Jesse Wiens Chu is an artist, husband, father, and community leader. He is the current executive director of Baba Tree International, which promotes practical peace throughout the world, and an Assessor-in-Training with the Center for Nonviolent Communication. Previously, Jesse was a twice-elected local government official and the founder of ZENVC, a training organization that integrated mindfulness and other Zen Buddhist practices with Nonviolent Communication. He is a contributing author to A Thousand Hands: A Guidebook to Caring for Your Buddhist Community.

Jesse lives in Beloved partnership with his partner, Catherine Cadden. Together, they support people internationally in the learning and real-world application of spiritual practices for social change. They are co-authors of the book, The Ongo Book: Everyday Nonviolence, and currently reside in Indonesia with their two children.

您好, I’m Jesse. From a very young age, I found life to be completely overwhelming. I struggled daily to make sense of the world or manage my own thoughts and emotions. I didn’t know how to communicate or connect with others. Neither my Chinese or American education gave me the answers that I sought. I longed for purpose, meaning, and at my core, a sense that I was “okay”.

That all began to change when I moved into a Zen temple at the age of 23. For seven years, I trained monastically in practices like meditation and mindfulness. During that time, I also learned about Nonviolent Communication, and began training in that as earnestly as I trained in Zen. Gradually, these two bodies of wisdom, East and West, dissolved my fear and confusion, and helped me come home to myself.

Today, I share what I have learned in order to offer relief and freedom to those who suffer as I did. Whoever you are, I am happy to accompany you on your journey.