To be blessed is the main source of highest happiness. A great Saint said, "The man of perfect virtues has three sources of happiness: that his parents and siblings are still living, he feels righteous even before God, and he surrounds himself with talented people and is able to educate them. On the street, the happiest thing in the world is to do good deeds, to help others, and to have a satisfied mind. "
Usually people equate happiness with the amount of money they have. If we follow this general statement, the truth also is, the more we have the more we want to have more. When a man has one million bucks, he will want to have two millions bucks and then three, four …. so on until he can become a billionaire. Can money really give happiness?
Recently in early 2008, I met a wealthy woman around fifty years old but she was suffering from advanced stage of cancer of the throat. In her weak spoken words before she died she told me she would be poore than suffering the pain from the treatments. She was undergoing radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatments at a very expensive private hospital. The treatments caused her throat to be burnt and she could hardly swallow water. I was helpless but learned a lesson that money can not buy good health.
The saying that health is wealth very often was not seriously paid attention to until it is too late. A lot of young people do not bother about health, so they pick up bad habits like smoking and drinking which directly will affect their health later on in life. Some may pick up gambling and flirting or womanizing thinking that will give them happiness. In the end it could be deep mental torture with broken families and tons of regrets instead of money or happiness. Those with plenty of money and still suffering from broken hearts or loneliness will know money can not buy love.
What goes in and out of the mouth is a very important factor that can determine our health and happiness. What we plan and think will affect our mind to make us feel either happy or sad. What we do will make us either a good or a bad person and that determine our happiness or sadness. Basically it is the food we take, the words we speak, the thoughts in our mind and our actions that determine whether we are healthy, happy or sad.
Wisdom is not inborn, it is blessed by Heaven. How to get true wisdom? As a man progresses in life healthily and selflessly with a sincere heart, true wisdom will grow steadily. Physically and mentally he will grow old gracefully with a look people can trust. He will have an outer kindness and inner holiness look. This type of look will gain respect from people because people can see the great virtue in him and he does not be a wealthy man. He will have ample happiness because he has big heart that describes what a generous man he is by people. So the happiest thing in the world is to do good deeds, to help others, and to have a satisfied mind. All these things not necessarily need money to do them.
This is the saying of my Heavenly Teacher, JiGong:
"The butchers kill the visible befits while Tao cultivators perish the invisible beings. What kind of invisible beings? They are greed, anger, ignorance, desire and your worries. When the timing is right, we let go of our bad habits, bad Behaviors and thoughts, then we are on the first stage to attain Buddhahood. Then this knife is the wisdom knife, it is used to cut off all the difficulties and help one another to embark the Dharma Boat and transcend the cycle of life and death.
We all know we should be humble but what is humble? Does it mean we should have manners? We should talk with a lower tone and always think of others as our seniors, be able to tolerate what others are unable to tolerate, only then it is considered to be superior virtue. Keeping humble means we must always be humble, not feeling superior, proud and are low profiled.
The inner merit is the cultivation of your heart. Do you understand your heart? Do you understand yourself? Do you know where your bad habits and temper are? If your heart is not calm, there will be lots of bad things happening. Therefore, the external merit should start from understanding the heart from within. If things are done voluntarily then you will have the rewards and you are worthy of being virtuous.
When your thought moves, it would either be merits or faults, heaven or hell, therefore, you should be careful of your thought. To surpass yourself, merit can be obtained by calming and purifying your heart and not by the number of good things you have done. The true merit is on the perfection of your true nature.
Our body, mouth, eyesight and smile can accumulate virtues! Therefore, virtues exist everywhere like Tao. Tao practicing lies in the minute details of all principles of our behavior.
People who donate money do not need have profits. Some donate money with purpose in mind then there is no merit for them. In contrast, when someone does not donate much, but his sincerity is touched God, that's his merit and virtue.
We should strive ourselves to be able to stand straight to everything in the world. We should perform real donations. The body donation – do everything practically; The heart donation – maintain sincerity; The word donation – what we said should be in accordance with the ultimate truth and; The facial donation – get along with others with joy and smile. "
Author – TA Chew