential for caring and processing the thoughts and beliefs that interfere with our ability to interact with others in a meaningful, positive way.

Through Buddhist meditations (including the Dalai Lama’s favorite), visualizations, and entertaining recollections from his personal journey to more compassionate living, Hopkins guides us in developing an awareness of the capacity for love inside us, and learning to project that love into the world around us. The meditations presented here stem from a central Tibetan practice used to develop deep-seated compassion and altruism, and build on each other to culminate in a strong sense of empathy for all beings.
By incorporating these simple yet powerful meditations into your life, you will open your mind to the sensibilities of care and concern for others—what Hopkins refers to as the seed of Buddhahood.

Delivering a potent message with the power to change our relationships and improve the quality of our lives, Cultivating Compassion is the ideal book for an age in which our dealings with each other seem increasingly impersonal—and even violent and aggressive. Anyone seeking release from negative emotions such as anger, or simply wanting to increase the love and caring among us, will welcome this timely vision for humanity.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"Jeffrey Hopkins is an old personal friend who has been of great help to me as an interpreter," writes the Dalai Lama in the foreword to this book, thereby giving Hopkins distinctive credentials founded on 10 years of close personal contact with Tibetan Buddhism's spiritual leader. Hopkins, who founded the University of Virginia's Tibetan and Buddhist Studies program, has not wasted this precious gift of proximity. In six unobstructed steps he offers a clear how-to meditation manual on cultivating compassion, a major theme found in all Buddhist traditions. The book is refreshingly jargon-free, with everyday life applications and bold-type meditation instructions that can be easily utilized in practice sessions. For example, within the chapter on motivation, Hopkins instructs practitioners to bring one person to mind and dedicate the session of meditation to that person's sake. This enhances the practitioner's sense of being connected "to not just one small being, yourself, but with many, many others." This book will probably mean more to those already on the Buddhist path than to those just setting out. Yet the cornerstone value of compassion, where the Dalai Lama "pays his respects first," is so key to the Buddhist perspective and practice that newcomers can certainly find useful material here, too. Hopkins's guide helps readers to explore the implications of the Dalai Lama's oft-heard refrain, "We all want happiness and do not want suffering."

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

A growing popular literatureDincluding Lama Surya Das's Awakening the Buddhist Heart (LJ 10/15/00), Thich Nhat Hanh's Teachings on Love (LJ 10/1/97), Sharon Salzberg's Lovingkindness (Shambhala, 1995), Pema Ch dr n's Start Where Your Are (LJ 6/1/94), and several works by the Dalai Lama himselfDextol the benefits attained from practicing compassion toward all sentient beings, even our enemies. In his latest work, Hopkins, a scholar of Tibetan and Buddhist studies, former interpreter for and student of the Dalai Lama, and the author of numerous books and articles on Buddhism, clearly details meditative exercises designed to build one upon the other to develop just such a deep and continuous compassion. This is an excellent guide to practice for more serious students since it assumes some knowledge of Buddhism and its vocabulary. Recommended for public and academic libraries.DJames R. Kuhlman, Univ. of North Carolina at Asheville Lib.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Broadway; 1st edition (April 10, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0767904990
• ISBN-13: 978-0767904995
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,000,104 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jeffrey Hopkins is Professor Emeritus of Tibetan Buddhist Studies at the University of Virginia where he taught Tibetan Buddhist Studies and Tibetan language for thirty-two years from 1973. He received a B.A. magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1963, trained for five years at the Lamaist Buddhist Monastery of America in Freewood Acres, New Jersey, USA (now the Tibetan Buddhist Learning Center in Washington, New Jersey), and received a Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies from the University of Wisconsin in 1973. He served as His Holiness the Dalai Lama's chief interpreter into English on lecture tours for ten years, 1979-1989. At the University of Virginia he founded programs in Buddhist Studies and Tibetan Studies and served as Director of the Center for South Asian Studies for twelve years. He has published thirty-nine books in a total of twenty-two languages, as well as twenty-three articles.

His most prominent academic books are the trilogy Emptiness in the Mind-Only School of Buddhism (2000); Reflections on Reality: The Three Natures and Non-Natures in the Mind-Only School (2002); and Absorption in No External World: 170 Issues in Mind-Only Buddhism (2006). In 1999 he published The Art of Peace: Nobel Peace Laureates Discuss Human Rights, Conflict and Reconciliation, edited from a conference of Nobel peace laureates that he organized in 1998 for the University of Virginia and the Institute for Asian Democracy.

Recently he published the first translation into any language of the foundational text of the Jo-nang sect of Tibetan Buddhism in Mountain Doctrine: Tibet's Fundamental Treatise on Other-Emptiness and the Buddha-Matrix. He has translated and edited thirteen books by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the latest being How to See Yourself as You Really Are. He is also the author of A Truthful Heart (Snow Lion, 2008), which includes anecdotes from his years as a practitioner of Buddhism.

Other books include Emptiness in the Mind-Only School (1999), Cultivating Compassion (2001), and translation and editing of His Holiness the Dalai Lama's How to Practice (2002). From 1979 to 1989 he served as His Holiness's chief interpreter into English.

Hopkins was born in Barrington, Rhode Island, USA, has traveled to India nineteen times and Tibet five times to do research. He has received three Fulbright Fellowships.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly Recommended, August 10, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Cultivating Compassion: A Buddhist Perspective (Hardcover)

This book is extraordinary. The basic outline follows the well-known seven-fold cause-and-effect meditations for developing bodhicitta, but Professor Hopkins helps to motivate and draw you into each step by presenting other meditations more familiar from Lamrim literature, such as meditations on the preciousness of human life and the certainty of death. All of this comes together to present, in an a surprisingly clear, readable, and practical form, the entire Buddhist path. What makes the book particularly special are the personal notes, stories, and questioning that Hopkins reveals along the way, making it clear that this is a path he has personally walked and, no doubt with great effort, integrated into his life. This gives the book an integrity that is quite rare.

It is only now, writing this, that I realize how deep this simple book really is. Two of Hopkins's other works, The Tantric Distinction, and Emptiness Yoga, come to mind as having a similar kind of personal style. If you liked those, I think you will also find Cultivating Compassion to be, well, enlightening. But this book is suitable for anyone, whether you have previous experience with the material or not. In fact, although there are plenty of historical and philosophical introductions to Buddhism, no other book that I have read takes you quite so effortlessly into its heart. Integrating the teachings into YOUR heart is the next logical step.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wise, witty wonderful guide to compassionate living., May 21, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Cultivating Compassion : A Buddhist Perspective (Hardcover)

Author provides clear and truly helpfulinstructions on how to cultivate compassion. Probably better than Salzberg's Lovingkindness, another fine title. Step by step guide to buiding compassion through series of meditations. Authoritative, authentic (Hopkins translator for Dalai Lama for ten years) but an easy read with flowing style. Great insight on human mind. Bk contains small pieces of wisdom which clearly product of a "lived" meditative practice. The author is a truly gifted writer; very witty. In places, I smiled: "we are like people on a bus with no destination in mind, the driver stops and lets us out, and we think "this is a nice place":- just a modern version of the mind as unbridled horse, but I relate more to this. For me, one of best Dharma books.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE BEST BOOK ON SUCCESS AND RELATIONSHIPS!!!, December 16, 2001

By 

Bill Butler "Bill Butler" (Tarzana, Ca. USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cultivating Compassion: A Buddhist Perspective (Hardcover)

This book contains a series of meditations to help us develop compassion. And what is compassion? The wish for others not
to suffer. This is simply a wonderful book! In it, we learn about the psychology of other human beings. One suprising thing is that we all want the same thing! Happiness. But most of us seem stupid about obtaining it. In all human endeavors and in all human relationships, what quality of mind really makes them work? Compassion. Hopkins brillantly illustrates this. Think
about it. What type of marriage partner would you really want?
One who wishes that you would not suffer. And what is this wish?
It is compassion. So we all want a partner with compassion. We all want friends with compassion. What type of business relationship would you want with someone? We want someone who can feel for us. Someone who will understand if we get sick and can't make a deadline. We want someone with compassion. Paradoxically, compassion is the key to success. Because no one would really want any kind of relationship with us, personal or otherwise, unless we have compassion. Can compassion be bought? Yes! Oddly enough. Buy this book and do a series of meditations in which you will feel for others. In which you will understand others. This book is for everyone. The world needs compassion. And it is what everyone wants. Thank you.