Mindful Breathing 2: Looking Deeply and Compassion

Thich Nhat Hanh gives this Dharma talk on 25 February 2004 at Deer Park Monastery. Taking up a case raised that morning, of someone betrayed by a partner who tried to take the children away, he tells them to show the Buddha their pain, then to sit and look until they see that the person they blame also suffers. He says compassion then arises, and the same approach applies to conflict between communities and nations.

He describes giving based on understanding (dana paramita) and the letter such a person might write. He reads a poem about sunshine and poetry, recalls the despair of the Vietnam War and the help sent to families of writers and artists in re-education camps, and uses an orange that stores sunshine as a picture of storing compassion for dark seasons.