Compassion is Healing

Healing Practices: Stories from Himalayan Americans highlights that the sharing of personal stories within a community has the power to heal. To celebrate the final weekend of this exhibition centered on diverse practices of well-being, community advisory group members Geshe Tashi and Chime Dolma join author and photographer Ginger Chih for an on-stage photo-talk to explore the power of photography as a vehicle for compassionate storytelling.

Before the talk begins at 7:00 PM in the theater, ticket holders will have access to a pre-program tour of Healing Practices: Stories from Himalayan Americans led by Rubin Museum educators Tenzin Gelek and Tashi Chodron. Programming in the theater includes a meditative chant led by Geshe Tashi and a Q&A after the talk.

Immediately following the program in the K2 Lounge, Ginger Chih will sign copies of her new book The Dalai Lama: Leadership and the Power of Compassion, ($35, Members $31.50) which, in view of the global pandemic, shows how vital leadership informed by compassion and selflessness could become in the 21st century.

This program is hosted by Tashi Chodron, Himalayan Cultural Programs and Partnerships, Rubin Museum of Art, and followed by a Q&A.

About the speakers

Ginger Chih is the author of The Dalai Lama: Leadership and the Power of Compassion and has been documenting her worldwide travels in words and images for over four decades. At the age of three, her family fled China, settling in Japan, then the United States. Ginger holds an MBA from New York University and a PhD from Cambridge University and worked as a management consultant. As a Buddhist, she found that integrating the teachings of the Dalai Lama into leadership consulting resulted in more harmonious workplace relationships.

Geshe Tashi Dorje is the director of the Center for Universal Peace in New York. He was born in a remote village on the border of Tibet and Nepal. In 1989 he joined Sera Mey Monastic University in South India. In 1991 he received the Getsul (Samsrana) ordination blessing from His Eminence Kachen Lobsang Soepa, former abbot of Tashi Lhunpo Monastery, and in 1993 he received Bikshu (Gelong) Ordination Blessing from His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. Ten years later he was awarded the Rigchung degree upon completion of the perfection of wisdom course. In September 2005 he was appointed to be the Chant Master, the third-highest ranking official of Sera Mey Monastery. Among his many additional honors, he received a doctorate in Buddhism, concentrating in the Five Major Texts from His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. In the United States Geshe la teaches dharma and the Tibetan language to both Tibetans and Westerners.

He has also performed ritual chantings at Carnegie hall, attended the interfaith breakfast with the Mayor of New York City, and participated in the Buddha’s birthday celebration at the United Nations.

Chime Dolma is the co-founder and president of YindaYin Coaching, which is a non-profit education organization that aspires to revolutionize education in immigrant communities in New York City. Chime is professionally an educator and currently works as the Assistant Director of Service Learning and a History Teacher at Riverdale Country School. Chime recently joined the Rubin Museum of Art as a member of the Advisory Council. Chime holds a MA in International Educational Development from Teachers College, Columbia University; she received her BA from Middlebury College with a double major in Political Science and Chinese Language.

འཆི་མེད་སྒྲོལ་མ་ལགས་ནི་ད་ལྟར་ནིའུ་ཡོག་ཏུ་རྟེན་གཞི་བྱེད་པའི་ཡིན་དང་ཡིན་ཤེས་ཡོན་བསྟི་གནས་ཁང་ཐོག་མ་གསར་འཛུགས་གནང་མཁན་དང་། དེའི་འགན་འཛིན་ཡིན། ཡིན་དང་ཡིན་ཤེས་ཡོན་བསྟི་གནས་ཁང་ནི་ནིའུ་ཡོག་གྲོང་ཁྱེར་ནང་གི་ཕྱི་མི་ཚོའི་གཞོན་སྐྱེས་རྣམས་ལ་ཤེས་ཡོན་ཐོག་མཐུན་སྦྱོར་བྱེད་མཁན་གྱི་ཁེ་ཕན་མེད་པའི་ཚོགས་པ་ཞིག་ཡིན། ཁོ་མོ་ནི་ཤེས་ཡོན་པ་ཞིག་ཡིན་ཞིང་། ད་ལྟར་རི་ཝར་ཌལ་སློབ་གྲྭའི་ཤེས་ཡོན་ཞབས་ཞུ་ཚན་པའི་འགན་འཛིན་གཞོན་པ་དང་། རྒྱལ་རབས་དགེ་རྒན་གནང་བཞིན་པ་དང་། ཡིན་དང་ཡིན་དུ་ཤེས་ཡོན་ལས་གཞི་ཁག་ལ་འགན་འཁུར་གནང་གིན་ཡོད།ཁོང་ནི་སྙན་གྲགས་ཆེ་བའི་ཁོ་ལུམ་བྷི་ཡའི་གཙུག་ལག་སློབ་གཉེར་ཁང་ནས་རྒྱལ་སྤྱིའི་ཤེས་ཡོན་འཕེལ་རྒྱས་ཐོག་ཞིབ་འཇུག་སློབ་མའི་སློབ་གཉེར་གནང་ཡོད་པ་དང་། མི་ཌལ་བྷ་རི་མཐོ་སློབ་ནས་ཆབ་སྲིད་རིག་པ་དང་། རྒྱ་ཡིག་ཐོག་གཙུག་ལག་རབ་བྱམས་པའི་སློབ་གཉེར་གནང་ཡོད།

Major support for Healing Practices: Stories from Himalayan Americans is provided by The Prospect Hill Foundation as well as by generous donations from the Museum’s Board of Trustees, individual donors, and members.

Public support of the Rubin Museum of Art is provided by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

HHDL Meditating Image Credit: Ginger Chih