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Deep Listening and the Journey of Compassion
Mr. Ashok Ashoka Desai, Attorney General of India, happened to buy and read Old Path White Clouds and then asked his son, Mr. Santum Seth, to organize for Plum Village to come to India. The delegation organized a five-day retreat in Madras, two major Dharma talks in Madras and New Delhi (the second one attracting 1,500 people), attended a press conference at Mr. Desai’s invitation, gave interviews to The Times of India and on television with Dilip Padgaonkar, and visited the Jain bird hospital—where monks sweep the ground before walking, observe the precept of non-killing, and cover their mouths to avoid harming even the smallest living beings.
At the reception for Vice President Narayanan arranged by Mr. Desai, there was a conversation lasting over an hour about applying ethics and meditation to political life. Three main proposals were made to build “listening with loving kindness” in Parliament, including:
- A short document to be read at the opening of each session, reminding everyone to use loving speech.
- Inviting the bell of mindfulness so that everyone can be silent and practice mindful breathing when things become agitated.
- The Chairperson of Parliament may invite the bell when a delegate loses their calm, inviting that person to listen, breathe, and use loving speech before continuing to speak.
The delegation then went to Bodh Gaya, practiced walking meditation under the Bodhi tree, launched four new books (including Old Path White Clouds in Hindi), gave each village school in Uruvela one English–Hindi copy, and taught “tangerine meditation” to children: peeling the fruit, smelling the fragrance of the tangerine peel, and contemplating each stage of the tangerine’s growth as a Dharma teaching on mindfulness and love.