20180513深生信解利人群 Having Deeply Developed a Clear Understanding on the Meaning of Life
With a heart of sincerity, we should often think about reciprocating the “
four debts of gratitude”. There are four kinds of gratitude that we should always keep these gratitude in our heart and think about how to reciprocate them.
These four kinds of gratitude are gratitude to Buddha and Bodhisattvas for nurturing our wisdom-life, gratitude to our parents for giving us life and raising us, gratitude to our teachers for imparting us knowledge, and gratitude to all living beings for nurturing our spiritual cultivation.
We need to repay the gratitude toward Buddhas and Bodhisattvas because since eons ago, life after life, they have been guiding us to do good deeds, engage in spiritual cultivation, and put the Dharma to practice. This is made possible due to their passing on the Dharma so we may grow in wisdom-life. Therefore, we need to repay them with gratitude.
There’s also the gratitude toward our parents who give us our body and raise us so we may live in this world. We need to be grateful for having our body.
My parents said they are grateful to me for being with them. In fact, I’m the one who’s truly grateful to them. They are the ones being there for me, taking care of me, and raising me. Actually, as a son, I haven’t done much for them. I want to use this opportunity to express my heartfelt gratitude to my parents.
There’s also the gratitude toward teachers for imparting us knowledge. Since young, we’ve learned about morality, ethics, and life’s principles, and now we are learning about the Dharma. It’s due to the guidance of teachers that we’ve come to know so many life’s principles. Being able to go through life so smoothly, in addition to owing it to the three kinds of gratitude, we also need to be grateful to living beings.
I often tell people that in going amongst people to serve, we will encounter all sorts of people and situations. Even though things are complicated and they give us a lot of afflictions, they help us realize many life’s principles, such as what is positive and negative, and how to discern right from wrong. These are what we can learn amongst people.
Though we were rejected quite often, I still think we should keep going. I live in this area so I want to inspire more people in this area, and let them know about such wholesome principles
I want peace. I understand about peace. Everyone is searching for peace.
I often say that our cultivation ground is where we serve amongst people. We must harbor gratitude for he has shown us a path to walk on, by which we can and meanwhile, grow in wisdom-life. As long as we are mindful in walking this path, and practicing the six Paramitas, we can become living bodhisattvas in serving others. Therefore, we must harbor gratitude.
As all living beings help us cultivate, without them, how are we able to live our life with the right direction? So, we truly need to have gratitude. The value of life lies within awakening our inner Buddha nature despite living in a world impurity. Hence, we must always harbor gratitude. We must repay Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, our parents, teachers, and all living beings.
We repay them with our actions. Such is why bodhisattvas guide others. All Buddhas also taught this way. When Buddhas and Bodhisattvas give, they do so without expecting anything in return. Yes, we can repay them by fulfilling our duty well, caring for our parents, as well as all living beings in the world.
Therefore, we should cherish and quickly make the best use of our life to learn life’s principles and take them to heart. We should make use of our time by serving amongst people to make our life meaningful. Doing things that benefit people make our life meaningful.
When we truly do thing to benefit people or give of ourselves, we are living a life worth living. Seizing our time and quickly making use of our life to serve amongst people is having a deep and clear understanding on the meaning of everlasting wisdom-life. Our wisdom-life does not just start and ends in this life. Such life is the continuation of the past and present, it will also continue on in the future. This is everlasting. People with everlasting wisdom-life are men of wisdom.
So, everyone let us make the best use of our lives to take in and then practice life’s principles to serve amongst people. This way, we develop a deep understanding of life’s principles. We have to understand that we must use both our human life and our wisdom-life to live out the Dharma and benefit society. This is the real value of our life. This is having deeply developed a clear understanding of life’s meaning and giving rise to aspirations.
When we make vows of doing good, we hope to live longer or have many more lifetimes to give of ourselves in serving the world. We can fully make use of an hour’s time and maximize its effectiveness to several hours to benefit people. Just one thought can help many people. When we do something good to benefit people, be it using our brain or physical strength, as long as we carry out our good thoughts, our lives become precious.
One thought that is carried out can have great impact on people, it can inspire people, and makes us lead by example. We can serve the world by inspiring people with wholesome ideas and leading by example. In doing this, we are doing something beneficial. Each and every second of our lives is indeed valuable.
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