Will you kindly offer some ideas on how I can compassionately respond to the cynicism of my colleagues in juvenile probation when I bring the practice of loving speech and listening to them?

patience is part of action. If you are really compassionate, you have the capacity to wait, to be patient. People respond with cynicism and suspicion because they have met with negative situations in the past. They don't trust people easily. They have not received enough understanding and love. They suspect that what we offer them is not authentic love, authentic compassion. Even if we do really have love and understanding to offer, they still suspect us. There are many young people who have not got understanding and love from their family, from their parents, from their teachers, from society.

They don't see anything beautiful, true and good. So they are wandering around, seeking for something to be lived in. They wander around like hungry ghosts. And in Plum Village where we practice and live from time to time, we see hungry ghosts coming to our community.

The way they walk, the way they look, we feel that they are really lost. We do have enough compassion and understanding to offer them. But it's not easy for them to to accept. We have to be very patient. They are like trees without roots, not easy for them to take in the nutrition that the tree needs. In the Buddhist tradition, we describe a hungry ghost as having a big belly, very hungry, and a very tiny throat, like a needle. You are very hungry, but your capacity of swallowing the food is very tiny.

And hungry ghosts are like that. They are hungry of love and understanding, and yet their capacity to receive love and understanding is very little. And you have to help bring the size of their truth back to normal before they can swallow the food that you offer. And that is the practice of patience, continued loving kindness, understanding. It takes time to win the trust. Before you can win the trust, you cannot help them. That is why even if you are faced with cynicism, suspicion, you have to continue with your practice. Thank you.