Compassion is the topic today. It's easy to be compassionate to those we love and who are kind and loving to us. Being compassionate to every living thing is a whole different challenge. If you can truly show compassion to everyone and everything, you will experience a life that largely includes peace and contentment.

My aunt Vesta was a person in my life that seemed to show compassion to everyone. She absolutely loved children and was a teacher for many years. She lived near the gates of Western University, here in London, Ontario and she took in university students year after year and kept in touch with many of them who became authors, scientists, doctors and professors. She worked in First Nations communities and always loved talking about the people in her life.

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When Aunt Vesta came to visit, one of the first things she would say is, ‘Tell me about you?’. I would ask her questions and hope that she would play the piano … she would always turn the conversation back on the person she was talking to. She had a lot to share, but she wanted to know what was happening in the lives of others.

Someone else who seemed to live a beautiful and selfless life, showing a huge amount of compassion to others, is Thich Nhat Hahn, author of over 130 books.

Thich Nhat Hahn
Thich Nhat Hahn has written many poems and offered much advice on how to show compassion to others. Here’s a quote by Thich Nhat Hahn: “To love, we need to open our heart and release our preconceived notions about other people. We cannot judge by appearances or assumptions of what they might do.”

Thich Nhat Hahn's words ring true because compassion can be a difficult thing to cultivate when you have few in your life who are kind and loving. It's easy to show compassion for those we love, but it takes more effort to show compassion for everyone. Today, I’m going to talk about how Thich Nhat Hahn has shown compassion for others and how you can apply his teachings in your own life.

In case you don’t know who Thich Nhat Hahn is, he’s is a world renowned Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk, teacher, author, poet and peace activist.

Apostle Of Peace And Nonviolence
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called him “an Apostle of peace and nonviolence” when nominating him for the Nobel Peace Prize. Exiled from his native Vietnam for almost four decades, Thich Nhat Hanh has been a pioneer bringing Buddhism and mindfulness to the West, and establishing an engaged Buddhist community for the 21st Century.

In 1982, Thich Nhat Hahn moved to a site in the south west of France, that became known as “Plum Village.”

Under Thich Nhat Hanh’s spiritual leadership, Plum Village grew from a small rural farmstead to what is now a large and active Buddhist monastery, with over 200 resident monastics and over 10,000 visitors every year, who come from around the world to learn “the art of mindful living.”

In the last twenty years over 100,000 people have made a commitment to follow Thich Nhat Hanh’s modernized code of universal global ethics in their daily life, known as “The Five Mindfulness Trainings.”

Wake Up
Thich Nhat Hanh also founded the “Wake Up” website, a worldwide movement of thousands of young people training in the practices of mindful living, and through this program, thousands of teachers have been taught to teach mindfulness in schools in Europe, America, and Asia.

In 2014, just after his 88th birthday, Thich Nhat Hanh suffered a severe stroke. Four years later, in November 2018, he returned to Vietnam to live out his remaining days. Nhất Hạnh has published over 130 books, including more than 100 in English, which have sold over 5 million copies worldwide.

Thich Nhat Hanh is often referenced by guests on Mindfulness Mode and his wisdom is cherished by most of the people I know who practice mindfulness.

Deep Listening
Nhat Hanh refers to “Deep Listening”, which is the kind of listening that can help relieve the suffe