(Photo by Alvin Tan)
As human beings living in this world, the matter of life and death is an important and significant issue. Therefore, we must put in effort to cultivate our mind while we are alive.
We arrived in this world in a vulnerable form. Once we were born, we were cuddled in warm arms and gently cleansed before being wrapped with a soft, clean towel. Not only were we cared for with love by our mother, we also received kindness and loving care from many others.
As we grow into adulthood, have we reflected whether we have strayed away from life values? Have we engaged in acts that hurt people, including ourselves? Since we are loved by so many in our life, shouldn’t we give some love to others in return?
Every single intention and step we make are foundations that we lay for our future. A single deviant thought could lead to failure in life. The Saha world is a world filled with suffering. If people are strongly attached to their desire for power and money, and keep sowing the seeds of negative karma, they will eventually reap bitter fruits. The suffering in this life only ends temporarily when we come to the end of our life; there will be more suffering to come in our next life. Therefore, we should live in a way that will lead to a successful life in future, and not let our suffering continue indefinitely.
A person once told me that he was worried and concerned about the many perverse trends in our society today, especially those in our current education and the minds of people. I said, “We need the restoration of moral values. In the same way a house becomes dilapidated over time and needs to be repaired or rebuilt, so do people’s minds.”
We must give rise to repentance and eradicate the afflictions of greed, anger and ignorance in our mind in order to eliminate suffering and misery in life. And the way to restore morality is to quickly start taking action and work to help the needy and purify people’s minds.
On our journey of life, the eventual reaping of merit depends on how much we have sown and how we tend the field of our mind during our lifetime. Everyone is a farmer of their own life. Hardworking farmers will take good care of their field; on the contrary, lazy or neglectful farmers will end up having their field overgrown with weeds. Hence, we should be mindful in looking after the field of our mind.
Extracted from “Chen Jin Guang Sheng” 《尘尽光生》
Translated by the Tzu Chi Singapore translation team
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