Chapter I: HUMAN LOVE

1- Collection of Life Reflections

True love comes from one person to another, not from familial ties or sexual relationships, not even between husband and wife. It does not come from pity, the difference between rich and poor, social positions, or the like. This is human love.
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Human love can change based on the circumstances. It may also shift because of admiration, respect, emotion, inspiration, or even illusion. However, as human love itself is sincere, it can go back to its pristine nature. What does matter here is that human love should be in everyone – in humanity?
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Sincere human love does not go against the Way.

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Many people think about physical freedom but forget the freedom of thought. When thoughts are free and people are in control of their own bodies, they will be free even if they live in prison. When thoughts are not free and people do not have control of their own bodies, no matter where they are they live in darkness.
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Those who talk about the Way with their true heart are doing good deeds and have compassion; therefore, they advance and live in bright wisdom. Those who talk about the Way with mundane logic are really confused as they teach and help others; therefore they become arrogant, gradually recede, and live in ignorance.

Those who do good deeds, but do not think that they are actually do so, shall be delivered. Those who do good deeds with the wish to be paid back for their benevolence will be reincarnated to rejoice in their benevolence.
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Loving others and helping them also means loving and helping ourselves, as loving and helping others increases our merits for our own deliverance.
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People who seek the Way will not meet the Way, as the Way is Emptiness. The Way is not for seeking after, as it resides in the Heart.
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A true sage always uses his religious mind first to consider everything, before using mundane logic, since the Truth is often illogical.
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Once we have achieved non-being, we should not be attached to it, but should try to adapt ourselves to every state and level, as if we are in being. It is like living in a polluted area, but not affected by the pollution. Once we reach the truth, even if we live in the midst of falsehood we will always keep the truth.

We help others with no expectation for recognition; since our goal is to help others, we should not wish for their gratitude.
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Many people may think that they know, but how much do they know? To what extent do they know? Knowledge is infinite and endless, like the cosmos.
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Many people look, but few people see. Moreover, many people die without seeing anything at all.
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Peace will only come to Vietnam when the Vietnamese people recognize that two extreme paradoxes are meaningless; and when they look at each other as people with the same skin color, common language, and blood line, to achieve true national love.

So long as overseas communities still do not adhere to the same code, and call out the same slogans, we cannot expect to return to our homeland.
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The most difficult task in this world is helping others to realize their mindfulness.
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There are things that we can see and know but cannot tell other people to listen and change. Similarly, there are things that other people can see and know but cannot tell us to listen or to change, because human beings do not realize that they are living in ignorance.
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People live in illusion but they think that I live in illusion. If they knew that they live in illusion, they would not think that I live in illusion.
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Vietnam does not belong to one or another, one group or another, but to all the Vietnamese who know how to love and protect their people.
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Using exalted words to describe the Truth is like being far away from the Truth.
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Do not force people to understand or know what you understand or know. Let them learn by themselves their own lessons for their own sake.
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To eliminate desire is difficult, but it is more difficult to change desire.
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Nothing is new or strange in this universe; if something is new or strange, it is only us.
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If we see and know, but do not use that to help other people to see and know like us, such seeing and knowing can only be useless.
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Knowing but not knowing is true knowledge.

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A person who understands the Way does not differentiate between levels, since the Truth resides in all levels.
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Once you know the Way, you should not talk about the Way to others; this is the true knowing of the Way.
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No one can control the freedom of our mind.
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If we cannot resolve a trivial matter, how could we resolve more challenging issues?
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Do not confuse the work we like to do or others want us to do with our karma; but we should wisely consider what needs to be done or not.
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How to express the Truth in the most simple words seems to be easy but is actually very challenging.
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If you want to bring the Truth to someone you need to understand him first, then talk to him in his own language.
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Nothing is lost, nothing remains. Nothing is ours, nothing is others’.
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Once we understand ourselves clearly and thoroughly, we shall understand others.
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Talking about the Truth to people with inadequate level of understanding would cause harm to ourselves and others.
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One needs to adjust the level when talking to the other person.

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When two people can understand each other through their vibrations, they do not need to talk.
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Better to keep alive one’s loneliness than to share with someone who does not understand anything at all.
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Telling the truth could upset those who listen.
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Knowing is suffering.
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To love others may sometimes harm ourselves.
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People might be wakeful amidst foolishness and foolish amidst wakefulness. We should know the state of wakefulness and the state of foolishness.
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Men can be either divinities or the most dangerous and devilish sentient beings on earth.
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Lack of faith is foolish, but too much faith is foolish as well.
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When happiness is not constant, this is not true happiness. True happiness must be eternal.
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Knowledge devoid of actual use is like non-knowledge.
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Those who still preach the Way do not truly know the Way.
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When we understand people, we can keep them; otherwise we lose them.
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When we understand our children, we can keep them; otherwise we lose them. When we understand our spouse, we can keep him or her. Otherwise we lose him or her. When we understand our siblings, we can keep them; otherwise we lose them.
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Men are more cruel than animals, since animals act without thinking, while men commit cruel acts with thinking.
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Dignified men do not boast about their dignity. Only undignified men boast about their dignity.
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Those who are determined to do good deeds in life do not boast about their work.
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To believe in the Master and practice after the Master is Righteous Faith. To praise the Master but not practice after his teachings is Superstitious Faith.
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Preaching is teaching. One is required to understand the preaching and to practice what it says in order to honor the preacher.
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Men are inferior to animals in gratitude. (There is a saying in Vietnamese: “We raise animals, they will repay with gratitude; we raise men, they will repay with aversion.”)
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When you do a favor and wish for repayment, do not expect people to be grateful.
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Not everyone is truthful. Any mind can be either honest or wicked.
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No one can guess that an honest man could become a wicked one, and vice versa.
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To go back and forth between love and hate is not true love. True love does not change with the circumstances.
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To be able to help others is to understand them thoroughly.
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Men always understand too late.
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Morality that people can see is false, since true morality cannot be seen.

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When truth is revealed, it is impossible to cover it again.
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Vile men will only have vile thoughts.
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Men usually like the truth, and think that they are truthful, but they do not like to hear the truth which is not what they think.
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Men who like to do favors usually create the opportunities for others to owe them for their favors.
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The Way in our heart is actually our own Way.
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Only the Divine has the right to judge men. Men do not have the right the to judge others, since they have both good and bad in them..
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Men think that they like the truth, but in fact they only like the false that pleases them.
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Subjective freedom is not real freedom.
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If men do not force others to live in their subjective freedom, they may live in better peace and happiness.
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Knowledge is power.
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Knowledge is not a diploma.
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Human thoughts do not come from stealing, but should draw from personal experiences.
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To be able to correct others, first we should be able to correct ourselves.
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To be able to convince others, you need to understand their level.
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To be able to understand others, just look at our own reactions.
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Envy can change someone completely.
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To attain their goals, people will say anything and resort to acts that not even they themselves can control.
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Only we are able to change ourselves.
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Self-importance impedes progress.
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Men are responsible for their happiness and misfortune.
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True love exists only in people whose thoughts are in universal concord.
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All things that we have created and the consequences of those are our real karma.
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To understand others, first we need to understand ourselves.
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Knowing nothing is to know everything.
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Freedom created by men is not true freedom, since it may change after their (selfish) desire. Such freedom is not much different from prison.

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In human love, compassion is more important than (emotional, material) care.
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Only we ourselves can understand that we are right or wrong.
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Thoughts are men’s vital source of life.
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Lost love cannot be found again, as men cannot go back in time.
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Men themselves are responsible for destroying their own love.
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The lack of compassion and understanding has destroyed much happiness.
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Understanding others, we shall understand ourselves.
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Rare are people who see true love.
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What can we do to:

 -- Know that we love people?

 -- Know that we live for others?

 -- Know that we are ethical?

 -- Know that we are realized?

Thus we are true human beings.
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Men revere divinities, have faith in divinities, but do not believe in divine stories.
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Men who know the Way do not feel that they know the Way, as the Way is essentially Emptiness.
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Filial piety can be seen, but great filial piety cannot be seen.
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When we live for the ego, others can see that. When we live for the great ego, others cannot see that.
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Filial piety and ego are for us. Great filial piety and great ego are for others.
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To do a favor or kill a favor comes from us.
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Once we understand men, we shall recognize the value in animals.
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Men usually look at the consequences of an issue, but rarely seek for the roots and causes of an issue.
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Men like others to be sincere, but intentionally conceal their own mistakes.
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It is easy to understand and love a normal person. It is more difficult to understand and love an abnormal person.
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If men know that they are foolish, they are actually not foolish.
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Knowledge guides men to the truth.
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Men like to be emancipated, but they usually seek emancipation by surrounding themselves with rules.
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Others’ words cannot bring us happiness.
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When we reveal to others that we practice the religious path, we actually impede our path.
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Men usually think that no one understands them, but they actually do not understand others.
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With true love, we can love even a crazy person.
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All freedoms created by men are only illusion.
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Once all conditions are exposed, we will know if a person is truly good or truly bad.
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Those who elevate themselves to be higher actually drag themselves down to a lower level.
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When you see yourself as knowing the Way, you do not really know the Way.
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It is easy to receive merits, but it is more difficult to admit guilt.
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Men usually see others’ faults, but not their own faults.
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Helping people without knowing the proper way to do so may actually harm them.
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Subjective imagination has affected happiness in families.
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Sincerity is the double-edged sword.
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Excessive sincerity has affected happiness in families.
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Sincerity can harm those who do not appreciate it.
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Our sincerity may increase others’ imagination.
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Sincerity sometimes is the cause for failure.
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The more you want others to understand you, the more you make them doubt about you.
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Freedom does not come naturally but must be made by us.
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Vanity makes men lose many opportunities to learn.
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Without suffering, we cannot understand others’ sufferings.
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Once you are afraid of someone, you would do anything to avoid him or her.
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The absence of love is suffering; too much love is suffering as well.
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Misplaced love can harm our loved ones.
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Only human love can give mankind eternal peace and happiness.
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When people blindly believe, they are not able to make a distinction between what actually happens and what does not.
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Many people think that they love others, but they actually love themselves. They love their own selves.
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If you understand thoroughly, you will see that no one is actually bad to us; in fact these are the ones who give us valuable lessons.
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Once you understand someone on whom you look down, thus you truly understand.
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To sacrifice for others is to live like a true man.
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When we do not believe, whatever does not exist will actually exist.
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All emotions come from within, not from external conditions.

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Good or bad comes from within, not from others.
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When we consider others as important, we feel the need to rectify and to clarify.
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If our spirit is sound, external conditions cannot influence us.
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When you understand "form is emptiness, emptiness is form,” why are you still subject to external conditions?
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Men depend on the universe; they do not depend on one another.
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Men make themselves suffer because of their mind.
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With knowledge, men do not hate one another anymore.

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Only true love will guide us to the Truth.
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Benevolence or obstinacy comes from ourselves.
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Men do not anticipate that the Earth is Nirvana.
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Nirvana resides in the mind.
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Hell or Paradise also resides in the mind.
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This concept comes from the two verses of Prophet Huynh:

“Hell is in the mind that causes wrongdoings

Paradise also resides in the same mind.”
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Those who live by love will be disappointed by love. Those who live in filial piety will be disappointed by filial piety.
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The cheater receives the lessons of cheaters; the honest man receives the lessons of honest men.
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Who would die if a war happened? The Vietnamese people or Vietnamese leaders?
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If Vietnam continues to struggle with the labels of nationalism or communism, when will the Vietnamese people find TRUE PEACE?
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The enlightenment path is not covered with fragrant flowers and exotic grass, but leads through a painful corporeal metamorphosis.
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No one can be as good as a moralist as a hypocrite.
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All leaders use the label of freedom and peace for the people to protect their power and interests.
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If men could understand that they are different only in their language and skin color, thus the world would not suffer hatred and killings.
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Only those with great compassion and loving-kindness can we accept to help others and to bear the hatred of others.
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Those who reach the level of great compassion and loving-kindness will see hatred as similar to love (no difference).
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Once the Vietnamese can forget hatred from the past, they will be able to build love for the future.
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Just stay true to yourself. It does not matter whether others understand you, because that is their own business.
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Just talk and act with sincerity; others will eventually understand our values.
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Knowledge is not given; it should be earned during a lifetime.
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If we always depend on others around us, we cannot do anything in our life.
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The more thoughts are restrained, the more they develop.
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Without GREAT COMPASSION and LOVING-KINDNESS, we always expect others to pay back what we do for them.
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No matter how much you learn, you will never learn everything about mankind .
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When we are able to love others’ children as our own children, this is true compassion.
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Anyone can live for his or her ego, but not anyone can live for others.
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It is easy to write about what we look at; it is more difficult to write about what we see.
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A noble person does not let anybody know he is noble.
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A true religious practitioner does not let anyone know he is practicing.
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A knower of the Way does not let anyone know that they know the Way.
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Only true love for others can make us forget about ourselves.
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With true love, we do not make your loved ones live the way we want them to.
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With true love, we can endure sufferings to make our loved ones happy.
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To live independently from external conditions is to live in accordance with our mind.
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Morality in a naive person is true morality.
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As long as you pray for something, you still live for yourself.
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When you see that others do not live for you, you will realize that you have not lived for yourself.
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 When people care about you, they will not make you feel unhappy while you are suffering.
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When you see only what makes you happy, you will not see what makes others happy.

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When you see only what make others happy, you truly love them.
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Once you know that you live by others’ will, you will realize that you are the one who loves them (not the other way around).
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When you realize the truth, suffering is inevitable.
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Even if the truth makes you suffer, you have to accept it.
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The act of giving to others is easy to see; the act of taking from others is not easy to see.
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When your most precious sentiments can be lost, everything else can also be lost.
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You can easily feel that you are pressured by others, but rarely see that you pressure others.
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As long as you depend on external conditions, you are unable to see what you should do.
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The sufferings of every person are equal.
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Men are oneness; the only difference is the place and the race that they are born into.

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Men and nature are oneness; the only difference is that they are divided into various forms and categories.

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Those who often think wrong about others tend to do wrong.
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When we try to force others to depend on us, we will lose them sooner or later.
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If you truly love others you will bring happiness to them, not to yourself.
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When we truly love, we give and do not expect to receive.
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Once a malevolent act is done, this cannot be made up by ten wholesome acts.
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When we wish, we will not receive; when we do not wish, we will receive.
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If we know that "form is emptiness, and emptiness is form", why do people wish for more wealth?
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Nothing is ours; nothing is theirs. All belongs to the universe.
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If we know that all men’s sufferings are equal, we will not help only those of our own race.
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If we truly love mankind, we will see that the sufferings of our own people are the same as the sufferings of other races.
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A false moralist is worse than a sincere thief.
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It is easy to talk about our good deeds; but it is more difficult to talk about our bad deeds.
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There is a long way ahead to attain the realization of the Way for those who practice religion but like to hear compliments.
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If you think you have to live by your mind, why do you fear others’ judgments about your deeds?
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The boss has his own rights, as does the husband.
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Happiness and opportunities are made, because they do not automatically happen.
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We should be able to make money; do not wait for it to be given.
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Mental comfort comes from within, not from others.
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Men are often confused in that they think their desire is their karma.
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We should take control of our life, because life cannot be our master.
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A happy or unhappy life depends on us. 
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If you fear others, you should protect yourself.
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What is given to us is rare, but what is taken from us happens quite often.
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If you truly love others, you do not force them to live by your will.
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If you force others to live by your will, you love only yourself.
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A conscientious doctor wishes few people are sick; an immoral doctor wishes many people are sick.
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A doctor’s conscience may depend on the money in his pocket.
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 A doctor’s conscience may depend on his needs.
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Those who do not depend on external conditions follow their heart in their actions.
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To understand someone, we should place ourselves in his position.

 

When you love only yourself, you will see only the faults of others.
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Those who are sinful tend to besmirch others to satisfy themselves.
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With true love, we love both pious and non-pious children, as well as those who please us and those who do not.
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A husband often uses “for the sake of happiness” to make a wife live by his will.
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A boss often uses “for the sake of the future” to make his employees sacrifice for him.
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The mind is the heart.
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To act by your mind is to act by your heart.
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Once we reach the mind, we should reach the emptiness of mind.
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Emptiness of mind means doing as well as not doing.
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No one is less evil than others; the point is that people do not see the evil in themselves.
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Animals kill human beings by attacking them physical; men who kill one another might not need to attack physically, but only with words.
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To live against the heart is to live against the mind.
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Those who want to live by their mind and heart must have great determination and courage and must not depend on external conditions.
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Those who live against the heart and the mind cannot reach true happiness.
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Treat other people with your heart; they will respond the same way.
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People cannot understand one another by reasoning.
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Love cannot be felt with reasoning but with the heart.
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No weapon is sharper than human love.
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No one is devoid of human love, but some do not know how to make it felt.
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With true love, we will not mentally torment our loved ones.
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Some journalists do not see their newspapers as a mean of communication; rather, they use it to protect and polish themselves and their groups and to besmirch and pressure those who think differently.
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Some people use the media not to serve others, but to serve only themselves and their own groups.
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Without a conscience it is impossible for a journalist to serve the readers.
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Without the purpose of disseminating the news, it is impossible to serve the readers.
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If some journalists depend on the money of dishonest businessmen, how can they serve the community?

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If newspapers depend only on advertising income, how can they unmask the wrongdoings of businessmen?
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If newspapers only praise their financial sources, how can they rebuild the community?
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The Vietnamese only know how to serve opposition groups but do not know how to serve Vietnam.
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There is no better solution than human love.
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Human love can solve any matter, even it might seem unsolvable.
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No heart is wicked, only the mind is wicked.
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Those with knowledge do not fear life.
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Those with knowledge do not fear others, but others fear them.
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Once you understand others, you will know their intentions.
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Once you understand others, they cannot make you suffer; but you can make them suffer, if you wish.
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Sufferings bring more lucidity to our mind.
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With knowledge, we are able to face the most savage and evil minds in this world.
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You are the only one who knows who can influence you most and who least.
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You are the only one who knows to whom you should be most and least grateful.
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With true love, we always are more tolerant of our loved ones.
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In order to find eternal happiness, there should be neither joy nor sorrow.
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Those with knowledge do not need others to understand them.
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The boundary of morality has purged many suffering hearts.
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People can be very cruel in their love.
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Once we understand mankind, we no longer fear animals but only men.
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Once we understand the consequences of civilization, we want to go back to the primitive period.
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To live against the heart will eventually make us die because of the heart.
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When husbands or wives are jealous, they no longer see but only look.
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We understand only by seeing, not by looking.
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We only understand thoroughly when it hurts in our heart.
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Our heart will stop hurting when we live by its desire.
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No one loves us more than we love ourselves.
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We should save ourselves in order to survive.
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Selfish love leads people to blindness.
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If you want others to understand you, you will be disappointed.
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No one understands what kind of suffering is the ultimate one.
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Is suffering caused by obstinacy?

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When you love someone deeply, you will be able to see how much he or she suffers.
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Do not judge others’ children; just wait to see our own children.
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Men are the noblest and the vilest.
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Once you understand that you can never stop suffering, only then do you realize that you have ever been happy.
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If you do not treat someone with sincerity, you will lose this person sooner or later.
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Only we can liberate our own thoughts.
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To have all material things without compassion will not bring happiness.
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Many have criticized those who slander the great men of the past, but they themselves slander the great men of their time.

*Many people think that they die because of their heart, but they actually die because of men.

*You do not need to have a weapon to harm a person; you need only not try to understand them.

*How can we understand human love?

How can we stop others from being stubborn?

How can we stop people from being evil and cruel?

How can we stop people from being selfish and narrow-minded?

How can we stop people from being jealous and feeling too important?

How can we stop people from having doubts?

How can we try to understand people and guide them?

How do we adjust? Do we have to forget ourselves and sacrifice?

To free ourselves from prejudices? To be patient? To free ourselves from love and hatred?
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We should not see what is beautiful, ugly, tasty, tasteless, good, bad, high, low, salty, sweet, happy, unhappy, sad, or joyful.
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We should eat like not eating, talk like not talking, do like not doing, love like not loving, hate like not hating, be biased and unbiased.
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To help people, you must have emptiness of the mind.
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What should we do for the heart not to feel pain, for the head not to ache? What should we do to stop having feelings? We should save ourselves for survival. If we want to save others, we should first save ourselves. If we still suffer, how can we soothe others’ sufferings? If we cannot forget about ourselves, how can we sacrifice for others? If we still hate others, how can we save them? If we still love and hate others, how can we love humanity? For humanity embraces all sentient beings, and all sentient beings must be loved and saved by what is called the compassionate heart. We should love the good ones less, and the bad ones more. We should love the wholesome ones less, and the wicked ones more, because the bad and wicked ones live in ignorance. They are the ones who need more help.
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Human love helps our mind to be complacent. When we do not think about ourselves, nothing can affect us. We do not need to eat good food, to wear nice clothes, to be loved, but rather to love the people around us. We do not need to be praised, to be materially comfortable. We do not need to be happy. All is “emptiness.”