True Love

"True Love, A Practice for Awakening the Heart," by Thich Nhat Hanh is a small book packed with a lot of wisdom. Thich Nhat Hanh (pronounced "tick not hon"), is a renowned Zen monk and he shares timeless insights into the nature of real love.

According to the author, "To tell the one you love, 'I am here for you' is the greatest gift you can give."

Thich Nhat Hanh says, "... I am going to present to you a very effective mantra, not in Sanskrit or Tibetan, but in English: 'Dear one, I am here for you.' Perhaps this evening you will try for a few minutes to practice mindful breathing in order to bring your body and mind together. You will approach the person you love and with this mindfulness, with this concentration, you will look into his or her eyes, and you will begin to utter this formula: 'Dear one, I am really here for you.' You must say that with your body and with your mind at the same time, and then you will see the transformation.

"Do you have enough time to love? Can you make sure that in your everyday life you have a little time to love? We do not have much time together; we are too busy. In the morning while eating breakfast, we do not look at the person we love, we do not have enough time for it. We eat very quickly while thinking about other things, and sometimes we even hold a newspaper that hides the face of the person we love. In the evening when we come home, we are too tired to be able to look at the person we love.

"We must bring about a revolution in our way of living our everyday lives, because our happiness, our lives, are within ourselves."

According to Buddhist tradition there are four key aspects of love: lovingkindness, compassion, joy, and freedom. The book explores all four and goes into the idea that to really love someone else, we must first learn how to be fully present in our lives.

Thich Nhat Hanh is best known for his communications on mindfulness, which is concentration, calm, deep listening and loving speech. Mindfulness teaches you to rise above fear. He would like to see the members of Congress practice mindful breathing and walking, deep listening, and calm loving speech. In so doing, they would serve themselves and the people of our nation as well.

I second the motion.