Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Nhân (Benevolence or Loving others) is the first of Confucius’ Five Permanent Virtues: benevolence, propriety, loyalty, wisdom, trust – nhân, lễ, nghĩa, trí, tín.

What is benevolence (nhân)?

In Luận ngữ (Analects), we have many sayings from Confucius and his students about Nhân (Benevolence). But let me summarize Nhân in the precise and concise language of Buddhism and Christianity.

Benevolence (nhân) means từ bi (Metta & Karuna). Metta (từ) is loving kindness; it means you give happiness to people (ban vui).

Karuna (bi) means compassion – you feel other people’s pains and want to alleviate their pains(cứu khổ).

Từ bi (Metta & Karuna) going together means “giving happiness and reducing suffering” – ban vui, cứu khổ.

The Metta Sutra (Kinh Từ Bi) says that we need to have loving kindness (từ) and compassion (bi) for ALL people, not leaving anyone out.

Jesus said we need to love all people – “Love your neighbor as you love yourself,” and “When someone slaps you on one cheek, give him the other cheek also.”

Brothers and Sisters, you may think that loving everyone on this planet, including the murders, the corrupt, the cheaters, the robbers, the anti-Buddha, the anti-God, is not something we can do and should do.

But, think again; the whole world, except for a very small minority, is ignorant. So, all the people of the world do stupid things, and they don’t know those things are stupid. You cannot condemn them, because the ignorant don’t know that they are ignorant, just like the insane don’t know that they are insane.

They all are sick in the head. Love them and have pity for them.

That is the core of benevolence (nhân).

If you sit down and meditate about the ignorance of people of the world – doing all kinds of ignorant things every day in their life, to give themselves miseries, pains, and stresses all their life, you will love and have pity on every single one of them.

Loving all people of the world is the wisdom of the Enlightened, truly understanding the world and the people of the world “as they are.”

And it also means you are an Enlightened person – a Bodhisattva or a Saint, though, of course, you don’t know that, because a Bodhisattva or a Saint never thinks of himself/herself as a Bodhisattva or a Saint. S/he would think “I am just a lowly normal person.”

Wish all of us have Metta and Karuna.

With compassion,

Hoành

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