10 Things I Learned about "How to Love" from Thich Nhat Hanh and Lil Wayne

Thich Nhat Hanh (TNH) was a Buddhist monk, Zen teacher of mindfulness and author of “How to Love” born in Vietnam in 1941 and died at age 95 in 2022. Lil Wayne’s (LW) song “How to Love” is on THA Carter IV Deluxe Edition album. “Cut the music up.’

Here are 10 things I learned about “how to love” from them both:

1. “When our hearts expand . . . we have a lot of understanding and compassion and can embrace others.” TNH

2. “. . . couldn’t never figure out how to love. . . you had a lot of dreams that transform to visions” LW

3. “When we feed and support our own happiness we are nourishing our ability to love.” TNH

4. “. . . a lot of crooks tryna (sic) steal your heart never really had luck couldn’t never figure out how to love . . . “ LW

5. “When we learn to love and understand ourselves . . . we can truly understand another person.”

6. “. . . you deserve the best, you’re beautiful . . .” LW

7. “Be Beautiful, be Yourself.” TNH

8. “. . . look at you for five seconds without you being insecure.” LW

9. “There are three kinds of intimacy: physical, emotional, and spiritual. These three should go together.” TNH

10. “Looking through all your thoughts and looking over your shoulder.”

I originally wrote this in 2017 and it was published in the Huffington Post.