GrowingOlderHopeWiser

What would it be like to be completely free from worries? How would it feel to let go of concerns about the small things in our daily lives? We exaggerate the importance of things. These concerns sometimes cause us discomfort and pain. It does not have to be like this.

According to Buddhist thought, what are the things we sweat about? : Having money or losing our money. Gaining respect or losing respect. Our reputation or the loss of our reputation. Our pleasures or the loss of our pleasures. Getting praised or getting criticized. These things are unreliable, unstable, and out of our control. We become emotionally unreliable and unstable. We feel unbalanced and upset when we lose the things we think we should have. We also get served the things we don’t want.

We use most of our energy to get what we want. We also try to avoid things that cause discomfort and pain, which consumes our mental energy. Ultimately, none of these things will bring us real comfort at the time of our death. We can’t take them with us; all we can take with us is our state of mind.

We can stay on an even keel if we can develop equanimity towards our worldly concerns. We will be capable of focusing on what is the most important. We should think about our own mortality. It would be in our best interest to unlearn our old bad habits of dwelling on worldly concerns. Instead, we should focus on living in the current moment wisely. We need to be aware of our future lives and states of mind. When the end of our life comes it is not these worldly concerns that we will take with us. All we can take with us at the time of our death is our mind. Everything else we must leave behind. Our family, our friends, our wealth and everything else we agonized over.

To find happiness in this life, we must abandon our attachment to how we think things should be. Letting go is also necessary for happiness in the next life. We need to live fully and wisely in the moment.