The lead article in my local paper, The preston leader is titled Seeking Compassion. it is about 20 grade six students at the Holy Name School who sent letters to the paper seeking compassion for asylum seekers to our country who have been in detention centres for up to four years.

Our  major support for these people, The Asylum Seekers Resource Centre said it was exciting to see young people getting engaged. ” It shows how much capacity all of us have to respond to issues in our society from an angle that’s compassionate, that respects people’s dignity and their humanity,” they said.

So, how compassionate are you on a day to day basis. or a bigger question could be how much is our society? let’s look at what they say about it:

1. I’m thinking they relate ears to compassion in that when we hear an opportunity to show compassion, it’s time to take action.

2. The ultimate compassion in life, Self Love, this allows you to never hurt another: Who Says

3. The person on earth who is best known for his compassion, HHDL, links compassion directly to our ability to be happy.

4. That smile that you just gave to the stranger you passed in the street just healed an age old wound. Yes, it really did, thank you for doing that: Heal the Wound.

5. Robert Lee Frost (March 26, 1874 – January 29, 1963) was an American poet. He is highly regarded for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloquial speech. His work frequently employed settings from rural life in New England in the early twentieth century, using them to examine complex social and philosophical themes. 

6. Such a cute photo. More beautiful words from HHDL. If only our other world leaders thought in the same way: Where is the Love.

7. Thích Nhất Hạnh, born as Nguyễn Xuân Bảo on October 11, 1926 is a Vietnamese Buddhist monk and peace activist.

Thích Nhất Hạnh lives in Plum Village in Thailand, travelling internationally to give retreats and talks. He coined the term “Engaged Buddhism” in his book Vietnam: Lotus in a Sea of Fire. After a long term of exile, he was given permission to make his first return trip to Vietnam in 2005.

Nhất Hạnh has published more than 100 books, including more than 40 in English. He is active in the peace movement, promoting nonviolent solutions to conflict and he also refrains from animal product consumption as a means of non violence towards non-human animals.

8. That person in the mirror, they’re your bestie: Best friendship song.

9. Loving Kindness is a style of meditation that can transform your relationship to another, research it on google.

10. Compassion doesn’t just happen, you have to take a strong stand for it in your life and be keenly aware of it’s relationship to the others in your life: Interdependent.

11. I just fell in love with Prince for this beautiful quote.

12. Remember this when you are getting dressed in the morning: The Long Way Around.

13. Karen Armstrong won the $100,000 Ted prize, this is what she did with it: 

The Charter for Compassion is a document that urges the peoples and religions of the world to embrace the core value of compassion. The charter currently is available in more than 30 languages and has been endorsed by more than two million individuals around the globe.

Charter for Compassion International, the Charter’s supporting organization, has enrolled 311 communities in 45 countries in its Compassionate Communities campaign and has partnered with more than 1,300 organizations to spread the Charter’s message of compassion in 10 sectors: the arts, business, education, environment, healthcare, peace, religion/spirituality/interfaith, science & research, social sciences and restorative justice. There is no cost to affirm the Charter.

14. This is the cutest vegan statement I have seen about compassion towards our fellow non human creatures: Song for Love.

15. Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher who is a central figure in modern philosophy. Kant argued that the human mind creates the structure of human experience, that reason is the source of morality, that aesthetics arises from a faculty of disinterested judgment, that space and time are forms of our sensibility, and that the world as it is “in-itself” is independent of our concepts of it. Kant took himself to have effected a “Copernican revolution” in philosophy, akin to Copernicus’ reversal of the age-old belief that the sun revolved around the earth. His beliefs continue to have a major influence on contemporary philosophy, especially the fields of metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, political theory, and aesthetics.

I have meet many people who show no compassion towards asylum seekers, the first question I always ask them is, have you ever met an asylum seeker and talked to them. Sadly, the answer is usually no. And then there are people filled with compassion towards them who would also answer no, the difference being their compassion level.

Namaste until next time my dear friends.