BY ELANA MARGOT SANTANA Yesterday I found a salamander resting or dying in my garden. Translucent blood red skin with yellow speckles, big black bulging eyes...
Tag: Compassion
Ellen Bass – If You Knew
What if you knew you'd be the last to touch someone? Ellen Bass draws us in to the brief moments of contact that fill our day and urges us to consider the fleeting nature of every life we meet.
Robert Bringhurst – Sutra of the Heart
A long and beautifully indulgent poem that sketches the heart through an abundance of imagery that is strong, broken, dreamlike and prehistoric.
Dilruba Ahmed – Phase One
Dilruba Ahmed's poem invokes forgiveness of ourselves and others like a cleansing rain 'relieved of cruelty and petty meanness.'
Mother Teresa – Compassion in Action
This essay by Mother Teresa crystallizes her vision of compassion in action, of how the fundamental love and benevolence between humans can override all social, racial and doctrinal divides.
Being With Dying – Kerry Egan
In her years working as a hospice chaplain, spiritual caregiver and author Kerry Egan has rarely found that dying patients want to discuss God or religion. Instead, chaplaincy work for her leans on the quality of the presence she can offer her patients and the compassion and empathy with which she can hold space for them and their stories.
“The Violence in Our Minds Manifests in the World” – Thich Nhat Hanh on Smiling Away Your Anger
"Author Cuong Lu recently told me that the greatest lesson his teacher Thich Nhat Hanh gave him was to believe in him: "He kept trusting me. That was his power, his insight and his love." What I find comes across in Thich Nhat Hanh's books is that same sense of confidence, but on a global… Continue reading “The Violence in Our Minds Manifests in the World” – Thich Nhat Hanh on Smiling Away Your Anger
Thich Nhat Hanh on the Elements of True Love
What are the most basic elements of love and how can we manifest them in our lives and our relationships? This is the question that Thich Nhat Hanh tackles in his short book, 'True Love'. Looking at human love through the lens of Buddhist teaching, he breaks it down into four aspects: loving-kindness, compassion, joy… Continue reading Thich Nhat Hanh on the Elements of True Love