Beauty Is A Heart That Generates Love | Teaching by Thich Nhat Hanh (EN subtitles)

In Saṃyutta Nikāya (Tương Ưng Bộ),

Lord Buddha said, "Practicing loving-kindness,

we attain beauty."

When we turn to the Chinese translation of
this sentence, we see that some venerables

translated it as, "Practicing loving-kindness, we attain
peace and quiet." That's incorrectly translated.

Lord Buddha very clearly said,
"Practicing loving-kindness, we attain beauty."

So, loving-kindness or love
is the most beautiful thing in life.

If, in our heart, there's no loving-kindness,

we have nothing beautiful to dedicate
to ourselves and others.

That's why the Buddha's path
is the path of love.

The path of understanding.
The path of love.

But in order to love,
there has to be understanding.

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 loving-kindness in them, making it spring up.

Only then, can they experience happiness.

And if we see that in us the stream of love dries up
a little bit, we have to be quickly informed.

Because when we don't have the stream of love,
when that nectar runs out, when it no longer flows,

that's when we have a lot of pain and suffering.

That's why, practicing loving-kindness
means practicing 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.

One has yet to do anything
or say anything.

But with only a fervent wish to relieve someone
from their suffering and make them happy,

that wish has already been an energy that brings
lightness, well-being, and happiness to our heart.

That's why, well wishes are important.

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.

We have a gatha to recite
when looking in the mirror.

"Awareness is a mirror

"reflecting the four elements.

"Beauty is a heart that generates love

"and a mind that is open."

Because "a mind that is open"

brings about inclusiveness and acceptance.

It brings about true love.

And true love is the most beautiful thing in life.

A famous artwork or a well-known piece of music
is beautiful without a doubt.

But compared to true love,
they mean nothing.

Beauty is a heart that generates love.

"Awareness is a mirror

"reflecting the four elements.

"Beauty is a heart that generates love
and a mind that is open."

So, every morning, when we hold the toothbrush
brushing our teeth,

look at ourselves in the mirror
for just a moment.

We have time.

Look at ourselves for just a moment.

We see our four-element body. Smile a bit.
Just smile gently to ourselves.

We bestow on ourselves a gentle smile
so that our face can relax.

That's already love.

"Awareness is a mirror, reflecting the four elements.
Beauty is a heart that generates love."

In us, is there a flowing stream of love?

What have we done today
for this stream of love to flow in us?

We really need to practice looking
at all beings with "a mind that is open."

It means, the eyes of loving-kindness & compassion.
In Sino-Vietnamese, "từ nhãn thị chúng sanh 慈眼視眾生."

The Buddha taught us

to practice looking with the eyes
of Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva.

Because Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva knows how
to look with the eyes of Great Compassion.

Now, first of all,

while brushing our teeth,
learn to look at ourselves in the mirror

to see that we need to love ourselves,
that we need to smile at ourselves.

We have to make the stream of love in us
spring up and flow.

And we need to look at our Dharma siblings
with a mind that is open.

When we can do that, there's inner peace and lightness
in ourselves. And our siblings will feel the same.

Because that look is one of all-embracingness and
inclusiveness. Not of fault-finding or criticalness.

It's rather a look

of forgiveness, of all-encompassingness.

The kind of look that a mother has
at her own child.

If we want to advance in our daily practice,

we should use a notebook

— a pocket notebook,
to note down everything.

Because a day given to us to learn
and practice mindfulness is a...

very precious day.

We have a whole day to practice, a day which we
can make good use of, to progress in our practice.

So why do we...

take our day for granted?

24 hours are given to us to learn and practice
living mindfully. So why don't we give it our all?

When we give a Day of Mindfulness,

we plan out very well
how the day will go.

Who will give Dharma talk. Who will lead the mindful
walk. Who will give the guided sitting meditation.

And who will read out loud the Five
Contemplations Before Eating at mealtime.

We're very good at planning
a Day of Mindfulness.

It should be the same with a day
spent in the monastery.

We should be wise drawing up an agenda for that day.

Don't let the day float by like water-hyacinths
floating pointlessly on a river.

We have to claim sovereignty
over our day, making...

a day of practice into one...

filled with meanings,

where each moment of the day is an opportunity
to grow love and compassion in our heart.

We have a pocket notebook and a pen,

so why don't we do this?

When we sit in meditation
in the morning,

why don't we use that time

to...

to...

look deeply into our day
and see how we're going about our day

so it can be a truly precious gift

from us to ourselves,
and from us to other people?

Why do we sit and long for the time
of sitting meditation to be over?

The time we sit in meditation can
be used to do that, i.e. to contemplate.

No one stops us from bringing a pocket notebook

to the sitting meditation session.

Of course, the whole time we sit in meditation,
we don't let our mind wander.

We don't use the time for sitting meditation
to do anything else.

However, if during our sitting there's an insight,

or something insightful about ourselves
or our community, we're allowed to write it down.

That insight will help us succeed in our practice.

With that, we turn that day into a happy day.

Because we should know
that if that day we have happiness,

those who practice in the same community with us
will also have happiness.