This is a 9-minute excerpt from the Dharma talk on the Discourse on Love which is video 7A of the three-month Winter Rains Retreat "Daily training gets the thousand-petalled lotus to burst open," given by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh in the New Hamlet, Plum Village France, on December 18, 1997.

🔔 Video transcript

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"For someone who doesn't have the energy of love inside, it feels extremely lonely. They feel cut off from everything in life. To them, loneliness is a hell. Because they can only live by themselves. They cannot establish communication with anyone. Because they're unable to understand and love anyone.

"Because of that, we need to know that love is a substance that helps us establish connections with other people, and with other beings, other species. We can establish connections with the human species. We can establish connections with other beings like animals, plants, and minerals.

"At that moment, we'll come to see that we and those beings share the same life. With that, the way we treat them will be that of nonviolence, non-harming, and love. We no longer think about using violence, we no longer think about killing. Instead, we'll think about protecting."

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✩ Full talk's original title: "Kinh Thương Yêu [CPNĐSNC 7A] | TS Thích Nhất Hạnh(18-12-1997, Xóm Mới, Làng Mai)"

✩ Full talk originally posted by Làng Mai (Plum Village's Vietnamese YouTube Channel) on Mar 8, 2023

✩ Full talk given on December 18, 1997, in New Hamlet, Plum Village, during the Winter Retreat 1997-1998

✩ Excerpt's length: 09 minutes 42 seconds

✩ Watch the full Dharma talk with English subtitles and transcript

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REFERENCES (Resources used to translate this Dharma talk): Please kindly visit the video transcript link to see the full list.

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✩ Republished on the Plum Village App with kind permission of Thich Nhat Hanh's Talks channel 🙏