080410 Making the Most of Our Life

Date: April 10, 2008 (Thursday)
Lecturer: Master Zheng-Yan
Place: April 9, 2008 – Tzu Chi GuanDu Park Area

The human body is a microcosm (a mini-universe). The natural world is the macrocosm. Living in this world, we are also a part of the macrocosm of Nature, thus we should live in accordance and harmony with Nature. So, we should start our day when the sun rises and rest when the sun sets. In our lifetime, exactly how much time do we have? There are times when I am very calculating about time. Everyone knows how to calculate their finances, but do you do similar calculations for your life? How many hours are you truly living in a day? If we divide the 24-hour day into three 8-hour parts, how many hours a day do you sleep? I believe it’s around eight hours. Do you know sleeping eight hours is already a lot? Another eight hours in a day are wasted away by relaxing, doing nothing. The time we lose in life will be completely lost forever and can never be retrieved. When we lose money, because the economy has ups and downs, sometimes in boom, sometimes in recession. We may lose money, but we may still earn it back. But if we lose the time we have in life, we will never be able to get it back. That’s how particular I am in calculating the time I have in my life.

So, I am always calculating that if we sleep eight hours each day, we will spend one-third of our life sleeping. So, if we live for sixty years, imaging sleeping twenty years of our life away. What then can we really accomplish? That is twenty years when we are unconscious and out of touch with the world. We also have to subtract the time from when we were babies, up to when we finished primary school, as we were ignorant and couldn’t contribute at all. So, with 20 years sleeping & our first 12 years (of life), we lose 32 years already. Then, in one day, how much time do we spend eating? For one meal, on average, people spend around 40 minutes to an hour. With three meals a day, how many hours is that? More than one and a half hours. See how much time is spent on eating. This is how I calculate the time I have in life. There is also the time we spend washing our hands, doing nothing in particular, drinking coffee, having tea time, etc. Think about it, there is no one researching the subject of how we spend our time in life. Some people will say: “I’m tired to death.” How tired can you be? Just think how much time you spend, resting and eating. How much time do we have left? How much time do we truly spend on doing something useful or making a contribution to this world? From the time we were born, our parents have provided for us. Actually, our lives depend on Nature--- the land and favorable climate conditions. These favorable conditions are what make having a safe and peaceful life possible. See how erratic climate conditions are nowadays. Here in Taiwan, we are all very blessed and fortunate. For that, we must be very grateful every day because Taiwan is a very safe and peaceful place. But will Taiwan always remain this safe and peaceful? I often speak of the collective karma of all living beings, both positive and negative karma. So, the more people there are doing good, the more good karma there’ll be, collectively. And with that, the weather will be favorable.

Recently, we see that all across the world, there has been very serious inflation--- Petrol prices keep rising and the prices of many commodities have also risen. For some commodities, I think it’s fine that their prices go up because I feel that that will make people curb needless spending. However, if the prices of food, like flour and rice, rise, I truly don’t know how the poor people are going to survive. Not only will the poor have difficulty surviving, even aid organizations will find the financial burden heavier. Or, maybe in the future, when we need to provide aid to a country, we cannot buy the supplies we need even if we have the money. Everyone, this kind of vicious cycle is what worries me very much. That is why having favorable weather and other favorable natural conditions is extremely important. We really must be humbly pious and prudent, revere Nature, and love the land we live on. To be prudent, we have to abide by rules and precepts. We mustn’t go against them. If we break these rules and precepts, we will be going against principles. We will then deviate from the right path and lose the sense of family values and ethics.

That is why I have been hoping that we can lead our lives in accordance with Nature’s natural cycle. We should only eat to 80 percent full and also sleep a little less as six hours of sleep should be plenty. If you sleep six hours, only a quarter of your life will be spent sleeping, but if you sleep eight hours, that will take up a third of your life. If we sleep less, we can claim more time in life to do more meaningful things. We can spend one quarter of our time resting, two quarters of our time making a contribution, and use another quarter of our time for eating and relaxing a little bit, which should be plenty already. So, we should really learn how to make the fullest use of our life. As for our material wealth, it is said that how much money we have is predestined. Worrying about such things is truly tiring. For the sake of money, some people may spend their whole life toiling away, bringing upon themselves all sorts of illnesses, and ending up losing everything. In the end, what have they achieved? In a word, all we need in life is to have enough to sustain a living, so we don’t go hungry or incur any debts. All we need is enough, don’t be greedy. How long can we live in this world?

Please think over what I have told you today after you go home and see what is the most worthwhile way for living. Life is impermanent and we do not know when we may fall ill. So, we must do what we can while we’re healthy and not let our life slip by emptily. When you go home, you can carefully calculate how much time you spend benefiting others. We truly have been enjoying many of the Earth’s resources--- From birth, Nature has provided us food to eat and all sorts of things to use and the hard work of people in society has also allowed us to live such good lives. Shouldn’twe give back for what we’ve received? If we wish to give back to Nature and society, how much time have we dedicated to doing this? So, while walking on the Tzu Chi path, I hope everyone can bear a heart of gratitude--- be grateful to our parents, be grateful to our teachers, be grateful to Nature that provides for us, and be grateful to all living beings. That is why we must quickly take action to make a contribution for the good of others without expecting anything in return. That is how to give back. So, to walk the Bodhisattva Path, we must first bear a heart of gratitude. It is gratitude that brings forth our love and this love makes us respect others. When we come together in unity, harmony, and mutual love, that positive energy and power engenders a force of positive karma. Only when there is such positive karma will the world be safe and well and have favorable weather.