Be happy with the life Ingredients!

August 2011 edition

Be happy with the life Ingredients!

Article summary

This article is about being happy with the things which we already have. This is also based on one of the dhamma stories of Ven. Ajahn Brahawanso. Examine the meaning and apply to your life for better results.

Let's make a cake...

A person gets flour, sugar, and eggs with the chocolate, fruits, icing as the bonus which are the ingredients for a cake. And another person gets just flour, sugar & eggs as the ingredients. Both of them have been asked to make a cake.

There are loads of possibilities the one with lots of ingredients mess up with the cake and the one who has minimum ingredient get a better cake. So, it’s not depend on what you get as the ingredients. It’s depends with the ability to make a cake with whatever the ingredients you have on that moment.

We all get such ingredients to make the cake call "Life".

You may be poor, you may be rich, you may be middle class… you may have all the body parts so nicely… you may be deaf or mute, or may not have hands or legs, or trouble with nature disasters, one may be blind… one may have lost their parents, no love at all, with loads of sufferings etc…

Always think about what you already have as the ingredients and about the others who are not having enough ingredients as yours. Rather than complaining on what’s not with you, always try to invent some methods to be happy with the ingredients which you already have.

Blaming another being for not treating you with the proper ingredients is not the way to happiness. Thinking about what not in your life and say “If I had that one I could be better than this…” is not the proper way of thinking. The one you expect to be great, possibly bring you the worst to your life sometimes.

So now you have ingredients. It may be just sugar & flour or it may be with flour, sugar, eggs and chocolate, fruits, icing and more… so whatever you have at this moment, it’s all yours. You are the one who make decision to have a ruined cake or to have a delicious cake.

When you get just the flour & sugar, if you blame the person whom you think he / she is the one who responsible for giving that minimum ingredients to you, the anger arise, woes, stress, dissatisfaction… loads of worries arise… when it reach to the highest point, what you do is throwing the ingredients out which make you a person with no ingredients at all… means, no cake at all… So, isn’t it something is better than nothing?

No cake, no sugar, no flour nothing but just with the bundle of feelings filled with hatred, disappointments, complains, blames etc… you are burning with the desire, hatred & ignorance. Remember the pile of Dung where worm is stuck!

So when things come to you in your life, Examine the ingredients and invent the methods to get the best output which filled with happiness, joy and peace in mind.

Good luck to be a good cook with no complains and no demands but with the tastiest dishes!

Rajitha Viduransi | Kelaniya, Sri Lanka