How can there be peace and joy that last if we live on future earnings, if we have to loan to have what we want to have. Many end up buying a house based on 30 to 50 years of future earnings. Many end up in debt for ten years for a car in Singapore that can be the price of a bungalow in Malaysia.
Whilst Gautama Buddha advised us to save for the future in the Sigalovada Sutra, modern men go into debt and one wonders how they are going to provide for a family and their parents.
This is due to attachment and greed --- to live the good life even before they could earn enough for the good life. With bad times or unforeseen events, woe and behold the sky appears to collapse on them.
Even if they could cope, they would be strained and stressed out and in seemingly unending war and strife with life. Peace and ease will be far removed from their lives. This is indulgence which is camouflaged as the need to arrive and live up to life before they be more unaffordable.
The economic ills of the world in 2012 and perhaps the future are due to going for more than we could have here and now.
Isn't this modern temptation of life in 2012 an entrapment for more woes to come?
When will men learn that less can be more and more can be less?
The far can be near and the near can be far. Lord Bo Tien wants us to contemplate on this and be wiser.
The more we have and the nearer we think we are closer to having arrived and satiated, the further we are from having arrived. We just create a mirage that evaporates the moment we arrive at it.
The rich will be poor and the poor will be rich. This is what Lord Jesus wants us to realise as well. At least the poor will have no debt and are not living on future earnings.
Who is more likely to be at peace and ease --- the poor with some savings or the well-off with loans based on future earnings and with a life time of instalments to pay?
Many will not agree for what is right is often a spectrum.
But do be modest and live within your means and ensure you will not create problems down the road of life.
There will always be problems and issues in life but at least do not create the fertile ground for more problems than we could ever want to have. Do not create the rainbow of life that is there one moment but not there when we arrive.
Whilst Gautama Buddha advised us to save for the future in the Sigalovada Sutra, modern men go into debt and one wonders how they are going to provide for a family and their parents.
This is due to attachment and greed --- to live the good life even before they could earn enough for the good life. With bad times or unforeseen events, woe and behold the sky appears to collapse on them.
Even if they could cope, they would be strained and stressed out and in seemingly unending war and strife with life. Peace and ease will be far removed from their lives. This is indulgence which is camouflaged as the need to arrive and live up to life before they be more unaffordable.
The economic ills of the world in 2012 and perhaps the future are due to going for more than we could have here and now.
Isn't this modern temptation of life in 2012 an entrapment for more woes to come?
When will men learn that less can be more and more can be less?
The far can be near and the near can be far. Lord Bo Tien wants us to contemplate on this and be wiser.
The more we have and the nearer we think we are closer to having arrived and satiated, the further we are from having arrived. We just create a mirage that evaporates the moment we arrive at it.
The rich will be poor and the poor will be rich. This is what Lord Jesus wants us to realise as well. At least the poor will have no debt and are not living on future earnings.
Who is more likely to be at peace and ease --- the poor with some savings or the well-off with loans based on future earnings and with a life time of instalments to pay?
Many will not agree for what is right is often a spectrum.
But do be modest and live within your means and ensure you will not create problems down the road of life.
There will always be problems and issues in life but at least do not create the fertile ground for more problems than we could ever want to have. Do not create the rainbow of life that is there one moment but not there when we arrive.
No comments:
Post a Comment