Here are your fresh Love & Inspirations for the week ahead:

1) Quote

• “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.  I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of man is through love.and in love “.  – Victor Frankl

2) Meditate – A New Vision

• A New Vision – Invocation – Darpan and Temple Step

3) Tedx Talk – Breathe to Heal

• Max Strom | TEDxCapeMay

With anxiety, stress, and sleep dysfunction skyrocketing around the globe, it’s time we look at the unspoken reasons why. These debilitating challenges can be meaningfully impacted with ten to twenty minutes of breathing exercises per day. Max Strom,who has taught breath-work for 20 years, reveals his insights into the healing power of the breath.

4) Inspiring Japanese Concept, Aesthetic & Worldview

• Wabi-Sabi  –  Finding beauty within the imperfections of life, and accepting peacefully the cycle of growth and decay, remembering that Nothing is Permanent. Nothing is finished. Nothing is perfect.  

Wabi-sabi is about making peace with imperfection. All life is in a constant state of change.  Even though we know this in our minds, it can be hard to accept.  Sometimes I look in the mirror and see the signs of my ageing, and there arises in me moments of sadness at the recognition that a certain youthfulness in me has now passed….This concept of Wabi-Sabi helps me celebrate the inevitable changes of life, and is an excellent tool to keep in your bag of tricks especially in those moments when you feel separate, loss or disconnected.

5) An Essential Mindfulness Read

• How to Love – Thich Nhat Hanh

This is a beautiful and insightful little pocket-book that was gifted to me by a very special friend once upon a dream.  I truly cherish it and the insight within.  This is a section from  the book that I particularly love and that we shared on retreat this week.

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There are 4 Elements of True Love:

1. Loving-Kindness

2. Compassion

3. Joy

4. Equanimity

True love is made of four elements: loving kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity. In Sanskrit, these are, maitri, karuna, mudita, and upeksha. If your love contains these elements, it will be healing and transforming, and it will have the element of holiness in it. True love has the power to heal and transform any situation and bring deep meaning to our lives.

1. Loving-Kindness (maitri)

First, there is loving-kindness. Being able to offer happiness to another is the essence of loving-kindness. But more importantly, we must remember that the first person we are to offer loving-kindness is ourself. How can we give happiness to anyone else if we don’t offer it to ourself?’

You can be the sunshine for another person. You can’t offer happiness until you have it for yourself. So build a home inside by accepting yourself and learning to love and heal yourself. Learn how to practice mindfulness in such a way that you can create moments of happiness and joy for your own nourishment. Then you have something to offer the other person.

2. Compassion (karuna)

Compassion is the second element of true love. As with loving-kindness, we must first have compassion for ourself. With compassions, we understand the suffering we experience as well as the suffering in another person. The compassionate mind cherishes another (and oneself) and wishes to release them from their suffering.’

You can transform your own suffering and help transform the suffering of the other person with the practice of mindfulness and looking deeply.

True compassion has no personal intention or attachment. We may think we are being compassionate when we wish for someone to be free from an illness, but if we are mindful, we may see that we want them to feel better because we miss their company. This is a selfish intention and it is likely that the relationship is based on attachment and not true love.

True compassion comes from cherishing the other and wishing them well without any self involvement.

But again, we cannot hope to be compassionate toward another unless we are first compassionate toward ourself. Thich Nhat Hahn says,

Often, we get crushes on others not because we truly love and understand them, but to distract ourselves from our suffering. When we learn to love and understand ourselves and have true compassion for ourselves, then we can truly love and understand another person.

3. Joy (mudita)

Joy is the third element of true love; that is, the capacity to offer joy.

When you know how to generate joy, it nourishes you and nourishes the other person. Your presence is an offering, like fresh air, or spring flowers, or the bright blue sky.

Simply put, there cannot be true love without joy – joy for ourselves and the one we love.

4. Equanimity (upeksha)

The fourth element of true love is equanimity or upeksha. Upa means ‘over’ while iksha means ‘to look’. This fourth element lets us look over the whole situation – without being bound by attachment, clinging, or discrimination. If your love has any of these qualities, it is not true love.

In a deep relationship, there’s no longer a boundary between you and the other person. You are her and she is you. Your suffering is her suffering. Your understanding of your own suffering helps your loved one to suffer less. Suffering and happiness are no longer individual matters. What happens to your loved one happens to you. What happens to you happens to your loved one.

It is essential to nourish these 4 elements of love. If we do not, any love we have will fade.

Also essential is practicing and directing love toward ourselves first. This is something that many people simply do not do.

The teachings on love given by the Buddha are clear, scientific, and applicable… Love, compassion, joy, and equanimity are the very nature of an enlightened person. They are the four aspects of true love within ourselves and within everyone and everything.