Make or break more a choice than a destiny

Learning Point No 334 

In life be it mundane or spiritual, there is always the choice. How do you want life to be? 

If you do little or nothing and don't work for it, little or nothing will materialize  If you work for it you will get it. 

But if you set your eyes on more than what you can handle, you may fail but even if you succeed, you will be struggling with life. Then life is no longer a joy but a pain at every turn and corner. 

If you think that mundane life is waste of time and go for spiritual at expense of all else, you will create problems for yourself. You will end up no where near spiritual bliss but far from it because you are at odds with life by denying the life of flesh and blood, the life of the mundane. 

You will be better off by taking care in moderation  the mundane life, the needs of flesh and blood so that you will have health before you can go for even the basic be it spiritual or mundane. 

But if you choose to do more than you could handle be it mundane or spiritual, you will send your life into a tumble and be worse off. 

So do know how to moderate. Go for all and you will end up with little or none. Be modest and do what you can and even before you get what the modest goals you set out for, be it spiritual or mundane, you are already at peace. 

The process is as rewarding if not more so than the end result. This is the way of the wise. Remember that make or break depend on yourself. Make or break is more a choice than a destiny. 

It has to do with being contented and at peace even before you get what you want. It has to do with not wanting more or doing more than you are capable of and comfortable with. You may be capable of more but the cost to your peace in life may not be worthwhile. 

It has to do with not running away and doing nothing and expecting blessings, be it mundane or spiritual to drop down from the sky. 

It has to do with the balancing of duality of yin and yang as depicted by the feet of Lord Bo Tien atop and balancing the elements at his feet - representing worldly contingencies such as gain loss, denial and indulgence, envy / jealousy at one hand and the open-hearted rejoicing with others blessings at the other. 

It has to do with no denial, no struggling and no clinging but just being at peace and doing what you can, at peace you are at peace and comfortable with.

Make or break is more a choice than a destiny. You are a master of your own life. Joy or sorrow is often more our making than of fate. 

Even fate is not really predestined but the result of our past handling of life be it present or past life. 

But you could make the change, to want to be at peace and be contented with life come what may. Do not run from life nor race forward in life chasing after more than you could handle. 

Make or break in life is more a choice than a destiny. So choose wisely and be at peace even before you choose and act on your choice. 

That is the way which sages of old set out to do in life. This is for both spiritual and mundane. 

What applies to spiritual if applied to mundane will enable you to make it in life - both spiritual and mundane. This is the teaching of all saints. Lord Bo Tien reiterated on this principle in life.