No 237 of Living Life Series 1
Many do not realise the importance of good habits. Habits play a very critical role in whether we can make it in life vis-a-vis for any activity or goal in life.
If we over eat, we put on weight. If we do not eat or eat too little, we not only lose weight but may also have health problems as well.
If we do not sleep we have problems and if we oversleep, this does not help as well.
If you are spendthrift, you will deplete your wealth and be poorer somewhat but if you are thrifty, you will save for rainy days even though not rich.
If we do not pull up our socks and are tardy in the way we think and go about life, we engage in sloth and torpor. These are bad habits which we should be mindful to avoid.
To be optimum, everything that has to do with our life has to do with proportion and balance. To get it right, we must neither deny nor over indulge but strike the correct proportion or balance so that we get equilibrium and optimal smoothness or peace in life. This has to do with worldly or social life even though it applies to spiritual life.
If we do not pull up our socks and are tardy in the way we think and go about life, we engage in sloth and torpor. These are bad habits which we should be mindful to avoid.
Mindfulness or awareness of moment to moment of our life is a good habit that will bear fruits both spiritual and otherwise. It fosters good observation capability, analytical mind, helicopter and fresh perspectives and culture of innovation. Recklessness brings on the opposite. But to be mindful all the time and not being able to contend the awareness of issues can bring on very emotional restlessness and helter skelter at times. This is the case if we are not able to develop the sense of inner peace comes what may, be it good and bad.
To be optimum, everything that has to do with our life has to do with proportion and balance. To get it right, we must neither deny nor over indulge but strike the correct proportion or balance so that we get equilibrium and optimal smoothness or peace in life. This has to do with worldly or social life even though it applies to spiritual life.
If we leave society and go to the wilderness to lead the spiritual life, we may end up further from spirituality. Asceticism robs away our health both mental and bodily health. When that happens, we will not be able to be strong in spirit. If life itself is at stake and threatened, how can there be fulfilment of any sorts let alone spiritual.
If we are in the thick and thin of society and become part of its fabric, we are lost in the whirlpool of mundane life and suffer as a result. The rich will go for more and more and suffer because they want more. They are entrapped in the mire of desires and have no insight let alone foresight.
They think that they are in the 'nirvana' or 'shangrila' of mundane life. This is more so when they live in debts and hire purchases or if they live on wine, women and song to the exclusion of everything else. The latter scenario will land many in sorry state such as woes of extramarital problems, venereal diseases like HIV, debts, liver disease, and heart problems.
If we are in the thick and thin of society and become part of its fabric, we are lost in the whirlpool of mundane life and suffer as a result. The rich will go for more and more and suffer because they want more. They are entrapped in the mire of desires and have no insight let alone foresight.
They think that they are in the 'nirvana' or 'shangrila' of mundane life. This is more so when they live in debts and hire purchases or if they live on wine, women and song to the exclusion of everything else. The latter scenario will land many in sorry state such as woes of extramarital problems, venereal diseases like HIV, debts, liver disease, and heart problems.
Time and time again this has been proven true and is depicted by the image of Lord Bo Tien with both feet atop and balancing the elements or the yin and yang.
He has stressed to us that that this salient principle if applied to spiritual brings spiritual progress and if applied to mundane life, it will reap ample and optimal mundane blessings.
Thus He advises us to be spiritual and yet be with the family life. We do not run away from but be in the thick and thin of life. We do not renounce life but enable life by cultivating balance and sense of proportion and reality so as to have peace of spirit and of body as well as peace of life as an individual and as a society.
Success and progress in all aspects of life be it spiritual or otherwise lie in effort and discipline to cultivate good habits. Good habits beget good results. Bad habits beget bad consequences. The one who cultivates good habits succeeds in life and if these are based on spiritual norms, the advancement is both in spiritual and mundane world as well.
This is the simplicity of truth in life which we must know and be mindful of in every moment of life. Many seek the truth of ancient wisdom, yet the profound truth is so simple but at times difficult to perceive. The late Senior Bro P. Philip wants us to have insight of this. His exact words are as follows.
"Only the wise seek the fulfilment of ancient wisdom. Yet the profound truth is so simple but difficult to perceive."
If anyone seeks the service of astrologers or image consultants, one of the things they will touch on will be how to have good habits. They can often pinpoint with accuracy the habits you have, both good and bad and how you should change for the better. But for them to predict the future or what is the direction in your life is another matter. By advising you to change your habits for the better, they can change your life for the better and you can thus better secure your future.
We do not need to wait for a new year to make new year 'do' list or resolutions. We must wake up now and make the change for better habits such as early to bed early to rise makes one strong healthy and wise, a stitch in time saves nine, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, little drops of water makes a mighty ocean, time and tide waits for no man, wait not for tomorrow what you can do today, make hay whilst the sun shines and more hands make light work.
These are things we can do now. They may seem little things but yet they do make big strides in our life if we can succeed in doing. This way we have less tears and fears but more years and cheers. We have more peace and less sneeze. We will be more at peace. Life will be more of a breeze. It is better to have this than sleaze and dis-ease.
Habits, dear friends, are part of our individual personality. Habits maketh the man or woman. By going for better habits, we can change for the better and have better individual personality. This way, we will end up more like-able and more pleasant to others. Let us all resolve to have more good habits.
Habits must change with the times and with changing station in life. Habits that work well when we are young may not work well when we are sick or old. We either make or break in old age or in sickness depending on whether we have the right or wrong habits. By having good habits for old age or ailments, we will be at peace with our age or sickness and not be in conflict with life.
It is a good habit to stick to routines at whatever age we may be in. Routines are therapeutic and keep the mind from being wayward and divergent. The mind does not wander about and does not end up lost and restless. It is easier to keep the peace of spirit that way even for priests and monks.
Good habits make life more peaceful and pleasant. Good habits land us with heaven on earth in this very life. We do not need to wait for death to come to have chance to be in heaven in the afterlife.
Good habits are included in the Mangala Sutra of the Theravada Buddhists. The first verse goes like this. "Associate with the wise in men. Do not associate with the unwise in men. Honour those who are worthy of honour. These are the highest blessings." In Pali, it is "Asevana cher balanang. Panditanang cher sevana. Puja cher ya balanang. Atang mangala mutamang."
A good habit will prove to be a boon to life. Any bad habit is a bane to life.
A good habit will prove to be a boon to life. Any bad habit is a bane to life.
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For the writer, it is a good habit to ponder on the image of Lord Bo Tien for the image is the doctrine and the doctrine is in the image. Being absorbed in contemplation of the image and what it depicts is in itself a heavenly experience as well. He who knows the doctrine knows and sees the lord and is close to the lord even though far. This did Lord Bo Tien remind us. Thus the far may be near and the near may be far.
By having good habits, we can be near to heavenly saints even if we are physically distant and far from them. We can be nearer to the saints or prophets than many of their adherents even though we may not be part of their temples or churches or anywhere near their shrines. The far may be near and the near may be far. Good habits can make the difference.
Good habits are about sticking to optimum rhythms. Lord Bo Tien did remind us that when the sun shines, most men must go to work and when the sun sets, men must rest. Those who do not abide by this will have some problems of adjustment as our body follows this diurnal biorhythm. We must eat at the right time and sleep at the right time. We will be better off that way both in mind and body, and both spiritually as well as in the mundane world. By optimising life via good biorhythms, anyone will be better poised for work, study, social or family life, and for that matter, any blessing and preposition in life. Don't you agree?
Cheers for good habits. We will make it in life that way. What is of foremost importance is that we will make it spiritually and the very principles that emplace us on spiritual path apply well too to our mundane world. Thus there is no need to leave life but we can better embrace life holistically and make it in life that way here and now and not wait for tomorrow or the afterlife. This did saints like Lord Bo Tien want us to have and all of us deserve to have. Surely, readers will have no issue with agreeing to this. God bless.
Sometimes, it is not easy to improve on our repertoire of good habits and to be mindful of what habits we have which are not so good. As the Christian Bible aptly tells us through Lord Jesus that it is not easy to see the dust in one's own eyes than to see the dust in others' eyes.
Lord Bo Tien too has said that we should learn from life from our own life and from the lives of others. Learn from the good habits of others so that we can do likewise. Learn too from their bad habits so that we do not commit the same follies.
But "judge not, lest ye be judged" as the Christian Bible did stress. We must be thankful that God enable us to learn from the gospel of life not just our own lives but the lives of others. We will grow the wisdom of God in us. We will be wiser and stronger in spirit. May we be fortified with good habits and be stronger in spirit always and ever more.
Cultivate good habits. Do not go about life as though others owe us a living. Do not for a moment think we owe others a living as well. Do not try to please or want to be pleased.
Have the good habit of wanting to be at peace and this must not be from others trying to please us or from our trying to please others. It comes from balancing the elements and contingencies of life, the yin and the yang or what may be referred to as polarities. This is best portrayed by the seated pose of the image of Lord Bo Tien with feet atop and balancing the elements.
Remember though that we neither get abiding inner peace by pleasing God and heavenly saints like Lord Bo Tien nor by being pleased by God and heavenly saints. This does not mean we should not please God and saints and God and saints cannot try to please us at times. Abiding inner peace comes from good habits that enable us to balance life and be at peace. That way we enable life to its optimum and soon be one with God and saints.
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