This is a full talk on 'The Discourse on Love', part of the Dharma talk series "Daily training gets the thousand-petalled lotus to burst open," given by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh during the Winter Retreat 1997-1998 in the New Hamlet, Plum Village France, on December 18, 1997.

🔔 Video transcript

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"We need to come to see for ourselves that loving-kindness, or love, is the most beautiful thing in life. In my opinion, in life, love is the only beautiful and meaningful thing.

"In Saṃyutta Nikāya (Tương Ưng Bộ), Lord Buddha said, "Practicing love, we attain beauty. If, in our heart, there's no love, we have nothing beautiful to dedicate to ourselves and others.

"The person in whom the substance of love has already dried up is someone who lives in great pain and suffers great loneliness. Look around us and see for ourselves. We'll see that those who suffer the most are those in whom the stream of love has already dried up.

"They deserve much compassion. The only way to help them is to revive that substance of love in them, making it spring up. Only then, can they experience happiness.

"Loving someone, helping someone, and making someone happy, we think only that person benefits from it. The fact is, when love is revived in one's heart, when there's only the wish to love, very naturally there's already a sense of well-being and lightness in one's being."

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

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

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

✩ Length: 1 hour 2 minutes 50 seconds

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TRANSLATOR'S NOTES

🌱 Out of respect for Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh (Thay), the English texts of the Discourse of Love has been adapted to reflect as accurately as possibly can the original teachings offered in this Dharma talk.

🌱 The original Vietnamese texts are also shown alongside the English ones due to the fact that Thay went deep into the original meanings of the Vietnamese texts, which hold great significance in understanding the sutra.

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ANNOTATIONS

🌱 On the matter of "abortion" at 00:24:41, please kindly note that, in "How Equanimity Empowers Love", Dharma teacher Kaira Jewel Lingo shared:

"My teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh, adds another dimension to equanimity by teaching that upekkha is the practice of inclusiveness. It’s the ability to include many perspectives, to stand firm, and at the same time not take sides.

"I remember he was once asked to sign a petition against abortion. He’s a Buddhist monk, and he teaches reverence for life, but he refused to sign this petition because he felt it was not inclusive; the language was dogmatic, insisting that one thing is right in all situations.

"He had experience working with people escaping from Vietnam after the war, and he knew of people who had been in all sorts of terrifying and traumatic situations, including rape. He understood that forcing someone to have a child they did not want, conceived from rape for example, could be tragic for both mother and child.

"He emphasized the need for openness and not being ideological, dogmatic, or imprisoned in our views. His refusal to sign the petition was for me a powerful teaching of caring with equanimity—working to hold as full a picture as possible, not just one view."

🌱 On the "Three Poisons in Buddhism" you can read more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_poisons

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REFERENCES (Resources used to translate this Dharma talk): Please kindly refer to the Video Transcript link for the full list.

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