Exploring the Depths of the Human Heart

The heart is not just a biological engine; it's the seat of our deepest emotions and the vessel through which we experience life's greatest trials and triumphs. Understanding the heart, in its literal and metaphorical sense, is a journey—one that involves resilience, endurance, and an unwavering will to persevere through the complexities of life.

Patience is not an attitude of cowardice, but it is the practice of expanding the capacity of the heart to accommodate great difficulties.

When we hear the doctor tell us that we have cancer, we often panic and cry, "Oh no, it can't be like that. I didn't have to get cancer. Why not anyone else but me?" I thought I couldn't live when I received that news. But weeks or months later, we also learn to accept the fact that we have cancer. Although appropriate treatments are needed for a long-term cure, cancer cells are slow to spread, because we have created energy to get along with them without resistance or hate. Medically, the therapeutic process has already begun to occur. Accepting that you have a disease is having the courage to look at your body's difficulties in reality in order to provide timely help, not an attitude of giving up. It is also because of chasing ambitions or because of subjective consciousness that we have allowed our bodies to deteriorate severely. When he no longer has the strength to serve us, we resent, reproach, and hate him. It is an attitude of ignorance and lack of compassion for oneself.

There are many people who are very confident when they declare: "I never accept failure." That's a very naïve statement, because no one hasn't failed even though they're very successful. Remember, the conditions for success can sometimes be out of hand, and we can't force them to come to us until we find the right connection. Of course, the feeling of failure is very unpleasant. We've both lost what we've invested so intensely, we have a decline in our self-belief, and we try to be calm in front of others. But all that pressure is of our own making. If we know how to look more properly and openly about our place and the nature of life, we will surely be less likely to force ourselves to be like this or that. Like when we make a mistake, even though we have been forgiven by that person, we don't accept ourselves. I can't believe that someone as knowledgeable and resilient as me would make such an unnecessary mistake, so I hate it and want to punish it. It's also because we force ourselves to always be perfect, when we have so many weaknesses that need to be acknowledged and taken care of. Accepting weakness is being honest with yourself, overcoming unnecessary habits or coping.

When we have developed the habit of accepting our own weaknesses, accepting the undesirable things that happen according to the principles of cause and effect of life, we will also easily accept the clumsiness and mistakes of others. Looking back, we see that most of our reasons for not accepting were because we saw that the other person had nothing good left for us to enjoy, or that we didn't want their evil to interfere with our honor. It's not because we want to help them try to get better, as we explain. If we are sincere about their lives, then that acceptance is not an attitude that feeds vices. On the contrary, it also helps them have more faith and energy to overcome themselves. Because they see that they are still valuable in the eyes of their loved ones and they also believe that true love always goes beyond fairness. So whether we accept it or not, the truth follows its course. If we choose an attitude of acceptance, without further avoidance or opposition, we have embarked on the process of understanding the truth and unraveling. The problem is still there, but we no longer feel heavy and uncomfortable. We will be patient enough to find more suitable conditions to help it be transformed.

Depending on each person's perception and exercise habits, acceptance varies widely. There are issues that others accept normally but we vehemently resist, and vice versa. Even we ourselves are constantly changing the level of acceptance. There are things that we never seemed to accept, but now we see as well; And there are things we used to accept very easily, but later we can bear them all. When acceptable, we often assume that the other object is cute; And when it's unacceptable, we blame them for adding to the discomfort. But we don't think that our own mental mechanisms have lost their original state. Maybe our perceptions are more correct or distorted, our imaginations are more active or exaggerated, our emotions are weaker or more intense, and our disturbing emotions have dissipated or grown. So let's not be too confident in our acceptance or disapproval today. Although we are fine with making a decision, with time, we and the other party will also make very unexpected changes.

We should know that our hearts are always capable of containing. In the Anguttara Nikaya, the Buddha gave a beautiful image of containment. Suppose a person takes a slice of salt and puts it in a bowl of water, the bowl of water will be so salty that it cannot be drinked. But if they put that salt into the river, even if it was a dozen kilograms of salt, the water of the river would be as potable as usual. The water of the river is drinkable not because it does not contain salt. But because the amount of water is so immense, with that salt it makes no sense at all. Who does not have suffering, pain or hardship, but the question is whether each person's heart is big enough to contain it. If our hearts are small and the external difficulties are too great, then of course we will not be able to contain them. A father who decides to give up his spoiled child for fear of harming the rest of his children is not necessarily the wrong decision. But in essence he failed. A father's love, which is as vast as a river, why can't you bear my little handful of salt? A truly large heart does not need to ask for anything more from the subject who is so weak.

We often misunderstand the word patience to mean suppression or bite our teeth to accept. While its meaning is very nice and very close: endure. To bear means to agree to accept; Contained means the capacity to contain. Acceptance without tolerance is the same as not. Because the river has a capacity tens of thousands of times larger than a bowl, it contains a lot of salt. The poet Nguyen Du also once said: "There is the lower is the upper amount." The person who is able to tolerate others, no matter what he is, never hates or excludes, is truly an adult, a superior. Therefore, patience is not an attitude of cowardice, but it is the practice of expanding the capacity of the heart to accommodate great difficulties. We can't say what sins we have to be patient with. Life doesn't always go our way. If we don't have a large heart capacity ready, there will come a time when we will collapse in the face of circumstances or lose a loved one because of our poor acceptance.

The wonderful thing is that our hearts can expand to infinity — immeasurable minds — without borders. Our mind can embrace heaven and earth and the universe if it breaks the boundaries of our little self. But we don't have to go through the whole world to spread our hearts out like the sea like the earth to be able to embrace all species. As long as we can accept any object, seeing them as part of our non-self, we don't see ourselves trying to accept anything. Accept without acceptance. Having such a natural ability to accept allows us to accept all objects. Reaching this level means that we have found our truly great self. All the corrupt impermanence in life will no longer be enough to intimidate us.

Handfuls of salt are not salty With
the amount of the whole river
The mistake is small
With the immense heart.

Support us