The times are tense...and blame and anger are in the air every day. There's a lot of pain and anguish, and deep wounds surfacing, but I keep trying to dig deeper, to get to the bedrock of common humanity and our connection with each other, the planet, and all life. Maybe that's why I've suddenly found myself with an occasionally racing heart, but a seemingly calm mind, and no ascertainable physical cause. My heart is tuned into some message, which my mind has somehow rationalized or suppressed, I think. If it's so ...Continue Reading

(Photograph taken by me in Hiroshima, 2007; words from Dacher Keltner's The Power Paradox) Dear all, It's been a busy month! Mimi Chan of CultureChat podcast had me on for another show, this time focusing on Asian American identity, mental health, compassion, and gun culture, near the time of the anniversary of Parkland. Also - here are three Psychology Today blogposts since 2019: Year of the Pig, Year of Compassion! Northam and the Mentalization and Empathic Deficits of Power : Drawing on the work ...Continue Reading

image by John Hain, at Pixabay Happy Year of the Pig! Here's the latest from my blog on Psychology Today - 2019: Year of the Pig – Year of Compassion I was recently on NBC Asian Pacific America with Robert Handa, talking about Social Media with a focus on Asian Americans. You can watch the 5-minute clip online! Let me know what you think, and please share with your community. Dr. Ravi Chandra on Asian Pacific America _Compassion Cultivation Training_ For 8 consecutive Mondays beginning March 4th, 2019, I will be teachi ...Continue Reading

Hi all, I'm looking forward to teaching Mindful Self Compassion! These skills are essential for mental health, building resilience, and preventing burnout, and are backed by over 1200 research articles. When: 8 consecutive Mondays beginning January 7, 2019 from 6:30 - 9 pm. Where: Union Bank Hospitality Room (East Mall of Japantown Mall, east of the Peace Pagoda and near Daiso) Additional half-day retreat TBA Cost: $500 - But discounts (even pro bono) available for need, especially for those working in community o ...Continue Reading

(The new logo for my compassion cultivation organization - I will be offering the full 8 week Mindful Self Compassion workshop beginning the second week of January, in San Francisco. If you are interested, reply to this email or sign up for my list at sflovedojo.org) This week brought us a new low - attempted political assassinations, African Americans gunned down in a grocery store in a hate crime, and Jewish Americans murdered in a synagogue. All on the backdrop of what psychiatrist Bandy Lee and colleagues called th ...Continue Reading

(Sorry - my image wouldn't upload! - please see here for the image I wanted - "Darth Turned by Yayoi Kusama!") I'm sure many of us here in the U.S. have been stewing in the news over the last few weeks. Regardless of your political persuasion, the trauma of hearing the stories of survivors of sexual violence, and the psychological violence of feeling that those stories were dismissed, devalued and minimized by a significant, and victorious, segment of our government leaves me with a great deal of disappoi ...Continue Reading

SORRY - resending this due to server problems!!! I guess I have company! I will send the other lost email on Sunday morning. Thanks for bearing with me! Hi friends, Thanks for staying with me on Our Great Journey. As Basho wrote and I used in my dedication to Facebuddha, “every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.” I'm giving more talks to specialists on Narcissism in the American Psyche, but you can hear a version of the talk given at the South San Francisco Public Library here. The metapho ...Continue Reading

Hi friends, Thanks for staying with me on Our Great Journey. As Basho wrote and I used in my dedication to Facebuddha, “every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.” I'm giving more talks to specialists on Narcissism in the American Psyche, but you can hear a version of the talk given at the South San Francisco Public Library here. The metaphor that has "grabbed" me recently is the "crab mentality" - when crabs are in a tub, if one tries to climb out, the others pull it back in. I th ...Continue Reading

Welcome to the August Ravi-palooza :) Please save this email and check out the links. I am debuting several new works! Scroll down for details - on poetry and photography about San Francisco, YouTube series on compassion, podcast interviews, and new blogposts. Also, ravichandramd.com has had a total makeover! Check it out and tell me what you think. Eastwind Books in Berkeley and Forest Books in San Francisco are carrying Facebuddha: Transcendence in the Age of Social Networks this month. If you haven't purch ...Continue Reading

Hi all, Happy Juneteenth! Maybe I'll see you in the Fillmore today at the SF Juneteenth Festivities. I hear Mayor-Elect London Breed will be there - congrats to her as the first African American woman mayor of SF. San Francisco will now be the largest city in America with a woman as mayor. I was a supporter of my longtime friend, Supervisor Jane Kim, and it was a very close race. I'm hopeful that the tensions of our changing city will be negotiated in a democratic and transparent way. Mindfulness and compassion are imp ...Continue Reading