22nd Annual SITKA SYMPOSIUM 2006 -- July 16 - 22, 2006 in Sitka, Alaska

"RADICAL COMPASSION / ACROSS THE GREAT DIVIDES"

The Island Institute, Sitka, Alaska
PO Box 2420, Sitka, AK 99835  Phone  907.747.3794  Fax 907.747.6554 Email mailto:island@...  www.islandinstitutealaska.org

ABOUT THE 2006 SYMPOSIUM <http://home.gci.net/~island/sym_info.htm>

Given the threats to the world on many fronts, we have a keen sense that we need to find ways to work past the classic divisions of "us" and "them." How can we find, in the differences that divide us, an appreciation for the diversity of human experience? How can we find the deeper values we all have in common, the fears and hopes that express what it is to be fully human? With literature and stories, how might we imagine ourselves in another's life and find, in this creative empathy, ways to bridge the great divides?

The Dalai Lama has said "Compassion is the radicalism of this age." Perhaps age-old animosities between cultures, stereotypes that nurture deep-seated fear, and intolerance that encourages conflict have become the norm-the way we think the world has always been, the way it will always be. If so, then compassion is indeed radical, a powerful moral force for fundamental change.

At the 2006 Sitka Symposium we want to explore the radical ground that compassion has to offer. Our faculty <http://home.gci.net/~island/sym_faculty.htm>  will bring Muslim, Buddhist, Native American, Middle Eastern, and varied Western perspectives to our discussions, encouraging us to open our minds and hearts to diverse points of view.

We expect no easy answers, but want to collectively challenge ourselves to move beyond the assumptions and boundaries that divide us. We want to nourish the moral imagination that is at the heart of compassion. We want to cultivate the courage for those individual small loving acts that can uproot hopelessness and despair. We want to understand how, in our own lives, we might work to shape a different world.