The 3 Doors Compassion Project Launches
Meditation Practices to Strengthen Resilience to Suffering
Gabriel Rocco and Marcy Vaughn
The 3 Doors, an international meditation organization, has just launched a nine-month compassion project for healthcare, education and social service providers. This project examines empathy burnout, obstacles to compassionate caregiving and the development of self-compassion. Led by Senior 3 Doors Teachers Gabriel Rocco and Marcy Vaughn, participants are learning ancient Tibetan meditation methods to strengthen their resilience in relation to suffering.
“You can’t talk about compassion without talking about suffering. How do you experience the suffering of others? How do you acknowledge and care for your own suffering?” asks Marcy Vaughn, a senior student of Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche who teaches Tibetan meditation internationally. “The 3 Doors Compassion Project is bringing together an amazing group of doctors, body workers, educators, therapists and hospital administrators to explore how experiences of suffering affect our natural ability to be compassionate.”
Participants will experience how these Tibetan meditation practices can clear blocks and open up their natural caregiving abilities. In addition to a daily meditation commitment, the 28 participants will meet monthly for daylong workshop retreats held at the Contemplative Arts Studio in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. The teachings include an integrated process of meditation and self-reflection to cultivate love, compassion, joy and equanimity in relation to self, family and community. This project has been generously funded by an anonymous donor who is dedicated to supporting healthier, happier workplaces and communities.
The 3 Doors Compassion Project includes a research component to document the effects of these Tibetan meditation methods on mindfulness, compassion, work burnout, anxiety and depression, quality of relationships and quality of life. The research is led by principal investigator Mike Gawrysiak, Ph.D., Delaware State University and University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, with the support of The 3 Doors research team: Claire Clark, Ph.D., University of Utah School of Medicine; Alejandro Chaoul-Reich, Ph.D., University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center's Integrative Medicine Program; and Scott Clearwater, Ph.D.
“All of our participants have had experience with some form of mindfulness practices or mindfulness training," explains Gabriel Rocco, who also serves as a senior instructor at the Penn Program for Mindfulness and also is a senior student of Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche. ”We plan to build on this base and provide them with workplace meditation tools that can help them resolve issues as they arise, moment to moment. Once learned, these meditation methods can be quickly used to effectively remove blocks and restore energy levels. Marcy and I are so excited to be bringing these teachings to our local community.”
The 3 Doors is an international meditation organization founded by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche that teaches Tibetan meditation methods with practical applications for everyday life. Transforming lives through meditation.
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The Contemplative Arts Studio (Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania), founded by Gabriel Rocco and Marcy Vaughn, integrates meditation and personal reflection for health and creativity.
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