With so many bad news everywhere due to the "
financial tsunami" (Warren Buffett's description), where a lot of people are losing their jobs, their homes and their hopes for a good life, it is very easy to fall into a state of despair.
Life is so challenging, with a lot of pressures coming from different directions. Some days, you can feel that it is easier to stay in bed and not have to face the world.
However, that is not an option. All these sufferings are temporary. In the big scheme of things, it does not last.
A lot of these sufferings are because of our cravings. We crave for material things, status and gratifications.
If we are able to quiet these cravings within us, we will see that all these desires of wealth and fame does not bring us true happiness. We search for it outside of ourselves and keep coming up short.
Why?
As long as seek power, happiness and gratification by pursuing fame, money and sex, we will never be happy and we will never be satisfied.
Many of us think that if we have no money, status or fame, we therefore have no power and cannot be truly happy.
However, once our basic material needs for food, water, shelter, saftety and livelihood are met, the path to true happiness is actually very simple.
Only by coming back to ourselves and purifying our minds can we experience true and lasting happiness.
Without attachments to material things, fame and fortune, your happiness is based on your own peace, wisdom and love. The mind forms these attachments, which leads to much sufferings.
You have to train yourselve to see happiness in terms of
peace, freedom and compassion. The more generous you are in giving, not just your money and power, the more you will find that you are happy.
Happy to live in the present, with no worries about your diminishing assets in this difficult times. Happy that you are alive and feeling the warmth of the sun on your skin. Happy that you are surrounded by a lot of blessings.
So, live with a
grateful spirit - be thankful that you still have your good health, your families and love ones, your mental faculties, your friends and your place in this beautiful world.
Go out there and give as generously as you can...
And you will find that each of your gifts will be as everlasting as the mountains in Tibet...
