Drepung Gomang Center for Engaging Compassion

What does it feel like when you engage in a "random act of kindness"? What happens inside you when you reach out to someone with compassion? Can you FEEL it?

We humans are innately compassionate. But as we grow, navigate life, or focus elsewhere, that natural compassion for others outside our family and friends can get a bit dusty.

DGCEC provides the tools for learning to expand this compassion. YOUR DONATION helps us empower others with engaged compassion and other universal human values including nonviolence, tolerance, generosity and interfaith understanding.

The more we see others "do good" - whether big or small - the more likely we will extend loving-kindness and compassion ourselves. This mirroring effect is well-documented by the Science of Compassion and contemporary neuroscience.

DGCEC is always attentive to "Keeping Louisville Compassionate". We are both in-person and via Zoom. 

Dharma practitioners or seekers find support in weekly Tibetan Buddhist Teachings, rituals and meditation sessions with Geshe Rapgyal, our resident monks, visitors from Drepung Gomang Monastery in India, and internationally recognized teachers. You might also be interested in a personal retreat in our quiet retreat rooms.

Classes, workshops, and programs offered in our Compassion Education Center (not religious focused) provide the input for applying universal human values to our everyday lives. We invite you to connect and learn more about growing innate compassion, finding a calm center through meditation, expanding your nonviolent communication skills, and exploring just how interconnected we are.

Can you help us provide these great compassion-building opportunities?

Tibetan Buddhist Dharma Teachings, Rituals, and Community Meditation embody the philosophy of engaged altruism and compassion for those interested in Buddhism. Our spiritual teacher, Geshe Rapgyal, offers teachings and prayer many times a week. This year we are honored to host H.E. Kundeling Tatsak Rinpoche, Gerardo Abboud, Sharon Salzberg, and Khen Rinpoche Geshe Jigme Gyatso.

Compassion Cultivation Training is an internationally recognized eight-week process based on the emerging Science of Compassion and ancient teachings which helps us to reshape our internal "broken records" into open hearts and more compassionate daily actions.

Mindfulness Meditation classes come in a variety of styles for overcoming stress and living more mindfully and more fully. We have many classes this Fall.

Nonviolent Compassionate Communication programs share tools for building healthy relationships, understanding one's own needs, and expanding understanding about avoiding harming others.

Louisville Engaging Nonviolence Symposium: Empowered Young Leaders is an interactive day-long program that communicates the possibilities of nonviolent action for high school students from around the region. We offer this inspiring opportunity for free at least twice a year. Our partner this Fall is Chestnut Street Y. Information: DrepungGomangCompassion@gmail.com.

Louisville's Arms of Compassion calls together our community to stand in solidarity with families who have lost loved ones to murder, and to recommit to nonviolence in thoughts, words and actions. We meet most Fridays at Noon via Zoom. Info: LouisvilleArmsOfCompassion@gmail.com.

Twelve Days Toward Peace (September 21 - October 2), DGCEC's project that is now in its ninth year, provides diverse opportunities to deepen conversations and actions around the intersection between nonviolence and compassion. See how you can engage here: DrepungGomangUSA.org.

We thank you for helping us deepen and expand our compassion mission!

Who We Are

DGCEC is both a Tibetan Buddhist Dharma Center and a non-religious Compassion Education Center. DGCEC offers a doorway into the practice of Tibetan Buddhist philosophy with rituals, retreats, classes, and teachings that are facilitated by Geshe Lharampa Kalsang Rapgyal. We are the North American Seat of Drepung Gomang Monastery in India.

The offerings of our Compassion Education Center rest in the teachings of universal human values or secular ethics by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. DGCEC provides classes and events on deepening one’s compassion, expanding understanding of nonviolence, and providing meditation and mindfulness tools.

DGCEC is the founder and convenor of Louisville’s Arms of Compassion which meets regularly to stand in solidarity with those who have lost a loved one to homicide and to work on building a nonviolent compassionate city. DGCEC initiative, Twelve Days Toward Peace, consists of many events between International Day of Peace on September 21 and International Day of Nonviolence on October 2.