Thich Nhat Hanh August 16, 2013

I had the unique privilege of seeing Thich Nhat Hanh (Zen Buddhist Monk) talk in Toronto on August 16, 2013.  My good friend, Paula Pyne of Uplift Consulting, gifted me with this experience (she wrote a gorgeous account of her experience here).

I summarized my learning from Thich Nhat Hanh via the infographic below. While Piktochart (the infographic tool I used) was fun to work with, my *masterpiece* didn’t show up quite as I had hoped for in this post. So, please click on the image below to enlarge it, and get a simple, vicarious hit of learning from a living master!

Here is a lovely video I found which covers some of the topics Thich Nhat Hanh spoke of.  It also features Namo’valokiteshvaraya Chanting which refers to “the person who has the capacity to listen deeply and with compassion”. Simply by listening to this chanting, we join in as participants. By focusing on our in-breath and out-breath as we listen, we can then can allow the collective energy of this mindful and compassionate chanting to penetrate into our body to release tension and reduce pain.

Namo’valokiteshvaraya Chanting from Plum Village Online Monastery on Vimeo.

I also really enjoyed Alice Klein’s article in Now Magazine summarizing her experience at the week long retreat with him that preceded his talk in Toronto.

You can learn more about this amazing gentleman (who is nearly 87 years old!), his community, and charitable work here.