For compassion, first you have to get outside of yourself. But then you have to figure out, how do you invite yourself along?
-Jeff Gill, Pastor
If I want to talk about compassion, I want to talk about the expansiveness of it. Interpersonally, yes, we can do a lot of bad things to each other. But if we can practice the methods of allowing the mind to expand, we can make a different decision.
-Lama Kathy Wesley
Com pass ion
Lama Kathy Wesley and Pastor Jeff Gill in the Octagon Earthworks, Newark Ohio. [Doug Swift]
About
the Pod cast
Can the Tibetan Buddhist practices of compassion be useful in a hostile modern world? Doug Swift spends a year with the KTC Buddhist Center in Columbus, Ohio. He tells the stories of Lama Kathy Wesley, neurologist Julie Brefczynksy-Lewis, therapist Bethany Dwinnel, and many others at the center, as they apply the practices to some of the biggest challenges in their lives. Swift turns the year-long project into an experiment for himself. What can these practices offer a journalist who looks at the problems of the world for a living? What are the results of the experiment? Scientific. Groundbreaking. Listen!
Mike Allen (top); a compassion wheel (top right); and a No Kings rally at the Columbus Courthouse, October 2025. [All photos by Doug Swift.]
