The Grace of Bodhisattvas

In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, Sensei Dainin interweaves personal story, Buddhist teaching, and contemporary challenges to show how the Bodhisattva vow can be lived — and is urgently needed — in our times. She shares how her understanding of compassion shifted through practice, from a fixed character trait to something that can be cultivated and allowed to emerge. “In order to make compassion possible,” she explains, “we need to have a stable and relaxed nervous system that is open to perceive reality in a way that is completely inclusive.” By training the elements of our awareness, we increase the conditions for compassion to arise spontaneously. Sensei Dainin introduces Roshi Joan’s G.R.A.C.E. model — Gather attention, Recall intention, Attune to self and others, Consider what will serve, and Engage and End — as a practical, universal framework for compassion in action. She closes with a moving story from the Nomads Clinic in Nepal, where G.R.A.C.E. became a guide for perseverance: once we have done our best, we can pause, breathe, and try one more time.