This volume grew out of a remarkable Contemplative Seminar on Practices of Compassion held in Hyderabad at the end of January 2016. The event was initiated by Lama Doboom Tulku, organized by World Buddhist Culture Trust and conducted by Professor M. Darrol Bryant. Unlike typical conferences, this event incorporated practices of compassion led by participants from their own spiritual practices. Each day began and ended in silence, the participants sat in silence, danced together, shared spiritual practices and learned from one another. Papers were written and circulated in advance. There was no reading of papers, but only discussion. It proved to be a deeply moving experience of practices of compassion for all the participants.

At the end of the seminar, there was a spontaneous conviction that this experience and exploration of compassion should be shared with a wider audience. There were contributions from Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Jain, Sikh, Jewish, and other spiritual streams. Later some additional contributions were invited as well.

The volume is a many-leafed flower exhibiting the rich diversity of practices of compassion found in the human family. It is also a testimony to the centrality of silence as the way to compassion. It is the journey within that manifests in actions without. It is not a conceptual journey but a journey of the heart.

Practices of Compassion: An Exploration and Experience; Edited by M. Darrol Bryant, Lama Doboom Tulku, and Yanni Maniates, Manohar, Hardcover, 282 pp, $35.00

M. Darrol Bryant, Ph.D., is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies and director of the Centre for Dialogue and Spirituality in World�s Religions at Renison College, University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. He is an internationally recognized scholar on interfaith dialogue and is the author of over a dozen books, including Exploring Unification Theology (coedited, 1978); The Future of Anglican Theology (1984); The Many Faces of Religion and Society (coedited, 1985); Essays on World Religion (coedited, 1995); and Interreligious Dialogue: Voice from a New Frontier (coedited, 1998). Professor Bryant has been a visiting scholar at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom; the Indian Institute of Islamic Studies, New Delhi; the Dr. S. Radhakrishnan Institute for Advanced Studies in Philosophy, University of Madras, India; Hamdard University, New Delhi, India; and Nairobi University, Kenya. He is a long-standing member of the Canadian Society for the Study of Religion, the American Academy of Religion, the Canadian Theological Society and the Royal Asiatic Society. He has served as a consultant to major international and interreligious conferences, including the Assembly of the World�s Religions.

H.E. Doboom Tulku Rinpoche served as the Director of Tibet House, New Delhi for three decades till 2011. As the Director of Tibet House, he pursued a millennium project of World Festival of Sacred Music which became a worldwide event with festivals at over a dozen venues in different continents. To contribute to Human Unity in this world which is the dream of H.H. the Dalai Lama for this century, H.E. Doboom Tulku was engaged in inter-religious and cross-cultural activities through art and culture, as the Founder Managing Trustee of World Buddhist Culture Trust until his Parinirvana on January 29, 2024. He was author/editor/compiler of books both in English and Tibetan and co-authored several academic works. Yanni Maniates, MS, CMI, is a spiritual mentor and consciousness pioneer who has been teaching Intuitive Development, Meditation, Healing, Hermetic Wisdom, Ancient Mystery School and Metaphysical subjects for 30 years. He has trained over a thousand people to successfully meditate and deeply develop their Intuition.

Yanni Maniates, MS, CMI, is a spiritual mentor and consciousness pioneer who has been teaching Intuitive Development, Meditation, Healing, Hermetic Wisdom, Ancient Mystery School and Metaphysical subjects for 30 years. He has trained over a thousand people to successfully meditate and deeply develop their Intuition.