All Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, Venerable Master, Dharma Masters,  teachers, and fellow students, good evening.

My name is Angel Yang; I'm a senior this year at Developing  Virtue Girls' High School. Being a senior is a lot of fun, since  you can enjoy life while ordering people around. For every "up,"  there's also a "down." It's like how when there's good food,  seniors get first pick, but if there's something that needs to be  done, we are also the first to be called. We need to set a good  example for our "little sisters," you know. So, today, I'm the first  one from the dorm to give a "Dharma" talk, half-forced and half- volunteered. I am not going to talk about my feelings about this  place; I'll keep that for my graduation speech. Rather, I am going  to tell you a story, it's called: "The Most Beautiful Heart."

One day a young man was standing in the middle of the town  proclaiming that he had the most beautiful heart in the whole  valley. A large crowd gathered and they all admired his heart for it was perfect. There was not a mark or a flaw in it. Yes, they all  agreed: it truly was the most beautiful heart they had ever seen.  The young man was very proud and boasted even more loudly  about his beautiful heart.

Suddenly, an old man appeared at the front of the crowd and  said, "Why, your heart is not nearly as beautiful as mine." The  crowd and the young man looked at the old man's heart. It was  beating strongly, but full of scars. Some of the pieces of his heart  had been removed and other pieces put in, but they didn't quite  fit all together and there were several jagged edges. In fact, in  some places there were deep gouges where whole pieces were  missing. The people stared and thought to themselves: how could  he say his heart is more beautiful?

The young man looked at the old man's heart and laughed.  "You must be joking," he said. "Compare your heart with mine:  Mine is perfect, and yours is a mess of scars." "Yes," said the old man, "yours is perfect looking but I would never trade with you.  You see, each scar represents a person to whom I have given my  love - I tear out a piece of my heart and give it to them, and often  they give me a piece of their heart which fits into the empty place  in my heart, but because the pieces aren't exact, I have some rough edges, which I cherish, because they remind me of the love we  shared. Sometimes I have given pieces of my heart away, and the  other person hasn't returned a piece of his heart to me. These are the  empty gouges - giving love is taking a chance. Although these gouges  are painful, they stay open, reminding me of the love I have for these  people too, and I hope someday they may return and fill the space I  have waiting for them. So now do you see what true beauty is?"

When the young man heard this, he stood silently with tears running  down his cheeks. He walked up to the old man, reached into his perfect  young and beautiful heart, and ripped a piece out. He offered it to the  old man with trembling hands. The old man took his offering, placed  it in his heart and then took a piece from his old scarred heart and  placed it in the wound in the young man's heart. It fit, but not perfectly,  as there were some jagged edges. The young man looked at his heart,  not perfect anymore but still somehow, more beautiful then ever, since love from the old man's heart flowed into his. They embraced and  walked away side by side.     

This is by an unknown author, and I got this story from a close  friend. I felt deeply moved by this piece of writing, because it gives a  very good reason why we should be good to other people. Often in  the past, I've tried to be nice to people and opened up my heart to  them as well, but over time, I began to feel that there were too many  woes in my heart. And I started to wonder: Should I always give out  my heart to people and just let them ruin it or leave all this hurt behind?  Then I realized that to have these doubts about giving was really wrong.  This story gave me a strong, definite answer about what should I do.  If the old man in the story didn't give other people parts of his heart, his heart wouldn't have been so ugly in appearance. It would have  been nice and beautiful like the young man's. But this elder understood  what was a truly beautiful heart—it is a heart that you can cherish, a  heart so full of memories that you can't forgot, and a heart that will  stay with you forever and ever.

Last semester in my English class, we read Walden, by the famous  American writer, Henry David Thoreau. Our teacher, Heng Gu Shr,  picked out some quotes for us to write our comments on, and one that  really touched me was: "Could a greater miracle take place than for  us to look through each other's eyes for an instant?" People nowadays  are too scared to give their heart or to show affection towards people  around them. These days, people are only willing to give and invest  their time, energy and effort if they expect to get something back.  Men and women are all wearing fake masks, with layers of make-up  to cover up their true selves. People hardly put forth any sincerity to  do things. I've seen people change their facial expressions and  emotions very quickly or pretend to be friends with their enemy just  after they badmouthed them behind their backs. It is so hard to trust  people and thus be willing to give out your heart. People are all afraid  to be hurt by others. But there must always be a person who's willing to extend a hand first before two people can even shake hands. So it's  the same as giving out your heart first to let other people exchange it.  An acquaintance once told me her definition of what it means to be a  friend. She said, "In Chinese, friends are also called 'those who know  each other's heart.'" In order to know each other's heart, you need to  give out your heart first, truly open yourself up and be sincere to  make friends with people. Once you've done that, you can begin to  develop a good friendship.

So now, I don't worry if I have given too much to other people and  forgotten to reserve some for myself, because I have really found  some friendships that will last for a lifetime. I'll always remember  those to whom I've given my heart, and those from whom I've received  a heart.