"In April 2002, several of the world's most influential Buddhist and Christian monks, nuns, and lay practitioners gathered at Gethsemani Abbey in Kentucky to ponder contemporary life's most difficult questions. The results of this great encounter are brought together in Transforming Suffering. These personal reflections from those who have spent their lives seeking to understand suffering and to provide spiritual guidance, inspiration, and support to those in trouble explore a wide range of difficult subjects, from the social, economic, military and political turmoil we face today to enduring human concerns - the harmful effects of anger, hatred, and other negative emotions; the need to embrace compassion in our daily lives; the problems of aging and sickness; the loss of loved ones; facing our own mortality; and other similar personal and relational issues. His Holiness Pope John Paul II contributes his written thoughts on the meaning of suffering, while His Holiness the Dalai Lama discusses the transformation of suffering in a letter sent to the conference. Conference participants included Thomas Keating, Joseph Goldstein, Thubten Chodron, Robert Aitken, Zoketsu Norman Fischer, Mary Margaret Funk, John Daido Loori, Father Columba Stewart, and Geshe Lhundub Sopa."--BOOK JACKET.
