You may recall a line from the Beatles’ song, Revolution: ‘We all want to change the world…’ Fifty-five years after the song’s release, Dr. Rick Hanson, the psychologist and dharma teacher, and his team have launched a new project to bring people together as part of a potent compassion revolution. The project is called The Global Compassion Coalition (GCC).
GCC’s Board of Directors includes Rick Hanson as President and Founder. Award-winning journalist and barrister Jennifer Nadel (co-editor of How Compassion Can Transform our Politics, Economy and Society) is the Executive Chair. Both work with fourteen other extremely committed board members who include academics, activists, physicians, researchers and authors.
GCC’s Advisory Council includes many people from the Buddhist community who are well-known to Secular Buddhist Network (SBN) participants – Jack Kornfield, James Baraz, Bante Buddharakkhita, Gaylon Ferguson, Thupten Jinpa, Sharon Salzberg and many others.
The GCC’s goal of creating a world based on compassion where people and nature are cared for, thrive, and prosper intersects directly with the SBN’s central intention of contributing to the promotion of flourishing and a reduction in suffering.
By harnessing the strength, wisdom and courage fueled by compassion, the GCC aims to inspire individuals, organisations and governments to act from a place of compassionate attunement, to attend to suffering and to build communities of care and belonging.
The GCC’s plans are very ambitious. The Coalition seeks to bring together millions of people from across the planet to work for a world based on compassion and justice. Suffering – poverty, inequality, climate crisis and discrimination in all its forms – are deep rooted and long-standing. The GCC is working to address these problems at their roots. By growing the size and diversity of the Coalition’s membership, the GCC is attempting to build an impactful movement for change.
The GCC offers a wide array of online events (talks, interviews, practices and panels) as well as The Heart of Compassion course, a research library, blog posts, and much more. Most importantly, it offers creative and empowering opportunities for individuals and organizations to engage in mutual support and synergy.
Guided by an ethical commitment to care, many SBN members are active in various forms of local, social and political engagement. For SBN members looking for additional venues of participations, the GCC offers specific areas of engagement that might be of interest.
In particular, the Compassion Connector project enables participants to bring belonging, recognition and support to the people within their local community. The GCC will provide training for Connectors to help them identify the actions needed to spread compassion where they live, work and play; as well, the GCC will support each Connector in building a network of peer Connectors for the biggest impact possible.
Anyone interested in participating can register at https://globalcompassioncoalition.org/compassion-connector/.
The GCC is also welcoming individuals and organizations to become Founding Supporters and Founding Organizations. Such synergistic relationships enable GCC to continue advancing its global work and reach, while the Founders gain access to the GCC platform to promote their individual projects or the work of their organizations. Founders become connected to the global community and can thus contribute further to the work of building a compassionate and just world. As additional support, they gain access to all GCC exclusive talks, debates and panels, as well as receive the latest news from the global compassion community.
To register as a Founder Member, please visit: https://globalcompassioncoalition.org/founding-supporters/
To register as a Founding Organization, please visit: https://globalcompassioncoalition.org/organizations/
As a registered non-profit organisation, donations are always welcomed to sustain the work of the GCC. Every donation, big and small, plants the seeds for creating a world with decreased suffering and enhanced flourishing. To donate to GCC, click here.
There have been many press releases about GCC, including a piece posted by Rick Hanson in the Chicago Tribune on April the 6th. You may find all such articles at https://globalcompassioncoalition.org/press/
Dear reader, I encourage you to spread the word about GCC, to share the links, to become a member, a Founder or a supporter of GCC’s mission in whichever capacity serves best. Let’s all work together to make this compassion revolution a transformative shared journey of, yes, saving the world and ensuring that indeed ‘it’s gonna be allright’! Thank you.
