There are love letters

At the beginning of the topic, some people will probably wonder why a monk would talk about the word "Love"? Please read the content slowly to understand. Today I will write about the types of Love: friendship, human love, love, affection, affection, etc. If written in Chinese characters, the word "Love" (情) on the left has the vertical heart radical (忄), which means that these feelings all originate from the heart of each person; on the right is written the word "thanh" (青) which is blue. This thanh character, if written with the water radical (清), means clear, bright, etc. Heart (忄) with "thanh" (青) combined to form the word "Love" (情). Later, in Vietnamese, we used the words love, affection, love, sentiment, etc., and also used this word love to combine with our Nom script, becoming pure Vietnamese.

When we were young, we had friends to play with in the neighborhood, and when we reached school age, we had more friends in the same class or school. From kindergarten to elementary school, then high school, university, and post-graduate school, we all had many close friends as well as strangers. Some people live their whole lives for their friends rather than for personal love. Sometimes friendship is even more lasting than other types of love. For example, in friendship, people can share candy cards, exchange old shirts, or give each other healthy games. Sometimes this friendship is strong throughout the lives of many people. In life, there are many people who change their feelings for their lover many times, but when it comes to friendship, there is nothing that can stop or make their heart change. No matter how rich or poor that friend becomes later, friendship from childhood until old age does not make people worry much, but instead makes them even closer than before. When one or more people live far apart in many different times and spaces, friends always find ways to ask about each other when they are safe as well as when they are sick.

Human love is a kind of general love of fellow human beings. When another nation suffers from famine or war, we think back to our own fate having also gone through such a difficult time, so we use human love to treat each other, helping each other with money, medicine, food, etc. to overcome the danger. Many countries are very rich, but when natural disasters occur, governments often call on charitable organizations to help out of humanity through earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, and other disasters. This is the time when we can use the phrase “A bite when hungry is worth a whole package when full”. People cannot live alone on this planet. Therefore, when natural disasters occur, each of us should have the duty to help each other, so that the nation and the world can have common humanity in times of disaster and hardship. This is also the feeling of people towards each other, when helping each other we do not distinguish between the South, Central, North or Chinese, Japanese, Americans, Germans, French, Australians, etc. When using human love to treat each other, when alive there may be a distinction between us, others, different political views, but when we die we are all equal, because death does not distinguish between high and low, noble or humble, rich or poor, etc. This is also the feeling, the idea that people should treat each other like that; therefore, we Vietnamese often say: "righteousness in death is the final righteousness", meaning that when we die is the final righteousness. We do not, for any reason, treat each other in a way that is not humane. For example, two sides fighting each other when they are alive are enemies; but when they are injured or when they die, both sides put aside their hatred to help each other, this is the time without distinction between this and that. That is a kind of human love that we should cherish and protect.

As for love, if it is love between a man and a woman, perhaps this is something that should not be mentioned to monks, but monks also have many other kinds of love such as love for their homeland, love for their fellow human beings, love for their Fatherland, love for the Dharma, etc. Therefore, Huynh Phu So of Hoa Hao Buddhism also has a very good poem about love as follows:

I have a very passionate love
Love for life, love for religion, and for the country
Love is abundant in the universe
Not just love for the rosy-cheeked guest.

If the rosy-cheeked guest wants to be loved
Then in the mind must turn around
Return to serve humanity
You will meet common love in the mass of love.

I inherently carry a mass of love
It seems like the sea swore an oath to the mountains and rivers
Love is not just for one person
Love for all species and all beings birth.

So this love is altruistic love, not selfish. But in love between men and women, most of the time when a man comes to a woman, he always uses his possessive tendency and forces her to belong to him. If not, the man can find another person to express his love. The woman always has a tendency to rely on. If that man is not a solid support in her life, the woman will find another more secure place to rely on. Both sides are defensive with each other. When love is no longer there, they break up and go their separate ways; it is a pity for the child, not knowing who to rely on. When love comes, people are often blind. At that time, the heart is no longer pure, so people often say: Love is always blind. If when in love, one uses reason, then it cannot be called love anymore. And here are some poems of the ancients that we can reread to contemplate whether love is really like that?

First is the poem "Love" by Nguyen Cong Tru; He was a poet, a general of the royal court and of Uy Vien village and he experienced this love story as follows:

The word love is the word chi chi
Even though chi chi is chi chi with love
Sorrow fills the sky
Do you know, do you know, my common lover?

Being affectionate is bad
Once you are caught, how can you get out?
Cleverly disturbing a person in a sly sleep
Tie up a gallant person so much
Called the person who had been lying for a thousand years to wake up
And sent the soul away at the fifth watch

It's ridiculous when the time of separation
Looking doesn't say anything, there are so many exceptions.
That situation, even if the magic pen can't draw
The more talented, the more stupid, the more infatuated
What is love?

A general of the royal court when going into battle was not afraid of the enemy, but when going into battle with love, he asked: What is it?

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Even Tan Da Nguyen Khac Hieu expressed his love story through many different poems; But here I only quote two typical poems to contemplate the love story: the poem "Heaven scolds"

Private love, a hundred times bewildered and ten times confused
Sitting sadly, taking paper to write a poem to ask the sky
Reading the sky's poem is also ridiculous
Laughing at the people on earth who are so ridiculous

What kind of guest is this?
Why do you dare to send a poem so casually
Who in heaven ever chooses a son-in-law?
Only trivial matters but papers
The Weaver Girl is always willing to pay her respects
The Hang Nga does not mind the storm of her husband's sleep

Opening the cloud's latch, throwing back the pink fairy's letter
Inviting the guest to sit still in the mortal world
Who is the person from the previous life, Dong Phuong Soc
Stealing peaches, learning the old habits
The mortal world is forever exiled and never changes.

The Sky read the poem of Tan Da Nguyen Khac Hieu and replied: "The Weaver Girl has been with her husband for quite a long time; as for Hang Nga refuses to marry, you should go home, don't make a fuss." So Tan Da brought his dream back after his wild attempt to ask for a wife to heaven but it still didn't work out.

After returning to the mortal world with a sad and thoughtful mood, Tan Da wrote "Letter to an Unknown Lover" with the following content:

Sitting bored, taking out paper to write a letter
Who is this letter to?
Far away from the mountains and rivers, my love is bewildered
Who is my soul mate? Take a look

The blue clouds shimmer on the water's bottom
The sunset leans on the western mountain's pavilion
Who painted that picture for the sky?
Outside the mountains and rivers, there's a person standing alone

The soul of a previous life is still absent-minded and not yet awake
The private love affair is even more vague
Absolutely blind, no trace of fish or birds
No one remembers to ask where it is

Since the time we were born, we both cried
The source of our sorrows is with us
Only by knowing each other can we be called friends

The tragic wind sometimes cries together
The clear shadow sometimes plays together
Forcing joy, we also smile
The moon and flowers spread across the water of life, the same

The sea of the mortal world is not deep but has waves
The bridge to the planet has become wider and rounder
A small burden of talent
East, west, south, North, who still meets who?

The water fern has stopped, the times have changed
Love of dew grass is not easy to dispel
In the office, I turn back to my shoe heels
The cup of love is filled and then emptied

A few words of flowery pen are expressed in the red inch
The paper flies with the east wind
Oh, my heart, is it imprinted?
The vast mountains and rivers are not far away.

After reading these three love poems, many people must think again: Is what Nguyen Cong Tru and Poet Tan Da Nguyen Khac Hieu described correct? Or are there other love stories? From there, there are love poems by Han Mac Tu, The Lu, Xuan Dieu, etc.

Love is a kind of love without borders and without exchange, giving or waiting. This love must exist in noble people who know how to forgive, without selfishness. This love only exists in great men; where Bodhisattvas, Buddhas and those who work for the benefit of others and absolutely not for their own benefit. This love always brings happiness to others; no fear, no conditions and when the other person recognizes this love, we have a protection, no fear of being taken over or exploited. When people love each other between men and women, they often use emotions to treat each other; but when they are no longer living together under the same roof or in a family, they often use reason to solve many outstanding problems such as property, children, etc. At that time, everyone treats each other with reason, and emotions will give way to the court. Meanwhile, love is not like that. Before or after saving a person or an object when it is drowning in life and death, Buddha or Bodhisattva does not look at the past or consider the future of that person, but only aims at the present goal of saving that person. It's as simple as that.

When two people get old, the love they had when they were young is no longer there, and at that time they live with the meaning of husband and wife. This is the time to show the love of two people taking care of each other until their teeth fall out and their hair turns white. Therefore, the ancients often said: "When living, we sleep together in the same bed; when we die, we die in the same coffin" to express the loyalty of two people and in the end, where they will go depends on the good or evil karma they had when they were alive, which will be shown when the intermediate body appears.

Even if they live to be a hundred years old and even if they are faithful for life after life, the above types of love cannot escape the cycle of birth and death. Therefore, in addition to love for life, we should show love for religion and love for humanity so that one day when our consciousness leaves this temporary body, we will have a more solid place to rely on. That is the Western Pure Land of Amitabha Buddha and the Holy Ones waiting for us there. Because there:

No gratitude, no resentment, no sorrow
No aging, no death, no reincarnation
The nature of the past has been revealed
The mirror of the past has been cleaned of the dust of the world

What lifetime must we wait for to practice?
When has the source of love and passion dried up?
The choice is to wait for the will of heaven
But where is the lamp of wisdom left?

A few words of recitation before and after
Pray to become a Buddha soon and
Divide yourself from this world
With compassion, help all sentient beings.
(Excerpt from the last part of the article Life in the World)

Completed on March 2, 2022 at the Abbot's Hall of the Vien Giac Temple, Hannover, Germany.