Social Resources
Compassion / Love
Quotes
"Folks need to know the ways we change and are changed when we love. It is only by bearing concrete witness to love's transformative power in our daily lives that we can assure those who are fearful that commitment to love will be redemptive, a way to experience salvation."
—bell hooks
Advocates / Services
Our mission is to promote and cultivate the principle of compassion and the Compassionate Way of Life, as articulated by the Charter for Compassion, so that compassion characterizes all human society and all relationships.
Studies the psychology, sociology, and neuroscience of well-being and teaches skills that foster a thriving, resilient, and compassionate society... Since 2001, we have been at the fore of a new scientific movement to explore the roots of happy and compassionate individuals, strong social bonds, and altruistic behavior — the science of a meaningful life.
Articles/Essays/Op-eds
The Dangerous Politics of ‘We Will Not Forgive’, Esau McCaulley.
“[. . .] Here is a radical and seemingly untenable proposal: We meet hatred with forgiveness and even sometimes love. Could not American grief lead to displays of grace? What if, in response to tragedy, we declared war on the human despair that is a breeding ground of terrorism and steered far more aid money and efforts to helping the poor and refugees? We could display, in the very places where terrorists recruit, that we care about the disinherited. We could show that America is a friend and not an enemy to the hurting people of the world..." [read more]
Compassion Is a Necessity and an Individual and Collective Responsibility, Beth A. Lown.
“Compassion is both innate and can be learned and enhanced. Advances in neuroscience have shown us that the human brain has neural networks that are hard-wired with the ability to share the experiences of others, including emotions and sensations.”
Are Children Born With Compassion?, Sandi Schwartz.
“Let’s take a look at our children’s ability to be kind and compassionate to others in need…. Yes, compassion is a human instinct. Recent evidence indicates that humans have evolved to be compassionate.”
The New Age Gets (Somewhat) Political, Wade Lee Hudson.
A review of A New Republic of the Heart: An Ethos for Revolutionaries, Terry Patten. “Only a few political people are becoming more spiritual, but many spiritual people are becoming more political, aiming to integrate the personal, social, cultural and political dimensions of human experience. This development is encouraging [. . .]”.
What triggers prosocial effort? A positive feedback loop between positive activities, kindness, and well-being, Kristin Layous,S. Katherine Nelson,Jaime L. Kurtz &Sonja Lyubomirsky.
“Across two studies, we found evidence supporting a positive feedback loop between positive activities, kindness and well-being. In Study 1, participants were randomly assigned to one of four distinct positive activities (versus a neutral writing activity) before spending three weeks engaging in kind acts. We found that the positive activities served as triggers – that is, they predicted greater prosocial effort, which in turn predicted greater well-being immediately following the intervention and at a two-week follow-up. In Study 2, we explored the specific effects of a gratitude trigger, and extended the intervention period to six weeks. Although, we did not replicate the direct effect of the gratitude trigger on prosocial effort, people who wrote gratitude letters (versus writing about their week) reported relatively greater elevation, which predicted greater prosocial effort during the six weeks. In turn, replicating Study 1, greater effort predicted higher well-being immediately following the study.” [read more]
Ben Sasse: Strengths and Weaknesses, Wade Lee Hudson.
In Them: Why We Hate Each Other—And How We Can Heal, Senator Ben Sasse (R-NE) affirms important values. Unfortunately, his politics contradict his values…. His solution is more community, rooted in “America’s history of principled pluralism.” He argues:
Only a recovery of rootedness can heal us…. As Americans, we need to agree first on the universal dignity of all people…. We’re lacking...the right bonds that give our lives meaning, happiness, and hope. It’s the habits of heart and mind that make us neighbors and friends. At the end of the day, it’s love. And when a bunch of “them” are joined by love, and by purpose, “they” can become “we.”
The Power of Yes, Wade Lee Hudson.
“Positive words benefit the brain. As reported by Andrew Newberg, M.D. and Mark Waldman, thinking, hearing, speaking, and reading positive messages lowers stress and helps people respond quickly, deal with problems, live longer, develop satisfying relationships, be flexible, and become more caring. An intuitive awareness of those recent scientific discoveries may have contributed to these historical events.”
The Mender Pledge, Sharif Abdullah.
“[. . .] I want love. Therefore, I will love myself, I will love you and I will love all others.”
Transform the World: Let Compassion Be Our Guide, Wade Lee Hudson.
“The world is being torn apart by a struggle between love and hate. If hate prevails, life as we know it will perish. If love wins, humanity can transform the world into a compassionate community. This draft strategy offers a way to move in that direction.”
Mutual Support for Self-Improvement, Wade Lee Hudson.
“Love, altruism, spirituality, partnership, community, and cooperation thrive when humans feel safe. These feelings also emerge in response to disasters when we tap reservoirs of compassion and restore faith in humanity. But when we’re afraid, we become angry, selfish, materialistic, domineering, individualistic, and competitive.”
2020 Oscar Acceptance Speech, Joaquin Phoenix.
“[. . .] when we use love and compassion as our guiding principles, we can create, develop and implement systems of change that are beneficial to all sentient beings and to the environment.”
Citizen University Sermons, Wade Lee Hudson.
A review: Become America: Civic Sermons on Love, Responsibility, and Democracy, Eric Liu. “Eric Liu’s latest book…is eloquent and inspiring. His exhortations to be engaged in civic activism, beyond voting, are compelling. In the end, however, he comes up short. He neglects the need for new, holistic structures that nurture an energizing cultural environment.”
Crisis and Opportunity, Peter Childs.
“Amen to everything you're putting forth. I'm convinced that with maybe only ten years left to avoid global "catastrophe" from climate change alone (IPCC) what is afoot on Planet Earth is orders of magnitude larger than almost any of us yet seem to realize.”
Books
See No Stranger: A Memoir and Manifesto of Revolutionary Love, Valarie Kaur.
“How do we labor for the world we want when the labor feels endless? Valarie Kaur – renowned Sikh activist, filmmaker, and civil rights lawyer – declares that revolutionary love is the call of our time, a radical, joyful practice that extends in three directions: to others, to our opponents, and to ourselves. It enjoins us to see no stranger but instead look at others and say: You are a part of me I do not yet know. Starting from that place of wonder, the world begins to change: It is a practice that can transform a relationship, a community, a culture, even a nation.”
Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society, Nicholas A. Christakis.
"Drawing on advances in social science, evolutionary biology, genetics, neuroscience, and network science, “Blueprint” attempts to show how and why evolution has placed us on a humane path — and how we are united by our common humanity."
The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World, Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu.
Love and Living 1979), Thomas Merton.
Jesus and the Disinherited (1976), Howard Thurman.
I and Thou (1958), Martin Buber.
The Courage to Be (1952), Paul Tillich (see “The Courage to Be” and “Joy, Anger, Polarity, and Transcendence”).
Revolutionary Love: A Political Manifesto to Heal and Transform the World, Michael Lerner.
“[. . .] offers a strategy to create the ‘Caring Society.’ Lerner details how a civilization infused with love could put an end to global poverty, homelessness, and hunger, while democratizing the economy, shifting to a twenty-eight-hour work week, and saving the life-support system of Earth. He asks that we develop the courage to stop listening to those who tell us that fundamental social transformation is ‘unrealistic.’
Podcasts
Valarie Kaur with Baratunde on "How to Citizen."
On the opening episode of his “How to Citizen” podcast, Baratunde conducts a remarkable interview with Valarie Kaur, author of See No Stranger. Kaur clearly articulates the spirit that drives the Systemopedia with her holistic worldview and her affirmation of mutual support for self-development. With her Revolutionary Love Project, Kaur’s addresses our relationships with ourselves as well as our relationship with others. She examines internal changes we must make to our minds and hearts as well as institutional reforms.
Reversing the Golden Rule | Jamil Zaki, Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris.
“In this episode we’re talking about how what you believe — about yourself, or about the world — can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. So if you believe the world is a cold and unforgiving place, it can become that way. And if you believe that you have limited capacities for kindness, you can, in effect, make it so.
Our guest is Jamil Zaki… a professor of psychology at Stanford University and the director of the Stanford Social Neuroscience Lab. He is a leading expert on empathy and the author of the book The War for Kindness.
Jamil discusses three levels of kindness: kindness toward ourselves, kindness in our close relationships, and kindness in our communities. He argues that starting with the self is critical, but also that the kinder we can make our communities, the kinder we will be ourselves. And the more we reorient ourselves to focus on the positive, the more we can create a self-fulfilling prophecy of kindness.
The Evolutionary Case for Kindness | Dacher Keltner, Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris.
“Here’s a question: Is there an evolutionary advantage to being kind? Our guest today is Dacher Keltner, an eminent scientist who will make the case that, contrary to popular conceptions of evolution (dog-eat-dog, survival of the fittest), and contrary to a lot of what we see on the news, our species is actually uniquely wired for kindness and compassion.”Greater Good Science Center