Initially published in English under the title Teachings on love @https://www.lit.salon/books/OL263661W/teachings-on-love.
Vietnamese Thièn (Zen) master, who settled in France and created a community (Plum Village) still active after his death in 2022. (FYI, I heard the name being pronounced tik-nhat-han by people who have been there).
The man’s intent is marked by war (Indochina, Vietnam) and the long work of repairing the wounds with compassion.
This is a very practical approach to love in its many forms, and it offers an open opportunity to think about it (which is quite rare. More often for the reader, it’s about reveling or gorging themselves with the idea of love).
Love is profoundly intentional. His view of true love relies on four aspects (which also are four different words in Sanskrit and Pali for love):
Maitri/metta: goodwill, meaning love born out of the intent of doing good - implied here is the necessity of understanding: you can’t do something good for someone you don’t understand.
