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Open Hearts
I’d like to talk to you about a profound quality that we all have: the innate tenderness of our own heart, or ‘tsewa’ in Tibetan. When it is warm with tenderness and affection toward others, our own heart can give us the most pure and profound happiness that exists and enable us to radiate that happiness to others. That happiness is right here within us. It is not something on the outside for which we need to search and strive. We don’t need to get several university degrees, work hard, and save up a lot of money to buy it. We don’t need special opportunities or amazing luck. We only need this heart, which is right here within us, accessible at all times…
If you shut down your heart because of past injuries, life becomes a painful ordeal. Even if you hold a grudge against just one person…There is no peace in such an existence, no matter how good your life may look from the outside…
We need to be wary of closing our heart not only with people we know or encounter, but even with those we have never met or seen in person. It seems natural to withhold ‘tsewa’ from a corrupt politician or ruthless war criminal that we read about in the news. But by doing so, we reverse our progress toward realizing the full capacity of our tender heart… we won’t be able to arouse genuine bodhicitta, the aspiration to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all beings without exception.
