By Carla Prater
On Memorial Day weekend Buddhist Global Relief held its first ever online retreat, conducted to support BGR’s poverty relief and education work around the world. Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi guided the retreat along with new BGR Board members Ayyā Dhammadīpā of Āloka Vihāra in Placerville, California, and Rev. Jin-Chuan Shi of Berkeley Buddhist Monastery, also in California. The retreat was well attended, with 160–180 people from around the world joining live on Zoom and others catching up with the recordings of the sessions on the BGR YouTube Channel.
The focus of the retreat was the four Brahma Vihāras, or “Divine Abodes”: boundless loving-kindness, compassion, altruistic joy, and equanimity. Meditative cultivation of these immeasurable qualities of the mind helps us to awaken them and extend them to all sentient beings. In his essay, The Four Sublime States: Contemplations on Love, Compassion, Sympathetic Joy, and Equanimity, Ven. Nyanaponika Thera said of the Brahma Vihāras: “They are the great removers of tension, the great peacemakers in social conflict, and the great healers of wounds. They level social barriers, build harmonious communities, awaken magnanimity, revive joy and hope, and promote human unity against the forces of egotism.” It is hard to imagine a set of qualities more needed in the world today.
The first day was devoted to the exploration and practice of mettā, loving-kindness. Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi and Ayyā Dhammadīpā gave talks and led us in guided meditations. We spent the second day with compassion as our object of study, led by Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi, and joined by Rev. Jin-Chuan Shi and Rev. Jin-Wei Shi, who spoke on how to avoid falling into the “near enemies” of compassion such as pity or sentimentality. The first part of the third day was devoted to muditā, joy in the joy of others, and equanimity in the face of life’s challenges and blessings. The final session was a reflection by all the retreat teachers on the relationships and interactions among the Brahma Vihāras, showing us how the four qualities of mind support and guard each other. As Nyanaponika Thera put it, they “knit isolated virtues into an organic and harmonious whole, within which the single qualities exhibit their best manifestations and avoid the pitfalls of their respective weaknesses.”
At intervals during the three days, our hearts were touched with presentations by some of our partner organizations: Helen Keller International in Côte d’Ivoire, Centro de Trabalho Indigenista in Brazil, North Country Mission of Hope in Nicaragua, Grow Bio-Intensive Agriculture in central Kenya, Bodhicitta Foundation in Nagpur, India, and Lotus Outreach International’s Garden of Peace project in southern India. Seeing the beautiful photos and hearing the stories of the people touched by BGR inspired us in our practice of loving-kindness, compassion, and altruistic joy. We are thankful to be able to work together to reduce some of the hunger and poverty suffered by people all over the world.
The retreat inspired in us a renewed commitment to and enthusiasm for the work of “Compassion in Action” embodied by Buddhist Global Relief. We also raised more than $37,000 to support our many projects around the globe. Although this retreat has ended, donations are still welcome. Please give as your means allow, knowing that your generous contribution will join with others to support BGR’s work to feed the hungry, educate children in need, support sustainable agriculture, and empower vulnerable women as they seek to provide for their families.
Carla Prater is Assistant Director of Buddhist Global Relief.
