A few days ago Dhammamegha had a chance to speak with River Wolton, a poet, activist, community worker, and Buddhist teacher. We will be publishing her new illustrated book The Subtle Art of Caring: A Guide to Sustaining Compassion in a few weeks. It is already available to pre-order now. Find out more about the book.
River’s book is based on the Buddha’s teachings of the Brahma Viharas or divine abodes. In this book, River looks again at these ancient teachings as a resource for sustaining compassion through cultivating the capacities of pausing, befriending, enjoying, caring, and letting be.
In the conversation, we found out a lot more about River’s life and practice and what led her to the approaches she took in this book. We spoke about curiosity, the dynamics of burnout and empathetic distress, joy, community, and the importance of rest and wise attention to sustain our activities of care and activism.