Sunday Brunch - Insights, Wisdoms & Learnings from a Global Compassion Community

Insights, wisdoms and learnings from a global compassion community

You are invited to join us for a Sunday brunch with Narrative Practitioner and Counsellor, Leanne Levinge from Big Hill & Oyster.

Freshly returned from the Mind & Life Institute's immersive, week-long residential 2024 Summer Research Institute program in New York, Leanne will be offering insights, wisdoms, and learnings of the global community of participants on this year's theme: Awakening compassion in times of division: Breaking and coming together.

There seems to be increasing polarisation at every level of our lives - personal, community, social, and global. What might we be able to do - individually and as a community - to awaken compassion? 

Join us for quiet reflections, compassionate conversations, shared activities, and a delicious brunch as Leanne guides us through this question. Please indicate if you have any dietary requirements when you purchase your tickets. (There will be a question to answer just after the checkout process - thanks!)

To understand a little more about about the program at the 2024 Mind & Life Summer Research Institute (SRI) that Leanne will be attending and speaking about over brunch, read below.

"We’ve never been more connected and yet so divided. Just as technology brings us closer together, we are increasingly polarized, finding affirmation in online echo chambers rather than seeking common ground. Loneliness and isolation are fueling a global mental health crisis just as climate emergencies hasten hunger and the mass displacement of people. And if this weren’t enough, violence, extremism, and armed conflict are on the rise, resulting in untold suffering and loss of life. Quoting the sage singer, Marvin Gaye, “We’ve got to find a way, to bring some love in here today.” More precisely, we have to find ways to cultivate and amplify compassion to bridge these seemingly intractable divides. The enormity of what we face requires us to come together—to recognize and lean into the reality of our interconnection. 

The 2024 Mind & Life Summer Research Institute (SRI) will shine a light on compassion through convening researchers and humanists, nonprofit professionals, monastics and contemplative practitioners, activists, and concerned citizens interested in this topic. 

We will lay the foundation on Day 1, with an exploration of the meaning and boundaries of compassion. What is compassion and how is it distinct from other positive emotions and proximal enemies such as pity? 

With this understanding, on Day 2, we will explore research on how to cultivate the soil from which compassion may grow. What factors make it more likely that compassion will emerge, especially amidst difficult circumstances and great suffering? What presents barriers to compassion? 

On Day 3, we will discuss what it takes to bridge the mind and heart. What do we know about the interplay between cognition and emotion towards the cultivation of compassion? 

To expand the discussion beyond individual experience and interpersonal relationships, on Day 4, we will learn how compassion is being leveraged to promote action related to incarceration, immigration, and the climate crisis. 

And on Day 5, we will focus on how to cultivate compassionate communities.

The conversation will blend perspectives from the sciences, humanities, contemplative practice, and social impact programs on the ground. Moreover, we will take the discussion of compassion beyond the individual realm, examining how we can foster greater compassion between people and within groups, communities, and society as a whole. 

What would the world look like if we were to nurture compassion—from the inside out—in service of the common good and a world that embraces all?

Leanne is excited to be heading over to the USA to take part in this amazing week-long program, and she is very much looking forward to sharing her insights, wisdom and learnings from this global compassion community.

Come and join the conversation with Leanne Levinge from Big Hill & Oyster at the BrisWest Centre in Paddington!

Your Venue - the BrisWest Centre in Paddington, 132 Latrobe Terrace