The meaning of life and the teaching of Buddha

◎ The confusion of modern human beings

    The development of human civilization has entered the business and industrial society today. Although people live a convenient and abundant life, their spiritual life is still empty. In a busy life, sometimes we are confused about why we have to work hard? What is the meaning of life actually? Working to make money is to provide the basic living needs, but what we want is more than just that; we think that the more money we make, the more happiness we will have, but often we find ourselves are not happy. We are all chasing a better life - we want to be rich, to be successful, to be respected ...... But soon after we fulfill these wishes and feel happy for a short time, we will set higher goals and pursue them one after another, because we can never feel contented. This endless pursuit is often the main reason for our unhappiness.
    Day after day, we pursue these goals that can not make us truly happy, but still we are not sure what our life means. We were carried away by the busy life and could not stop to think carefully about these issues. In this modern society which is rapidly changing and full of temptations, how to find out the meaning of our own life is an important issue.

◎ looking for real freedom and ease

    There are some succeed in their careers, some have vast wealth, some have enviable partners and some have high social position ...... but they still suffer from all sorts of sufferings and annoyances. These annoyances, like an invisible rope, hold us firmly and make us can not break free. We have many unmet desires, and we are afraid of losing the things we have, so we can not feel free and easy. Usually we try to pursue external things and change the external environment, and we believe that this will give us real freedom and happiness, but ultimately we can not succeed in trying these methods because the reason which affects us to be suffered or happy lies in our mind. When we were young, we were always happy because we had a simple heart and few desires. And there are some poor people -  although they are poor - knowing that they should be content, be responsible with their own duty, and cultivating good thoughts, therefore the abundance, peace and happiness in their minds even exceed rich people. So happiness need to be pursued from inside; if our minds are stable, free, easy and happy, our life will be stable, free, easy and happy.

◎Buddhism is the refuge of modern people

    How can we discover the meaning of life and the purpose of living, find the refuge of our mind, and attain freedom and ease? One of the ways is to reference the experiences of previous people but we should choose these experiences carefully. After choosing, we should verify them. After all, these things are important events in life. Taking some time to evaluate them can reduce the unnecessary mistakes.
    It has been more than two thousand years since the Buddha discovered the Reality and the way of Enlightenment he taught has been widely circulated to the present day.
    Buddhism provides the theory for thinking and practical methods for practice. Its goal is to make people get the same Enlightenment as the Buddha, get the meaning of life and get the freedom and ease of mind. In these two thousand years, the teachings of the Buddha, verified by many monks and great masters, can indeed provide an effective way to make us keeping away from sufferings and getting happiness. Of course, these are other people's experiences; if you want to realize the state of Enlightenment by yourself, you should verify them by yourself.

◎ Introducing Buddhism

    Through the microscopic and macroscopic study and observation of the universe and the rules of the human life, Buddhism helps us to discover the meaning and purpose of life.
    The Buddha teaches us that if we want to attain the wisdom of Reality, we must first make our mind be stable. Only in a state of being stable can we see the Reality and attain wisdom. How to make our mind be stable? The Buddha taught us to keep the Precepts. The most basic Precepts are the Five Precepts - do not kill all lives, do not steal things belong to others, do not have sexual relations with people other than your partner, do not lie and do not use alcohol or drugs, which make people lose their judgment. When we often remind ourselves that we should not do these acts, we call it "keeping Precepts". If we can control ourselves and reach the state that the ideas of violating the Precepts do not arise in mind, our mind will get elementary stability. Then there is the way of actual practice - meditation; using the ways of observing one's own breathing or other parts of the body and thinking about the rules of universe and life, our mind can enter a deeper level of stability. If you can stay in this state, when the cause and condition is fulfilled, you can attain Enlightenment.
    The Buddha discovered that our universe is impermanent, that there is not anything unchanged forever, including our thoughts, perceptions, behaviors, and consciousness - they are always changing - so that we can not find anything or a way for our mind to focus on it for a long time.
    When the Buddha was alive, he left a wide variety of different kinds of teachings; the purpose is to enable people to experience the state of Enlightenment by themselves and attain freedom, ease and relief. The Buddha gives different ways to different kinds of beings. No matter which method we use, as long as we exactly practice along this path, we must finally be able to fully discover the meaning and purpose of life as Buddha did.

2017. Nov