People nowadays live in fear. We are fearful of traffic accidents when we walk outside, plane crashes when we board a plane, and unemployment when we go to work. All the worry and fear has caused hurt in ourselves and others. People don’t trust anyone and end up feeling even lonelier. True Buddhists need to be able to let go of things. We need to learn to think through things and relieve ourselves from the worries of this human world. Those who can do that have truly achieved “enlightenment.”
How do true Buddhists fill our hearts with light? The most important thing is to overcome pain and troubles in life with our mercy and compassion. Think about it: when you resent someone, you, in fact, start losing the compassion inherent in our true nature.
Therefore, the more we are compassionate toward others, the less we resent. The more compassionate we are toward others, the less we hurt. When we are more compassionate toward others, we fill our hearts with more love and light.
2500 years ago, the Buddha said that everyone has the inherent Buddha-nature. Everyone is his own master and his own future’s master. In this society, we can’t truly rely on others; we have to learn to count on ourselves. And we have to understand that everything happening right now is the karmic consequence of what we have done before.
No matter what mistakes we have made before, we have to live in the present moment. We have to be our own masters and not commit new offenses again in order to not suffer additional karmic consequences. While we have control of our lives, we have to train our hearts to always see the bright side and be optimistic. Because we can take control of our present, we can preserve the nature of Buddha in our hearts and see our bright futures.The way to peace and happiness is to live to the fullest every day and keep a positive mindset.
We cannot take anything from our life when we leave this world, so let’s not be greedy anymore and not pray for more material things. The content people are the happiest people.
The less greedy we are, the more likely we can bring peace and happiness into our lives. The less content we are, the more pain we feel in life.
Our own mind creates all the pain and worries we experience. There’s a traditional Chinese saying: “Though peace reigns over the land, fools create trouble for themselves.” The person that hurts us the most is ourselves.
When others hurt you or scold you, you feel upset and sad when you get home. But by thinking it over and over again, you are hurting yourself a hundred or even a thousand times, more than people who hurt you. Some people had bad experiences when they were young and still couldn’t let go, even when they are old and they are really just hurting themselves this way. The most important thing in life is not the past nor the future, but the present. If you can take control of your life today, not let yourself be sick or live in sorrow and pain and can feel your existence every day, then you are truly “living in the moment” as Buddhists say.
For many Buddhists, we may have lost many opportunities in the first half of our life from hesitation and hurtful experiences in life, career, or relationships. So is the path of Buddhist practice. We should make sure we do not miss out on this opportunity. Some people missed out on Buddhism by accident and once we missed out, we missed out on the opportunity to gain wisdom. The mistakes we’ve made were not because of our stupidity, but because of our stubbornness. Think about it: how many opportunities have we missed ever since we were young because we didn’t want to listen to others’ suggestions? If only we were more willing to take other people’s advice, we might have gotten on a better path. When it comes to Buddhist practice, we cannot afford to hesitate. Before we learned Buddhism, we have many regrets in our life. After we started practicing Buddhism, we learned to treasure everything and everyone in our life, which leads to a brighter future.
Think about it: for all the people in the audience today, are you in the same amount of pain about things that have troubled you since when you were young? All the suffering you are going through today may be gone when you leave this world in 20 or 30 years. The past is already in the past and cannot be changed; all we can do is to take control of the present. Today, let us not get sick, let us treasure our family, our children and everything society has given you. Today, let us learn to be content and not let our weary heart go through more worldly worries and sufferings.
We need to be able to admit our shortcomings and tolerate other people’s shortcomings. This way we become more virtuous. If you resent others every day, you are only hurting yourself. Love is like a tooth, it’s gone once it falls off; even if you manage to put it back, it’s no longer genuine. Treasure everything, please! Learn to let go and be enlightened. Let us decide not to complain about others no matter what happens in the future. Let’s treat the handling of all of our negative emotions like a test. Today I was in bad mood, but I took control of it; I passed the test. Today I was unhappy and I lost control of my emotions, and I failed the test. If you can overcome your emotions, you can restore your rationality.

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