Given the threats to the
world on many fronts, we have a keen sense that we need to find ways
to work past the classic divisions of “us” and “them.” How can we
find, in the differences that divide us, an appreciation for the
diversity of human experience? How can we find the deeper values we
all have in common, the fears and hopes that express what it is to
be fully human? With literature and stories, how might we imagine
ourselves in another’s life and find, in this creative empathy, ways
to bridge the great divides?
The Dalai Lama has said “Compassion is the radicalism of this age.”
Perhaps age-old animosities between cultures, stereotypes that
nurture deep-seated fear, and intolerance that encourages conflict
have become the norm—the way we think the world has always been, the
way it will always be. If so, then compassion is indeed radical, a
powerful moral force for fundamental change.
At the 2006 Sitka Symposium we want to explore the radical ground
that compassion has to offer.
Our faculty will bring Muslim,
Buddhist, Native American, Middle Eastern, and varied Western
perspectives to our discussions, encouraging us to open our minds
and hearts to diverse points of view.
We expect no easy answers, but want to collectively challenge
ourselves to move beyond the assumptions and boundaries that divide
us. We want to nourish the moral imagination that is at the heart of
compassion. We want to cultivate the courage for those individual
small loving acts that can uproot hopelessness and despair. We want
to understand how, in our own lives, we might work to shape a
different world. |
