Medicine & Compassion Retreats

What is a Medicine and Compassion Retreat?

What is compassion? Is it a quality that can be trained and perfected, or only encouraged? Can one’s compassion become more stable, inclusive, and effortless? These retreats will delve into the basis of compassion, and how it can be expanded throughout one’s lifetime

The curriculum is based on the book, Medicine and Compassion, by Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche and David R Shlim MD. The upcoming retreats will be taught by David R Shlim MD and Lama Oser. Lama Oser was trained in Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche’s monastery, and has become one of his top teachers. Each retreat will also have a special emphasis on developing a personal meditation practice. One-on-one tutoring from Lama Oser will help the retreatants gain confidence in their own method of training in compassion.

Upcoming retreats

Medicine and Compassion Retreat: Jackson Hole

When: September 30th- October 4th, 2020

Cost: $2,000 per person (includes lodging and three gourmet meals per day)

Setting: Turpin Meadows Ranch, located just outside of Grand Teton National Park. Retreatants will stay in luxury cabins, and teachings will be held in the main lodge.

Download Retreat Flyer

If you would like to join a retreat or have any questions, please email Dr. Shlim.

Email Dr. Shlim

Medicine and Compassion Retreat: Jackson Hole, 2018

Medicine and Compassion Teaching Videos

About the Video Series

This video series was filmed at The Medicine and Compassion Retreats in Jackson Hole, featuring Phakchok Rinpoche, a reincarnate Tibetan Lama who lives in Nepal, Lama Oser, a lama from the same monastery, and David R Shlim MD.

Each video stands by itself, and the series is in no particular order. Watch and be inspired to pursue your own journey to compassion.

Phakchok Rinpoche

Phakchok Rinpoche is a reincarnate Tibet Buddhist teacher of the same lineage as Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche. He teaches meditation and Tibet Buddhist philosophy throughout the world.

Lama Oser

Lama Oser is a senior monk at Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche’s monastery in Kathmandu. He has trained under many Rinpoches, and is one of only two lamas of his lineage actively teaching meditation and Tibetan Buddhist philosophy to a western audience.

“I feel that it’s critical at the present time to invest more effort into systematically developing love and compassion. If we could advance the cultivation of love and compassion to the extent we have developed technological improvements, the entire world community would benefit immeasurably.”

-Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche,

From Medicine & Compassion

Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche

Would you like more information about the Medicine & Compassion Retreats?

Email Dr. Shlim

A guide to the virtues of compassion, and how one can learn to train one’s innate capacity for compassion

Medicine and Compassion is the first book to present authentic Tibetan Buddhist teachings tailored for a Western professional audience. Beyond encouraging compassion in healthcare givers, the book explains the nature of compassion, and how we can train during our lives to make our compassion more stable, inclusive, and effortless. A collaboration between a reincarnate Tibetan lama and an American doctor, the book is taught in simple language, but with profound meaning. The ideal book for any person looking to give their own compassion a boost

Purchase on Amazon

Purchase from Wisdom Publications

What the critics are saying

Reviews of Medicine & Compassion

scroll through the reviews with the arrows on the left or right

I was dumbfounded by how much Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche comprehends the emotional challenges facing doctors in relationship to their patients. He nails it time and time again. Magnificent! I shall continue to reread it just for the pleasure of the teachings, for the clarity of his mind, and the purity of his heart. This is a very worthy project.

Jon Kabat-Zinn, M.D.

author of Full Catastrophe Living and Wherever You Go, There You Are

Medicine and Compassion is a wonderful guide for caregivers to develop compassion and skill in helping others from their deepest heart. A very practical, easy to read, and much needed book.

Judith Orloff, M.D.

author of Positive Energy

Among recent Buddhist publications, Medicine and Compassion is unique in being directed at medical professionals. In it, Chokyi Nyima pairs homespun advice for providing the best possible care for patients with expositions on Buddhist understandings on suffering and embodiment. In the introduction, David Shlim, MD, discusses a common problem among doctors and health care workers, namely that they often erect an emotional barrier between themselves and their patients. Chokyi Nyima offers an alternative approach, one that applies the Buddhist training in compassion to establish bonds of trust in the doctor-patient relationship. Interesting adaptations of Buddhist principles are offered [on such subjects as] the art of healing and how to assist patients through the dying process. The book concludes with chapters that introduce the Tibetan Buddhist understanding of the death process and a brief overview of Tibetan medicine.

Buddhadharma Magazine

It would be a mistake to think that only an adherent of Buddhism could gain from reading, reflecting, and acting on this book’s ideas. Medicine and Compassion provides practical guidance to anyone who seeks to become more compassionate.

This book will be of value to any health worker who has a sincere wish to help his or her patients and who wants to nuture that wish without burning out. It will also be of value to any health worker who once had this wish and would like to recover a deep sense of caring and compassion. There is also much of value here for those who care for the terminally ill. [The book should also be read by] anyone involved in the teaching of health workers, especially those who provide clinical care.

Journal of Travel Medicine

Get the free study guide companion to Medicine & Compassion

Medicine and Compassion is easy to read, but occasionally difficult to understand. The new Study Guide is designed to augment the book, reviewing chapter-by-chapter the key points, and helping to place them in context. The Study Guide can also be used to study Medicine and Compassion in a group setting.

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