Pursuits: Gregory Pai Is a Messenger for Compassion

In the quiet green of deep Pālolo Valley, amid dove calls and rustling leaves, Gregory Pai’s voice rises and falls. He’s talking about the interconnectedness of all humans, and how much we resemble trees. “A tree is not an object. A tree is a miraculous creation of photosynthesis, which is a growing biological organism. But then we have coconut trees, banyan trees, maple trees, chestnut trees,” he says. “They are different kinds of trees, but in fact, they’re all the same organism. People are the same. We grow up in all kinds of different conditions and environments. We look at each other as different, but we’re all the same. We’re human beings.”

Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino

Pai is a teacher. Every Saturday afternoon, he sits cross-legged near the altar at Mu-Ryang-Sa, a jade-and-vermillion Korean Buddhist temple nearly 2 miles into the valley, and talks about mindfulness, how to ease stress and strife, and the 16 stages of awakening. In front of him in the open-air hall are two or three dozen people​ of​ all ages, from all over the city. Some are regulars, some newbies.

Pai says they come for the calm of the one-hour guided meditation that he starts at 4, followed by a reading and dharma talk that guide ​them ​toward better, kinder interactions. The practice of mindfulness meditation also “allows people to realize their true gifts,” he says, “and begin to live lives that are more in alignment with their fundamental aspirations.”  

“It’s fundamentally a practice about compassion, loving kindness, and learning to accept other people and ourselves as being fundamentally the same.”

— Gregory Pai

These are Buddhist teachings, but Pai is no priest or academic. He’s a former chief economist at First Hawaiian Bank and adviser to Govs. John Waihe‘e and Benjamin Cayetano. Throughout, he practiced meditation, and when he retired, he headed to Myanmar to deepen his practice at rainy season Vipassana retreats—sitting and walking meditation from ​​3 a.m. to 9 p.m., in absolute silence every day for three months. He did this three years in a row.

Pai gifts what he learned, relating ancient wisdom and practices to everyday life 2,500 years later. Once a year, he runs a five-day retreat with three hours of sitting and walking meditation in the morning and three in the afternoon; every month, there’s also a half-day retreat. Like his Saturday guided meditations and talks—which Pai uploads at brokenridgetemple.com—it’s all free: People contribute what they can, if they can.

“It’s fundamentally a practice about compassion, loving kindness, and learning to accept other people and ourselves as being fundamentally the same. We can accept each other as brothers and sisters in humanity and not be defined by our differences,” he says. “​​You start to realize that we are, in fact, all the same. But we’ve forgotten that. This message is a very powerful message. I think the more people that understand that, the more we can have a shift in consciousness that can allow us to be more compassionate and humane toward other people.”