Annual Review 2023

Contents

1. Wisdom-Dialogues-Series-for-Understanding-Mind-and-Dealing-with-Emotions
2. Improved Communications Strategies
3. Growing Compassionate Hearts Conference 2023
4. Building Partnerships
5. UE Global Strategy
6. Impact All Over the World

We are absolutely delighted to share with you the many different ways our programs and resources impacted people’s lives in a positive way throughout 2023….

“Each of us must learn to work not just for his or her own self, family, or nation, but for the benefit of all humankind. Universal responsibility is the real key to human survival. It is the best foundation for world peace.”

—HH. the Dalai Lama, Honorary Patron of FDCW

1. Wisdom Dialogues Series for Understanding Mind and Dealing with Emotions

In 2023, we launched Wisdom Dialogues: Deepening our understanding of mind and emotions. This series builds upon last year’s 6 events on Compassion. The Wisdom Dialogues aims to deepen our understanding of the mind and offer strategies for transforming emotions. The Series featured 6 Dialogues:

1. Becoming Your Own Therapist with Ven Robina Courtin explains the importance of cultivating both wisdom as well as compassion. The first step is to gain some sort of control over the mind, at the very least making the determination each day not to harm anyone with our speech and actions. So, following ethical conduct is important.

2. The Nature of Mind with Martin Ström examines the nature of our mind and our experience of it, with strategies to help us understand more deeply how we perceive ourselves and our world. How we tend to exaggerate things and become upset easily. How we can manage that interaction better.

3. Weaving our View of the World with Kabir Saxena who courageously shared his challenges with depression and ways to investigate our mind, deepening our insights, and tapping into our innate goodness allowing a more peaceful, compassionate, wiser mind to flower.

4. Make Your Mind an Ocean with Ven Thubten Wangdu on how our repeated experiences of dissatisfaction and frustration do not have external conditions as their root cause, but all mental problems come from the mind. Therefore, if we aspire for true satisfaction in our lives we have to investigate and recognise the nature of our own mind and discover how our minds interpret reality.

5. Cultivating a Relaxed and Spacious Mind with Paula Chichester with practical advice on how to meditate including cultivating a loving attitude towards yourself and others.

6. Touching Our Inner Beauty with Ven René Feusi focusing on the attitude we have towards ourselves, the basic goodness that rests inside all of us and how to connect strongly with that goodness. He also speaks about the power of distraction and the technique of supporting yourself by rejoicing.

You can find the recordings of all 6 Wisdom Dialogues here.

2. Improved Communications Strategies

Matt McArthur and his team at Mindful Design have done impressive work in attracting new audiences. Website traffic has increased by 400% since 2022. SEO-optimised Articles that focus on one Guideline each month have proved effective. Our video content has proved really popular on both Facebook and YouTube. FDCW is also benefiting from Google Ads Grants providing free advertising for FDCW each month.

FDCW commissioned a new website with improved functionality and branding. The new website will feature success stories from around the world on how FDCW materials and facilitators are helping in schools, universities, hospices, health care, prisons, areas of conflict, refugees, etc. The website was successfully launched in May 2024.

3. Growing Compassionate Hearts Conference 2023

In October, FDCW convened a two-day online conference focused on teaching values and compassion to children and young people. It was a great success with highly skilled speakers sharing their methods from countries around the world. When we announced the Conference and requested proposals from our community we were inundated with responses. We were able to offer a very strong program of speakers including Pam Cayton, Ven Connie Miller, Andy Wistreich, Kabir Saxena and Raquel Mason. We curated a series of guided meditations for children with transcripts that were shared after the Conference.

You can find the recordings of all 4 sessions at the conference here.

4. Building Partnerships

FDCW partners with FPMT – a global organisation of 132 Buddhist meditation centres and charitable projects in 31 countries. By working alongside these Centres, FDCW has provided training, courses and resources at a local level resulting in direct, positive impact for children and adults.

The Chair of FDCW’s Board of Trustees, Oi Loon Lee, recently visited Akshay School in Bodhgaya, India to see how the 16 Guidelines program is helping children and teachers there (see photo above), read Oi Loon’s article here. For more heart-warming stories of what is happening around the world see section 6 below.

FDCW partners with a non-profit in Israel called Dreamers Home. 35 Dreamers Facilitators have been trained by FDCW and are making a strong impact with the 16 Guidelines program. The 16G program has been translated into Hebrew and Arabic.

Dreamers provides 16 Guidelines training in 10 schools in Netanya near Tel Aviv as well as patients in a Psychiatric Hospital close to Gaza. FDCW has been supporting Dreamers as the ongoing war creates trauma and suffering in Gaza and Israel. Dreamers is implementing a new initiative called 16 Guidelines in the Community for Societal Change and Healing Trauma in Israel. 

5. Universal Education (UE) Global Strategy

• Strengthening our community
• Investing in E-Learning
• Developing new partnerships
• Showcasing impact
• Financial sustainability

This provides a very clear direction for the growth over the next 5 years.

6. Impact All Over the World

Here is a snapshot of UE activities that happened around the world:

India

16 Guidelines courses are being offered in Tushita, Dharamsala with the course facilitator sharing:-

We had 133 people from many countries all over the world come together to discuss and reflect on common human values that we all share.

Akshay School and Maitreya School in Bodhgaya both provide 16 Guidelines for teachers and children. The 16 Guidelines book has been translated into Hindi.  

Mongolia

The 16 Guidelines book is available in Mongolian. Four Mongolian facilitators have been trained in the 16 Guidelines program. FDCW has entered into a partnership with FPMT Mongolia to expand the 16 Guidelines program to a national level.

Why am I involving 16G. It changed my mindset to see the life positive way. If I met 16G earlier I would not have so many regrets in my life.  

– Khongor Tsedendamba, 16G Facilitator

Australia

The Great Stupa of Universal Compassion provides 16 Guidelines materials to adults, seniors and children. Visitors watch a 16 Guidelines video and can take away a 16G practical challenge leaflet. These are the most popular leaflets at the Stupa. The Stupa attracts many thousands of visitors every year. Members of the Stupa team have taken 16 Guidelines training in Bendigo.

Buddha House in Adelaide has successfully worked with the Conversations That Matter resource commenting:-

Everyone has something to contribute and even the quietest will speak up when they feel safe and supported.

– Anette

The 16 Guidelines are being shared with families of patients at Karuna Hospice in Brisbane, Queensland and also form its statement of values. FDCW’s course Unlocking Your Potential was provided in Brisbane this year.  

Japan

The 16G book has been translated into Japanese because:-

Many people in Japan have a resistance to religion, but this book allows people who do not know much about religion to learn about the way of life without any resistance, and all the members liked it very much. The structure is perfect and easy to understand, and I think it is the best material for learning gradually in order.

—Mr Osamu, FPMT Japan

Netherlands

In September we met meditation centres in Amsterdam and Loenen to explore ways to support and nurture their secular programming.

Your help and encouragement were very helpful and practical. Which is exactly what we needed!

—Ven Norbu

Italy

The 16 Guidelines have been taught to school children, teenagers and university students for some years now in Verona. FDCW materials are being translated into Italian.

Ukraine

FDCW materials have been translated into Ukrainian and shared with volunteers working in shelters in Ukraine. This initiative is called Compassion and Wisdom in Ukraine. They report:-

Often when they are sitting in a bomb shelter during the siren, they do these meditation practices that I developed for them. It is simply extremely difficult to imagine how useful these meditations can be for their lives. But the Ukrainian psychotherapist, my correspondent, writes that he uses them in different groups, distributed them to 181 people and shared them with colleagues. According to his testimony in the short experience of the started use, there is a benefit.

Today more than 2,200 Ukrainians have learned the practices.

Germany

These practices have also been made available to Ukrainian refugees living in Germany. They report:-

“Despite the vastly varied demands and pressing problems of refugees, they feel that they receive tangible inner support as a result of the meetings and joint practices. People become more hopeful about the future.

The practices help people deal with the symptoms of PTSD, depression, panic and aggressive conditions. Multiple participants continue to transmit tools for self-regulation and calming oneself in difficult circumstances to their friends and loved ones who are also in life-threatening places and difficult living conditions. Two people from online courses join the team as facilitators and will participate in the next online course.

The group opened a mini-project “Children to Children”, in which children are engaged in joint creativity without the help of adults. This approach has shown excellent feedback from children and parents. Classes are held online and in person in Nuremberg by the initiative of a young artist (12 years old). In classes with teenagers, they use Sound Healing techniques. As a result of classes, parents say children sleep better and have improved concentration and a more relaxed attitude to their situation.”

Russia

A large group of students took 16 Guidelines training in 2022 and now have a Telegram group of over 100 trainees.

France

Weekly 16 Guidelines sessions were provided to a group of volunteers at Nalanda Monastery. Ready Set Happy a resource based on 16 Guidelines for children is being translated into French. Mabel Odessey facilitated a Compassionate Based Living course in Autumn 2023. Hilary McMichael offered a 16 Guidelines course in August at Vajra Yogini Institute.

UK

A 16 Guidelines-inspired course ran in Somerset with follow-up sessions taking place. A 16 Guidelines-inspired year-long program at a school in East Sussex took place.

FDCW courses run every year near Hexham in north England.

Spain

Weekly 16 Guidelines-inspired sessions have been provided online for over 2 years in Ontinyent. Monthly 16 Guidelines inspired meet-ups happen in Madrid and a 16 Guidelines course took place there in October.

Four FDCW-inspired workshops on impermanence and death took place in Spain in 2023; near Orgiva, in Granada, in Bilbao and in Madrid. A similar workshop took place in Alicante in January 2024. FDCW-inspired retreat for families took place in Girona during the summer.

Mexico

A school in Aguascalientes has been integrating 16G for 10 years and receives annual training for new and existing teachers. A FDCW facilitator is adapting a foundational course for University students in Mexico City.

Colombia

FDCW courses: Building Balance Empathy and Wisdom of Neuroscience were offered in Bogota.

Argentina

The 16 Guidelines are taught at a language school.

Venezuela

The 16 Guidelines and Yoga were taught to adult and children Venezuelan refugees in Colombia.

Brazil

FDCW works with a meditation centre to translate the 16 Guidelines book and Ready Set Happy resource into Portuguese.

USA

FDCW collaborated with the USA-based Empathy Center to offer the Empathy Summit in the summer.  Twice weekly online 16 Guidelines & Empathy Circles have been offered throughout the year. Pam Cayton, founder of Tara Redwood School and Creating Compassionate Cultures (a partner of FDCW) presented during the Growing Compassionate Hearts Conference. The Building Balanced Empathy course was offered in New Mexico during the summer.

Canada

The 16 Guidelines courses have been running for more than 15 years as part of Mindfulness at The University of Toronto. These have been so successful that the 16 Guidelines are now being offered as an independent course. The 16 Guidelines have also been adapted into Equine Therapy for adults and children.

We offer a huge thank you to all our benefactors, facilitators, trustees and community for the inspiring ways that they are helping to create a more compassionate world. As His Holiness said:-

With big love,
Victoria,
FDCW’s Executive Director