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Radical Compassion Challenge
April 26 to May 5, 2021
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DAY SIX

will be available Saturday, May 1.
"Widening Circles of Compassion"
Start Here
Start Here
Teaching and Guided Meditation with Tara Brach ​
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Today’s teaching session and guided meditation focus on widening our circles of compassion. We’ll explore an adaptation of Tibetan tonglen practice to extend your compassion to include your colleagues, neighbors, acquaintances, and those you meet in passing.

Today's "Compassion in Action" Challenge
Today's "Compassion in Action" Challenge
Tell Them You Care

Today your challenge is to extend compassion to someone you don’t know very well. We’d love to hear about your experience with this assignment in our Facebook community.

Watch Now
Watch Now
Valarie Kaur | "Revolutionary Love"

In this interview, Valarie Kaur shares her story as a Sikh American activist and mother and how it led her to the call of what she refers to as “revolutionary love.” “When we love others, opponents, and ourselves,” she explains, “that’s when love becomes revolutionary. And I believe that revolutionary love is the call of our times.”

Session highlights:

Valerie Kaur

Valarie Kaur is an activist, lawyer, filmmaker, and founder of the Revolutionary Love Project. She has won national acclaim for her story-based advocacy, helping to win policy change on issues from hate crimes to digital freedom. A daughter of Sikh farmers in California, she earned degrees at Stanford University, Harvard Divinity School, and Yale Law School. Valarie’s debut book, See No Stranger, expands on her popular TED Talk.

Questions for Reflection
Questions for Reflection
Answer the following reflection questions in the comment field below:
  • The future is dark—is it the darkness of the tomb, or of the womb?
  • Who have you not yet tried to love?
  • How do you breathe each day?
  • How do you push each day?
  • Charlespippi says:

    womb and tomb is getting caught up in a simple dualistic notion- When does birth occur? When does dead occur? Is dead of the body just that? There is only now-even if you are projecting “into the future” The old science of time and space is being totally re-defined right now- See David Hoffman- what is consciousness?

  • Judy Opalach says:

    Valarie was aptly named. Valerie mean strong, fierce, valient. She is spellbinding and such gift.

  • Brian says:

    There was a song by THE YOUNGBLOODS in the late sixties called “Get Together.” These lyrics are from it, “… if you hear the song I sing, you will understand__ you hold the key to love and fear in your trembling hand. Just one key unlocks them both, it’s there at your command. C’mon people now, smile on your bother, everybody get together, try to love one another right now.”

  • Mayabella says:

    I do not see the future as dark. The future are our children and it is they who hold the keys. I look to them to teach me and I hold my world in gentle hands to teach them.

    Loving white religious bigoted misogynists is difficult. I try to make space for them because I believe we all have the rights to our opinions but when they tear against my soft linings, I must turn away.

    Slow and steady. With much focus on my heart

    I walk my talk

  • Sarah says:

    The future may be dark—darkness of the womb, new life, promise, new beginnings, nurturing & of the tomb. There cannot be life without death.

  • Uma says:

    Thank you thank you thank you.
    I felt a transmission deep in my being from your talk, your being to mine.

    • Erin says:

      Yes…it was a profound and important experience. You just languaged what I felt but couldn’t put into words ♥️

  • Genevieve says:

    Valerie grew up in rich soil and her wisdom spoke to me personally. I could hear my Mother’s voice that love is all and to be generous and courageous. Valerie’s talk was an Inspiring urge to me to love more and to help create a better future when sometimes I despair for my Grandchildren. Thank you

  • Jackie says:

    My body tells me it is the womb, the womb of possibility, but what is possible is unknown.
    I have not tried to love the oil men. The dragons who sit smouldering on their piles of gold while the earth burns. Can I reach into their terror?
    I breath consciously and those times are when I am most alive.
    I push unconsciously. My warrior woman pushes.

  • Hillary says:

    I just listened to a video clip by Claire Zammit. She was talking about dealing with horrible situations like Valerie’s and discussed her perspective on healing. To paraphrase:
    Nobody else has the power to determine whether or not I get to be made whole.
    Process is 3 steps:
    1) what do I wish had been acknowledged (by the person(s) that hurt me.
    2) what action do I need to take to feel whole
    3) what did I learn from this situation that I can take forward in my life.

    I would add as a first step before these three Valerie’ s two steps of feeling the rage in a safe container and wondering with open curiosity about the harmful person or situation.

    Serendipitous that I listened to Claire right after Valerie! The universe works in miraculous ways.

    Just had to share this!

  • Jeff says:

    Love
    Dissolves

  • Joanne says:

    When I see injustice unfairness at my work …. I get angry and sad. Often I quickly start to get down on myself for feeling angry. And I get scared the feelings may add to the problem which sometjmes they do. Valerie’s talk beautifully described how to honor the feelings in a safe vessel- look after ourself so that we can find the best loving way to respond. I love that Valerie reminded us the fight against injustice has ragged for ever and the battle may never be totally won, but our calling is to stay mindful and keep finding ways to act with loving intention.

  • Lawrence says:

    Valerie is an old soul in a young body. Such grace, courage and wisdom. Her story about forgiveness for the killer moved me deeply. Martin Luther King said “forgiveness is not an occasional act, but a permanent attitude”. May we strive to work together for the greater good and justice. Namaste!

    • Erin says:

      Experiencing this interview also brought to mind for me MLK🌺

    • Leslie says:

      Thank you for the MLK quote. I have been struggling with what forgiveness means to me. I recently felt like it was a certain state of being. ” A permanent attitude ” is even better. When I say, “forgiveness is a permanent attitude” I feel it. I feel love, acceptance and understanding.

    • Carol Browning says:

      Agree with you. She is an old soul in a young body. Her son throws a tantrum; rage is a price of love. We need to know all the emotions. We do need to go to the places where the world needs us. We need to step out of our comfort zone, and realize these people are our friends!

  • Leah Ruekberg says:

    Valerie really challenged me to STOP being a bystander! I’ve hidden behind the defense that I’m an “empath” and I’m easily overwhelmed when there is conflict. I feel like giving up when the bullies come on with their macho bravado. As Rumi said, this is caravan of love. Love can be fierce, and I can be fierce when standing up for justice with love. Today, when a relative, whom I love, posted a snarky remark on Facebook about a woman in Iran who was sentenced to 38 years in prison and many lashes for speaking out against injustice, I responded with heartbreak and solidarity with the woman in Iran, and also the women in the USA who fight for justice. I feel empowered to be part of this Power with Love movement. I’m grateful to Tara, Valerie, and Sounds True for this challenge.

  • Paula says:

    I wish the world would listen to this.
    Thank you

  • Ed says:

    Valarie Kaur has a wonderful spirit, and message. I do not agree with her characterization of President Trump. Enforcing our laws is not unloving. Demonizing those with whom one disagrees is not loving.

  • Sidonie says:

    Strange, my comments have disappeared again!!! What’s wrong???

  • Markus Hohmann says:

    Wonderful!
    What a powerhouse of inspiration and Love!
    Thank you!

  • joie says:

    1. I have to hold on to the hope that it is the darkness of the womb, though it looks like the darkness of the tomb.
    2. I have not tried to love Mitch McConnell or his crowd.
    3 I sit on my porch each morning and breath in the beauty of my life.
    4. I push myself to get out there, visit the sick in the hospital, go to the jail, reach out to the addicted, and acknowledge and sometimes feed the homeless.

  • Greg says:

    This calls for viewing again.

  • Robin Farrin says:

    It was so great to hear Valerie address revolutionary love. I heard her TED talk over a year ago and shared it with so many of my loved ones and friends. Thank you 🙏

  • R says:

    One of my favorite sessions of the challenge. Ms. Kaur is such an inspiration to warrior women everywhere!

  • Antoinette Antoine says:

    I am DEEPLY grateful for this Immensely powerful teaching and learning. Words are insufficient to express my gratitude. My body feels the fullness of this revolutionary love in my heart and chest. Here in South Africa we have much work still to do, each and every one of us, to really see each other and actively love each other, and then to extend that beyond all borders – to recognise and honour our connection with all beings on the planet. . I feel blessed by the in inspiration and encouragement to be both a warrior and a sage.

  • Jane says:

    Transformative. Thank you. So so much throughout. I’ve listened to many many of Tara’s talks I’ve the past 4 years (healing, many many rounds) and this series is on another level. It’s all interwoven so intricately and powerfully. I think that this is a powerful, powerful structure. My big messy heart thanks you. It’s uncanny (or maybe not) but my ‘wise-woman’ showed up early this week. Clearer and stronger than I have ever encountered her. She is holding me and guiding me as I hold and nurture (and at times run from, get angry, impatient, afraid of…) my wounded 11 year old self (she’s just shown up recently too). She is angry, distraught – a tangle of rage and defiance. I am sitting with her until she trusts enough to… who knows…that ultimately will be up to her. But I will stay. And I have company, my higher self, my wise-woman. Someone I know who so totally has my back! And now I can deepen this relationship with her in ways I hadn’t thought possible (or sane if I’m honest!). Thank you Tara and Valarie (and your wise wonderful ancestor(‘s) wisdom) from the bottom of my being. It’s so helpful to hear too others experience of their inner-world in this way – alive, dynamic totally embodied, not ‘just’ an active imaging. And now, after Valarie’s talk (call to action), some maps to pathways from inner to outer world. Straddling both. Taking information and wisdom from both. Showing up for ourselves and our world’s trauma wounds. Truly transformative, radical and revolutionary. So so clear to me now. After a very very long time looking at this spot, ‘ping’ I got it. Wonder-full. Deep deep gratitude warrior souls 🌱🌱🌱

  • Mikaela says:

    – The darkness is a womb
    – I have not tried to love people who have not opened up to me
    – Each day I take pauses to breathe deeper and feel the breath in my body
    – Each day I find areas where I can break from comfort zone’s boundary to expand a bit further to be more open to myself, others, and in movement towards my dreams.

  • Sharon says:

    Very powerful and inspiring! Clear actionable steps to move toward peace. With gratitude for the teachings and the love✌️❤️

  • Suzy Morrison says:

    The future contains darkness (and light).
    Is it tomb or womb?
    Depends.
    ‘We died and were reborn
    And then mysteriously saved’.
    So said Bob Dylan
    I like that
    I breathe
    And show up
    For love

  • Elaine says:

    Two words…Love Valarie!❤️

  • Vlad says:

    There is only the Now. Eternal, luminous, full of Love.
    I haven’t yet tried to love sex.
    So Hum
    I am enough.
    You are enough.
    We are enough.
    I am prior to every experience.
    The mind is in me.
    The body is in me.
    The world is in me.
    I am The Self.
    I am everything.
    Sri Ram Jai Ram Jai Jai Ram
    Aham Prema
    Karuna Hum
    May I be happy. May I be safe. May all beings be happy. May all beings be free of suffering. May all who are afflicted like this rejoice in the merits of this good deed.

  • Marsha says:

    wow- I’m speechless

  • Lizzy says:

    The womb
    My last husband
    In and out
    I don’t know what that means

  • Gordon says:

    Wonderful, inspiring, thank you valarie for your wisdom, commitment & joy. Made my heart weep & sing. 2020…..so if not now….when?

  • Sandra says:

    I breath each day with the understanding that I am a part of a whole, and in that strength, I push myself to act out of love and I invite others to realize their own importance in the world as I honor mine.

  • Sandra Cabeçadas says:

    Thank you. I have no other words.

  • Esperanza Suarez says:

    So much warrior power is transmitted by Valerie, and I do believe we are in a period of darkness but of the womb, where love is being seeded and will be harvested!

  • C says:

    Thank you. Insightful session. Thought provoking. Show up to labor with love and be mindful to protect joy!

  • Pat says:

    These daily presentations are being watched/experienced by many people. So this makes me hopeful we are seeing the darkness of the womb. Personal comment – The presentations are already life changing for me. Thank you with all my heart.

  • Michael says:

    Both
    Myself
    Deeply
    Pathetically

  • Cari says:

    Tears…finding love

  • Nancy says:

    Thank you Tara for today’s meditation. I now have a tool to help me move beyond the empathy that sometimes overwhelms me.
    Still stumbling towards equanimity.
    Blessings to you!

  • Dyane says:

    I have read the traduction in french many times because it speaks so much to me! I have had always problem with this feeling of anger . Also when I was meditate with a zen , group, there seem to be an opposition between personal change and social change : for me, it goes together !

  • John H says:

    Maybe it is the tomb of auto pilot and the womb of awake awareness? 3 names come to mind where I have struggled to love. I notice my own regret for a number that high, and yet there it is. It is from that perspective (and other perspectives) that I continue the practice of love. My breath needs practice as does my push. I especially appreciated hearing that we each have a role and can be in that role. Namaste

  • Eve says:

    I am so new to so much and I want to learn to find the better me. I feel younger in years and wisdom than Valarie’s 4 year old son.( I am not 5 ) I cried so many times during this amazing interview. Tears of awakening, tears of joy and pain, tears of knowledge, tears of a warrior for today’s world. I didn’t even know I could say,”yes”! ….. that much. How many questions can be answered in one interview!? I now have a pathway given to me to learn much. A pathway not only to help me but for others to transverse through these very stressful and terrifying times. I now have hope , where I had very little. Thank you , Tara , for bringing all these lessons to me….especially, Valarie’s. I am gratefully overwhelmed with hope. Valarie, you are my wise woman’s voice inside my head today. 🙏🏼❤️ I believe, The Grinch said, “ he could feel his heart grown 10x bigger inside his chest”. I get that now. Odd quote but a perfect one too.

  • Mike J-R says:

    Thank you for these inspiring interviews. Valerie Kaur’s call to action is problematic, though, because in this state of the world, many of us are the ones with the boots to our necks. We have not “abandoned our posts” to be led back to the fight; we’re losing the fight. People can’t, for a variety of reasons, even rise to metaphoric activism, so she leaves those people with empty guilt. It’s just as important to remember that one isn’t a bystander when one has the boot on his or her neck. I am not saying this to be a gadly, but rather to point out that this “warrior” stuff doesn’t work for most people, and it can be just as disenfranchising and debilitating.

    • Mike J-R says:

      To help provide a little more context, here is an article from “The Sunday Paper,” published by one of your other great interviewees, Maria Shriver:https://www.weareageist.com/wellness/health/being-lazy-thats-good-the-rationale-for-doing-nothing. The boot on many people’s neck is found here.

      • Peter says:

        Dear Mike J-R,
        Even halfway round the world I hear and sense the pain in your posting. I extend my love for you and all under that oppression.
        May you find love and respect in your heart and in the end empower you to cast away what ever stands between you and joy for life and yourself.

    • Shelley says:

      Hi Mike, I see this call to action not for those with the ‘boot on their neck’ but for those who are in a position to rise to help them. When you are in that position I don’t believe you can, and that you are not a bystander but others are and can find that warrior in them to find the actions to help all rise in a fierce but loving way . I hope that makes sense .

    • Ramona says:

      Mike J-R, Valarie actually speaks about the problem you mention. When being beaten up, the victim’s job, she says, is “to survive, to take the next breath….to breathe, to push, to let in love (from supporters) … to process grief and rage. And in the meantime, their act of love is to let others do that labour of reaching out.” Tending to our own wounds is a critical part of being a wise warrior. There’s no shame, no “empty guilt,” no abandoning any post; rather, there’s getting support from others (perhaps suffering as well), honouring where we are at. Yes, and it is hard and we keep on.

    • Charlotte says:

      Thank you so much for this. It rings true.

      • Ramona says:

        Hi Charlotte,
        I have suffered with C-PTSD most of my life and, with more recent triggering events, have been dealing with it actively for the past couple of years. One outlet is my journal. Thing is, it’s been hard not to feel shame and guilt for expressing so much negativity in my writing, like I am “even more bad and wrong” for doing so (as though I am bad and wrong to begin with). Valarie has helped me to re-frame the anger and hurt I’ve put down on paper. It’s all part of the processing of the pain. The day will come when I’ll be ready to destroy the journals. That’ll be part of the healing as well, I think. It really is all so hard. Just got to keep hanging in there. One of these days I will have my wise inner warrior woman write in such a way as to help others going through their own fiery pain. In the meantime, I need to be patient and gentle with myself. Much more patience and gentleness for ourselves and each other would be a good idea, I think.

    • Erin says:

      I hear you Mike. I do also, often feel unable to act on these issues in ways people like Valarie can. But you know what I find helps shift that guilt…just working on myself. If everyone just could do that… the world would change over night. Give yourself the gift of letting that action or work be enough. Nobody else needs to even see you do it… but I bet you they will feel it. The universe will feel it. ♥️

    • Linda says:

      Mike, you are right when you say “that one isn’t a bystander when one has the bot on his or her neck” but I don’t hear Valerie saying that at all. I hear her say that the bystander is the one WATCHING another’s neck being stepped on and doing nothing but STANDING BY and watching. We bystanders are the ones called to be warriors and to stand up for the one whose neck has a boot on it. STAND UP, not STAND BY..

  • Niedja Suelly Souza Tenório says:

    Unfortunately many people I would like to love I did not try yet. However, I hope deeply I will change my practice. Theoretically love is easy, On practical life is not so easy.
    Depending on the circumstances I am through I will breathe deeply or not. I think a challenge for me is on stressful situation come down myself through RAIN technique for example. I wish putting in practice all knowledge I have on this marvelous course.
    In the past was worse, nowadays it is easier due the great help I have been receiving from my family and friends.

  • Mary says:

    So much I want to take Valerie’s message and PUT it out there. I am a believer that people have their head in the sand. How can we hear these stories and stay silent. I am in a sad rage.

  • Leslie says:

    Amazing, the message from Valarie touched me profoundly. Thank you.

  • mana says:

    wow. blessings.. I am profoundly…affected by this. I do not understand how people can be so cruel.

  • Michael says:

    The future is both from the tomb and the womb. It’s up to us to see and acknowledge that. Is the darkness that of doom, gloom and tomb? Or is it the promise, expectation and joy of the womb?
    It’s both. It’s cyclical in that the wheel of life presents us daily with change. Without change, time would stop. The ability to see womb and tomb as a continuum is balance, equanimity and our guide. Every day we are presented with these choices: doom or joy. Both are present in the future. But it’s because the future is unknown (the dark) that we’re obligated to chose, as a person, as a culture, as a species what it will hold.

  • Tomi says:

    This was so powerful. What a gift. I am moved to tears by so much wisdom in such a young woman. The little critic in me came out in full force, I am not enough, not doing enough, not contributing. Then, my wiser self saying you are here. You’ve shown up over and over to understand your pain and transform it, so that you are whole and solid enough, to be a loving presence, to not be complicit in silence.
    There is much food for thought and action in this brief interview. Thank you.

    • Valentin says:

      Wow thank you, this really touched me. It takes time to really dig deep enough to transform pain and I also sometimes feel like it’s taking a lot of time. But I think there is no alternative.

    • Leslie says:

      Thank you Tomikas
      I love your wise woman stepping in with truth. How wonderful to be open to the voice of that! And you expressed feelings that I have about myself in the face of a warrior for love. This whole course has been such an inspiration. I appreciate myself for signing on…And for you signing on!

  • Helena says:

    Hi. I live in London and the page which is normally available first thing in the morning wasn’t today. Is it possible to have it available at 5am Uk time the next few days ? Otherwise it’s difficult to do the full challenge throughout the day. As it is I have to listen to the speakers in parts. Thanks so much. Its wonderful you can offer this for free. Best, Helena

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