When in Xi'an, Shaanxi, China, looking at the thousands of terracotta warriors of Emperor Qin Shi Huang, a few thoughts came to my mind. If someone would ask me at that time what practicing Buddhism was about, I would say the aim of practicing Buddhism was to enrich our souls gradually over time, how to increase our usefulness, including the possibility of being used, with age - so that with each passing day we become more like special antiques and not just old items. A closer look at the history of human civilisation would tell us that we have only 2 goals: to create and keep useful things and to eliminate things that really are unnecessary.

Loving-kindness, Compassion, Transcendental Wisdom, Patience, Equanimity ... are personal strengths that make us invaluable over the years.

All the bad things like selfishness, ill-will, jealousy, ignorance, greed ... only make us old and useless like items ready to be taken to the rubbish tip.

Hence, my advice to you all is to separate the antiques from the old goods. Notice what makes a valuable old thing to remain valuable and finally become a useful antique, instead of being just a collector's item.

Karmic Connections | | Old or Antique Nembutsu Chanting And Death-bed Praying | | Gullibility Tiếng Việt