Thầy shows how our health, our relationships, and our work are linked to each other, and offers two teachings of the Buddha to care for them: the four kinds of nutriments and the four elements of true love.

He begins with the twenty-five young people preparing for ordination as novices, and the simple life of a monastic in Plum Village—no salary, no private bank account, everything belonging to the community—where all one’s time can be devoted to the practice and to helping others suffer less.

Turning to the Fifth Mindfulness Training, Mindful Consumption, Thầy explores each nutriment in turn. Edible food touches not only our own health but also the health of other people on Earth and of the planet, and he tells a story from the sūtras of a young couple fleeing across the desert, which asks us to eat in a way that keeps compassion alive in our heart. Sense impressions come in through the eyes, the ears, and the mind, from television to electronic games, and Thầy invites families to sit down together and agree on a policy of consumption. Volition is our deepest desire: a desire only for money, fame, and power brings suffering, while a desire to love and understand becomes a source of energy that makes our eyes bright and our step firmer. Consciousness, too, is food—both the seeds we water in ourselves and the collective energy of the people around us—which is why a Sangha can be a kind of protection.

Thầy then turns to our relationships and the Buddha’s teaching on love. Maitrī, loving-kindness, starts with learning to love ourselves: “The intention to make someone happy is not yet love. The capacity to make someone happy is love.” Karuṇā, compassion, is the art of suffering less, and Thầy describes how mindfulness first recognizes a painful feeling with a smile, then embraces it like a mother holding her baby, and how the Buddha’s teaching on the second arrow helps us not to exaggerate our pain. Muditā is joy, the mark of true love. Upekṣā is inclusiveness: there is no more frontier between you and the other person, and true love keeps growing until it embraces everyone and everything.

This talk was given during the Spring Retreat in the year 2014. Thầy offered this retreat at the Upper Hamlet, Plum Village, France.