Times and again, my friends and family members have indirectly hinted to me that I am still too young to consider retirement. That, I am still to young to slow down. That, I still have the propensity and resources to make more money. But, would having more money make me happier ? Would I still be able to enjoy the fruits of my labour when my physical state dictate that I must retire ?
Funny thing is, we had been living a life of illusionary thinking that we are distinct and separate from the universe we lived in. Out thoughts and actions are always driven by our infinite wants. We are afraid of poverty. We are unsure of the future. We greed for materials and possessions not rightfully ours. We want more power to expand our support, loyalty,and respect from others. How much would be enough ?
We always have the fear that, if we do not have sufficient money, possessions, and power, we will not be able to overcome the high costs of living and survive the the hardship of life later. If we do not networked to have more friends, we will not be able to survive loneliness and solitariness at later part of our life.
We worried so much about the future that we unconsciously build a circle of dooms, fears, and uncertainties around us. Although life is a duality of past and future, but we indoctrinated ourselves to not placing priority on the present. The present is real, the present is our nibbana, and we fantasized in virtual reality. We should live life as it is, live it with confidence, and enjoy the fulfillment of life's richness. The secret law of the universe is such, come what may, life will take care of itself. It always does.
Sometimes, I look out at the clear night skies, I see the moon, the beautiful stars, and enjoy the wonderful feeling that we are a tiny part of the galaxies of universe. This universe that span across vast distances offer infinity of richness, power, and abundances. When I look into infinite world, I know, when the time come, whatever problem I may have, this universe will offer me unlimited solutions, opportunities, and resources to overcome whatever negative situations that I may encountered in life.
We no longer live life as it should be. We ingrained scarcity in our mind and unnecessarily burdened ourselves with insecurities of future's uncertainties. We put ourselves into this state of negativities because we believe we are alone, separated, and not interdependence from this vastness of the universe. We falsely believed in the survival of the fittest with the hope that our triumph over others will grant us a future of comfort and security. The poor will find all means to be rich, and the rich will devise elaborate plan to protect their wealths. We refused to cooperate with other to create prosperity, peace, and abundances for everyone. We become intolerance of others, we transgressed, ill treated, and imposed our expectations and values on others. We want to be master of our own destiny, but hoping that others will be slaves to our stupidities. And, at the end of the day, we institutionalized spirituality into religions, and offer insincere prayers to "God" to justify our selfishness and lack of morality.
Of course, I can go on to work like there is no tomorrow to accumulate more wealths. But the law of nature is such, in creating wealth, one must also be able to take times to enjoy the wealths. Otherwise, it is just a meaningless pursuit of materialism. I honestly believe, at this stage of my life, I should not be too preoccupied with creating more wealth for my self. I should not be worry to much about scarcity and uncertainty. And I must slow down, start looking for appropriate time to retire, and enjoy life to the best of my ability.
A good friend of mine once told me that, when he was young, he work so hard to accumulate more money. so much so that, he neglected his health, his family, and neglected how to live life. Now that he has the money, he no longer has the health and the family to live life as he once envisioned.
Life is not about owning more wealths, and be preoccupied with devising plans to protect the wealths to yourself. Life is about facilitating the flow of wealths to enrich everyone. What goes around comes around. In return, the greatest and most fullfiling reward of life is, the ability to enriching yourself without being slave to materialisms and detached from the desires of unnecessary want
I don't know about others. I think life's best reward is to be able to retire young, and be able to enjoy and appreciate every single details of the surrounding habitats. Wow, what a wonderful world of creation and evolution.
Carpe Diem, C'est Lavie !
Om Mani Pedme Hum... Om Namo Amithaba Buddha.
Who are the Three Wise Men ?
After extensive research on secret documents recently released by the British security agency, I can now conclusively confirmed that, the Magi, aka Three Wise Men, does come from the east - yup, East of Hollywood. After decades of wondering around the land of the free and failing to locate baby Bush, they resigned themselves to become the King of Comedy and assumed the name of The Three Stooges to spread their message of love via short comedy films. The Three Wise Men are Moe Howard (aka Harry Moses Horwitz), Shemp Howard (aka Samuel Horwitz), and friend Larry Fine (aka Louis Feinberg).
In 1993, the Three Wise Men reincarnated as the Three Musketeer (Athos, Porthos, and Aramis ). They borrowed the special vehicle from Michael J Fox to travelled back into Golitha Falls in Cornwall, England to fight injustices and tyrannies.
Today, I believed the Three Wise Men are so fed up with humanity that they poofed themselves into the Three Famous Monkey - Speak No Evil, Hear no Evil, and See no Evil..
No wonder humanity is so screwed up nowadays ! But all is not lost, in the search for truth, we the Buddhists also pay great significant attention to the number "3", and we came up with the Three Jewels of Buddhism. The Three Jewels of Buddhism are The Buddha, The Dhamma, and The Sangha.
