I have a painting of two hearts touching, surrounded by golden light, in a kind of surrealistic rendering. I take it to be a portrayal of Love. Beneath the picture are the words, “I now seek only what I must lose”. It speaks to me of the inevitable, of the fact that we must all sooner or later ‘let go’ of whatever we may be attached to, including the people and things we cherish most.

The Buddha’s message was directly to this point: the true nature of life is love and letting go, or