Hello Dear Community,

We all know how much our wellbeing hinges on feeling safe, nourished, seen. These are fundamental human needs. But what if there were other needs that are equally important, and a lot less apparent?

In his work on human potential, psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman builds upon Abraham Maslow’s classic hierarchy to remind us of a vital distinction between two kinds of human motivations. On one hand, we have our “Deficiency Needs”—the fundamental longings for safety, connection, and self-esteem that arise from a sense of lack. When these are missing, our systems naturally go into defense mode to protect and repair our foundations. This is essential work that keeps us afloat, but a stable foundation alone doesn't give a life its momentum.

To truly thrive, Kaufman suggests we must open ourselves to what he calls “Being Needs”: our innate drives for Exploration, Love, and Purpose. These higher motivations are born out of a desire for growth, expansion, and deeper integration with the world around us. When we lean into them, we shift from mere survival into a state of aliveness, awe, and a profound connection to our fellow human beings.

Insight & Inspiration: Worth the Journey

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At a recent high school graduation ceremony, a student named Kalen stands on stage, waiting for a diploma that the speaker announces is mysteriously missing from the pile. As the crowd murmurs in confusion, the reason for the delay suddenly appears: Kalen’s sister, Specialist Barksdale, who had spent the last year serving overseas. She had traveled across the ocean to place the diploma in her brother's hands herself.

This touching reunion reminds us of the power of human connection and the lengths we will go to witness and celebrate the milestones of those we love. Whenever we are tempted by the pull of instant gratification, may we remember that the deepest joys are worth the journey and the wait.

News You Can Use: Cultivating a Wider Heart

Can compassion be trained to reach beyond our immediate circle? A promising new study by James N. Kirby, April Hoang, and Charly R. Crimston investigated whether a brief, two-hour Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) seminar could widen participants’ "moral circle"—the boundary of who and what we deem worthy of moral concern. Tracking 102 parents against a waitlist control group, the researchers measured responses across ten distinct categories, ranging from close family and friends to outgroups, stigmatized individuals, "villains," animals, and environmental entities like coral reefs.

​The results suggest that our capacity for care is remarkably elastic. At the two-week mark, the CFT group showed a significant expansion in moral concern compared to the control group. By the three-month follow-up, the CFT participants' circle had expanded even further, showing increased concern across all ten categories—including villains and the environment. Interestingly, the strongest predictor of this lasting expansion wasn't a participant's abstract compassion score, but how helpful they personally found the compassionate-self practice. This points to an intriguing possibility: embodying and personally experiencing the value of a compassionate identity does far more to widen our hearts than simply endorsing compassion as an idea.

Have You Read It?: Transcend by Scott Barry Kaufman

If the introductory thoughts on “Being Needs” resonated with you, “Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualization” provides a roadmap for how to cultivate them. Kaufman reviewed Maslow’s unfinished, late-life journals to resurrect a vision of human development that traditional textbooks left out. In doing so, he highlights a surprising truth: Maslow himself never actually drew the famous pyramid of needs. That structure was created by a management consultant in the 1960s. To correct this historical detour, Kaufman swaps the static pyramid for a fluid metaphor: the sailboat. He suggests that our Deficiency Needs form the hull, necessary to protect us and keep us afloat, while our Being Needs form the sail. Without opening the sail, we may remain secure, but never actually go anywhere.

What makes Transcend such a comforting and practical read is how it anchors these concepts in contemporary psychological data. Kaufman breaks down the mechanics of how to open that sail, showing how "B-Love" (a mature, unpossessive goodwill toward others) and a unified purpose can help loosen the rigid boundaries of the ego. It is a deeply hopeful, rigorous piece of work that shows us how to move past defense mode and step into the high seas of a fully lived life.

With Gratitude: Robert (Bob) Thurman

When Robert (Bob) Alexander Farrar Thurman passed away on June 16, aged 84, the world lost a seminal architect of Tibet’s modern culture and imagination. Known for generations as the public face of Tibetan Buddhism, he was the first Westerner ordained as a Tibetan Buddhist monk, a renowned Columbia University professor, a prolific author, and a lifelong friend of the 14th Dalai Lama. Perhaps most distinctively, Thurman understood that preserving culture required community rather than mere nostalgia; it could not survive as an artifact stripped of its silk brocade and mounted for display, but only if it remained alive, adaptive, and creative.

Nowhere was this vision more evident than at the Tibet House US, the Manhattan institution he co-founded in 1987, which under his stewardship became a porous, familial meeting ground for scholars, artists, and monks. Thurman helped shift attention from what Tibetan culture had been to what it was becoming by championing contemporary artists like Tenzing Rigdol and Tsherin Sherpa, who engaged traditions while refusing to be confined by them. Carrying a distinctive lightness, an irrepressible curiosity, and a spaciousness of spirit, he spent a lifetime translating one civilization to another without diminishing either, leaving behind a living ecosystem of relationships bound together by curiosity, compassion, and cultural responsibility.

The GCC is proud to have counted Dr. Thurman as one of its Founding Supporters, and Tibet House as one of our Founding Organizations. We will strive to honor his legacy, and our shared commitment to global compassion.

By Rachel Weingeist Perera Chief Advancement Officer for the GCC.
This piece was originally written for and published by ArtAsiaPacific on June 24th, 2026.
👉Read the full obituary at ArtAsiaPacific

Let's Practice! The Three Breath Expansion

To bring the science of a wider heart into your daily life, try The Three-Breath Expansion.

Pause, anchor into your wisest, kindest self, and take three intentional breaths. With the first breath, send a feeling of warmth and safety to yourself. With the second, extend that goodwill outward to someone you love dearly. With the third, expand your awareness even further, consciously sending that same care to a stranger, a difficult person, or the natural world around you.

Embodying this compassionate identity for just one minute a day may help you shift out of defense mode and expand your capacity for aliveness.

A harbor offers shelter, but ships are built to sail. Every day presents a subtle choice: to remain within the familiar boundaries of self-protection, or to lean gently toward growth and connection. Sometimes opening the sail by a single inch is enough to begin moving toward a larger life.

With warmth,
Fabiana
Editor, Coming Home

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