FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
THUPTEN JINPA PHD BEGINS PACIFIC NORTHWEST TOUR IN PORTLAND MAY 9
Bringing Together New Research and Contemplations from Decades at the Dalai Lama’s Side to Reveal Insights into Compassion
PORTLAND, Oregon, USA, May 4, 2015.
A Fearless Heart: How Cultivating the Courage to Be Compassionate Can Transform Our Lives (Penguin Random House) will be released May 5 and is sure to become a bestseller. Its author is Thupten Jinpa, Ph.D., a highly acclaimed scholar, researcher, and the longtime English translator for the Dalai Lama. Jinpa begins a Pacific Northwest speaking tour, organized by Maitripa College, on Saturday with two public events in Portland before moving on to Eugene and Seattle. Jinpa will present “Fearlessness and Compassion: Cultivating the courage to Transform Our Lives and Our World” on Saturday, May 9 (2-5pm, at Kaul Auditorium, Reed College, tickets atwww.maitripa.org), and a “A Life of Translating Mindfulness and Compassion from Tibet to the West,” followed by a book signing, Tuesday, May 12 at Maitripa College (7:30 – 9pm, $10, 1119 SE Market Street). For more public event information, go to www.maitripa.org.
These days it is easy to look at the headlines – allegations of political corruption in Oregon, police shooting at unarmed black men, rioters in Baltimore – and wonder: what is deeply wrong? Nationally, a conversation is emerging about positive character formation. A study published in the Journal of Business Ethics (2014) concluded, based on experiments at the Stanford School of Medicine’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE), that there is a relationship between a competitive and hierarchical worldview and a fear of compassion for and from others; that is, the more one seeks positions of power and dominance, the less likely we are to display behaviors that recognize another’s suffering, let alone empathize with and seek to do something about that suffering. Judging from David Brooks’ The Road to Character (Random House) listing at #2 in New York Times Bestsellers this week, we are hungry for not just political change, but real strategies for transforming lives for the better. Into this conversation, Jinpa offers a unique insight: we all have an innate instinct for compassion, and we can overcome fear of it to cultivate self-compassion and compassion for others that transforms lives.
Jinpa is the lead designer of Compassion Cultivation Training, studied and developed at CCARE. The results, woven throughout A Fearless Heart with practical exercises and inspiring anecdotes, show that compassion is not merely something for the rare Dalai Lamas and Desmond Tutus of humanity, but within reach of all of us, for profoundly beneficial impact.
Ticket Information
“Fearlessness and Compassion: Cultivating the courage to Transform Our Lives and Our World” with Thupten Jinpa, Ph.D.,
Saturday, May 9, 2015, 2-5pm
Kaul Auditorium, Reed College
3203 SE Woodstock Blvd., Portland, OR, 97202
$20 General Admission; $75 VIP
Available at www.maitripa.org
“A Life of Translating Mindfulness and Compassion from Tibet to the West,” and book signing Tuesday, May 12, 2015, 7:30 – 9 pm
Maitripa College
1119 SE Market Street, Portland, OR, 97214
$10 General Admission
Available at www.maitripa.org
About the Speaker
Thupten Jinpa, Ph.D., is a former monk and holds a Ph.D. from Cambridge University, where he also worked as a research fellow. Jinpa has been the principal English translator to His Holiness the Dalai Lama for nearly three decades and has translated and edited numerous books for the Dalai Lama, including the New York Times Bestseller Ethics for the New Millennium,Beyond Religion, and Transforming the Mind. Jinpa is an adjunct professor at the Faculty of Religious Studies at McGill University, Montreal and Chairman of the Mind and Life Institute, which is dedicated to promoting dialogues and collaborations between the sciences and contemplative knowledge, especially Buddhism.
About Maitripa College
Maitripa College is the first and only Tibetan Buddhist College in the Pacific Northwest, established in Portland, OR, in 2006, under the direction of its President, Yangsi Rinpoche. Maitripa is pioneering holistic, contemplative graduate education integrating scholarship, meditation, and service in its Master of Arts in Buddhist Studies (MA) and Master of Divinity (MDiv) degree programs. Maitripa also offers training in classical Tibetan language and continuing education courses, introductory classes in Buddhism, retreats and workshops with visiting lamas and scholars, and weekly public Dharma teachings and prayer services in the Jokhang Meditation Hall. For more information go to www.maitripa.org.
Media Contacts
For more event information, advance arrangements to attend private events, or to schedule an interview, please contact
Leigh Miller
Maitripa College
(503) 235-2477 or (503) 939-7745 (mobile)
program@maitripa.org
Tiffany Patrella Blumenthal
Maitripa College
(503) 235-2477
studentservices@maitripa.org
Louisa Farrar
Publicist, Penguin Random House Books
(212) 366- 2255
lfarrar@penguinrandomhouse.com
