Love & Compassion: Thich Nhat Hanh

From Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Zen monk:

Love is a mind that brings peace, joy, and happiness to another person. Compassion is a mind that removes the suffering that is present in the other. We all have the seeds of love and compassion in our minds, and we can develop these fine and wonderful sources of energy.

We can nurture the unconditional love that does not expect anything in return and therefore does not lead to anxiety and sorrow. The essence of love and compassion is understanding, the ability to recognize the physical, material, and psychological suffering of others, to put ourselves "inside the skin" of the other. We "go inside" their body, feelings, and mental formations, and witness for ourselves their suffering...

To look deeply is to understand. When we look deeply...once we understand the reasons...we become reconciled with ourselves...and we will long for others to suffer less.**

These are wonderful sentiments and much needed understandings. But our humanity and our selfish, self-protecting barriers most often make it all seem so unlikely, Polyannaish, even risky or unwise. But that should not be so--and it cannot be if we are to continue humanity's  "non-zero-sum" progression toward wider and stronger community. It certainly cannot be if we people of faith are to meaningfully, obediently, answer our call.

For those of Diestic faith--Christians like me, for example--shouldn't we see this kind of teaching, discipline, and experience as consistent with the example and teachings of Jesus and the revered Scriptures of faith? Isn't it a compatible, practical and helpful adjunct discipline in living the Christian life of love, forgiveness, and compassion? And given our understandings of God's indwelling, transforming relationship with us and His purposes for us, shouldn't we walk such a path as Thich Nhat Hanh sets out with joy, but also with the confidence and trust that must reside with that indwelling, overflowing Love in God? Shouldn't we trust that God's Love casts out fear?

And shouldn't we find in this humble Zen monk a welcome brother in God's work in the world whether he understands or accepts in the same way a relationship with Christ and God, or not? Thomas Merton thought we should, and so do I.

[**From "Meditation on Compassion," in Peace is Every Step by Thich Nhat Hanh]