The Attitude of Abundance

All the time, you are reminded of the past; all the time, you are worried about the future. In turn, all the time, you suffer, knowingly or unknowingly. But, is human life all about suffering? No, it’s actually a lease of life, an opportunity given to you by the Divine to free yourself from the cycle of suffering and understand the depth and purpose of life, which is eternal happiness.  

Move away from the attitude of deficiency to the attitude of abundance. Instead of asking ‘what is it in for me’, be grateful for the things that make you truly happy. This change in perspective will free you from suffering and help you be truly happy. Stay tuned for more such insights!  

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:07

Welcome to the Art of Being Happy, Buddha's Guide to Modern Living from Jaitavanarama Buddhist Monastery Sri Lanka. This intriguing talk series brings timeless Buddhist wisdom to help you navigate life's challenges through simple practical insights. Each episode offers gentle guidance for finding peace and joy in everyday moments. Join us on this journey toward lasting happiness and inner peace. Brought to you by Sanatana, the voice eternal.

SPEAKER_00 0:46

To give it to you in very simple terms, all we do in Sansara is suffering. That's it. If someone ever asks you, hey, what are you up to this weekend? There's one answer which, if you give, is always true. God said, I'm just suffering this weekend, man. Just say that and it's true. What are your plans for next uh next Friday? Huh? Suffering. You're just gonna suffer this Friday. Someone says, Shall we make an appointment for Wednesday afternoon, uh, say five o'clock? Are you busy? Yeah, I'll be suffering then. That's what we do in Sansah. Suffer, that's it. In the four great hills, you suffer. As a human being, you suffer. As a Deva, you suffer. As a Brahna, suffer. The level of suffering might change, but suffering is suffering. You know by this point, ladies and milk, why your mind fabricates a sense of self. It's because of vexation. Vexation is another word for suffering. Without suffering, there would be no Buddha. Why would a Buddha have to come into this world if there was no suffering? She says in no uncertain terms, you know, at one occasion he picks up a grain of sand. But he picks up a grain of sand and he says, Ananda, if there was just this much of happiness in this universe, right? One grain of sand. He says, if there was just this much happiness in the world, a Buddha would not come into this world. There isn't even this, not even a molecule of happiness in this world. That is why this world sees a Buddha from time to time. So what makes us think that we do anything other than suffering? Because all the time you are reminded of the future or about the past, and therefore you lament, you are in sorrow, or you are reminded about the future. You think, you imagine the future, and therefore you're in fear. So these two things always happen to you constantly. Even in your asleep, you still have nightmares, you have bad dreams. Even if it's a good dream, you're still hopeful that some it'll turn out to be even better than it is. And you want to live in the good dream. So when is the time that you're free of suffering? Never. Then what is human life, I ask? If all we do in Sansara is suffer, then what is human life? Let's redefine, let's clearly define what human life is. It's an eight-year-long lease. Provided they live out your lease. Sometimes they terminate your lease midterm. Right? These days it's about eight, 120. It's a 120-year-long lease. To do what? To free yourself from suffering. That's it. It's nothing more, nothing less. At least for your sake, try and understand that. That is all this is an opportunity. Free yourself from suffering. Is that what you're doing? Is that how you spend the last 40 years? Is that how you spend the last 50? To free yourself from suffering. Wasn't much of that time spent just creating even more suffering because you always jump from the pit to the fire. When there was one problem to try and solve that, you jumped into an even bigger problem. See, loneliness, for example, was a big problem in your life. Loneliness. You don't like to be lonely. You like to feel that you have someone who cares about you and spend time with people who you think love you, take care of you, have affection towards you. So, because you didn't like loneliness, what did you do? You brought people who you thought were like that. Actually, you know what you really did? You brought people who themselves felt lonely. How could that be the answer? You must have figured, I mean, you know, you didn't, but you should have figured that they didn't have the solution to that, right? Here's the best way to figure out whether you should marry someone. When you ask them, I would like to take your hand in marriage. If they say yes, don't marry that person. No, honestly, that's a simple test. If you ask, go and ask someone, will you marry me? And if they say yes, don't marry them. Because they also want someone's company. So they have a box with a that's a box with a void, and they've just found a candidate to fill that void with. They just want that box to be filled with someone, you have volunteered. Today it's you, tomorrow it will be someone else. So if you want to find treatment for your condition, your disease, find someone who's cured themselves. So you must only take someone's hand in marriage if they have no interest in getting married to you. Or not just you, but anyone for that matter. Find someone who doesn't want to get married and marry them. As long as they want something from you, they will only be with you until you provide them. The day you stop providing them, then they will find someone else who provides them. Then if you have if you want a donkey to carry your load for you, your burden, that you will only keep that donkey until he carries your your burden. So in most houses they have a cow and a donkey. You know this is true, that's why you find this funny. You know this is true. You know this is true, but you do it nonetheless because you see no alternative. That's why. I am here to show you that alternative. That it doesn't have to be like that. There is an alternative. So you can see society has evolved into something very different to what it was back then. It is morphed and walked into something just it is almost indistinguishable from now. What I'm trying to say is it's it's very different to what it was back then. So vastly different it feels. Sometimes it feels like civilization happened, then it stopped and it started again. This civilization, this time, this format of civilization is worlds apart from the civilization that was those years ago. I'm talking about a century or two ago. Even then people had money, but if you really go back all the way to before people had money, people knew that their interactions were with the universe, with nature. Therefore, it didn't matter. Like I said, the potter, his skill, he wanted to give to the entire universe, to the entire village at least. So whenever he would make something, he would always go and give some to the teacher, he would give some to the village physician, he would give some to the farmer. It didn't matter that there was something to be exchanged. That exchange needn't happen between each other because the exchange was done with the universe. It was not this way, it was this way. Their deal was with God, their deal was with the universe. So pleasing God was what they did. There was no need to please each other. So you say God, I say Vipaka. That's how it worked. So then, if you go back to where we started this conversation, why do we invite the devas? Why is it today that people think you have to please the gods by giving them something, of making offerings to them? Sometimes they make they sacrifice animals. In some cultures, in some traditions, I don't know whether it's now come to our country as well. So some people believe gods like it, gods like to see blood. Gods like to see blood shed. So an animal being hurt. So if the entire universe is God's creation, then I have to question, I don't expect an answer, but I have to question why would God like pain? Why would he encourage that? Pain, hurt, harm. I don't want answers, I just have questions. Each one to their own. But if you have seen people living amongst you who are very divine in their nature, generous, kind, soft-hearted, very given, very charitable, do you think you can please them by offering them a sacrifice? Think of someone you know like that. By their very nature, they're very gentle, they're very soft, they're very kind and very compassionate. Yeah? They always want to help. Whatever they have, they will give, even if they don't have, they'll somehow go find it and make it available to you, even if they don't have it for themselves. Think of one person like that. Maybe it's your mother, a father, maybe a friend, maybe a teacher, right? Someone you respect, someone you adore in society. Think of just one person like that. Now I ask you a question. Do you think you can please them by offering them a sacrifice? Do you think you can please them by offering them money? Do you think they do that for money? If so, then you're thinking of the wrong person. That's not the kind of person I just talk about. Chances are this you go and take offer some money to them and they say, What? Hey, trees, don't insult me. This is not for money. I do it out of compassion. I do it because I want to help you. You look like you needed help, so that's that's the only reason I keep your money, I don't want your money. And even if you still insist on the money, they will take the money and they will go and give it to someone else. Who needs it more than you. That's what they would do with it. They don't need the praise, they don't need the honor, they don't need the credit for it. They will just do service. These are the makings of gods. These are the human beings who live in and amongst you who are doing godly things. This is divinity in action. Sankara always precedes the consequence or the fruition of it. Action always precedes. Therefore, the action will always come first and the result comes next. Therefore, when you have a person, human being, who acts in by in their act, they are divine. In their intention, they are divine. In their conduct, they are divine, then they will be born divine. So this is how the gods are formed. This is how the gods are made. You make them. Where? Within you. So all those gods up there, or there or wherever they are, doesn't matter where they are, wherever the gods are, they were human beings who lived amongst us. They were at one point human. But their conduct was divine. So what about the animals that you see around you? Who were they? They were also humans who lived amongst us. But why are the animals and the others divine? Because their conduct was on the opposite end of the spectrum. So your cat at home was a human being once. He was human, she was human once. But their actions were feline, non-divine. As a result, when they died, they were born in proportion to the karma that they had done. So then in this room, we will have future God's deities cats and dogs. Hope not. So the least that you should be is a human being. No lower than that. That is my ask of you. Others you will go around barking, and other dogs will come and ask you, What are you barking about? Well, I used to go to these Sunday sermons, you will say, Huh? And this is where I ended up. Don't do that. The least you should be is a human. And the best you can be is not to be anyone. That's the best you can be. But the least you should be is a human. Don't aim for any lower than that. So aim for no one, you will at least end up being a human. Aim for no one. Aim for the stars, as they say, and you shall end up on the moon. So similarly, aim for no one, you will end up being one of you, a human. And another opportunity, another chance to become a no one again. Therefore, when you divest this opportunity that you have, the time, the energy, whatever you have, your health, your wealth, your youth, when you divest all these things in the various enterprises and adventures and endeavors that you have, please think very carefully about what you do with what you have. This is a chance you have. This is an opportunity. Every divestment you make is a divestment. Every investment you make is an investment. Once it's done, it's done. You can't give that back to reinvest. You have to wait for another chance. This stuff back then, people knew about. Therefore, they did not need to exchange things for money because they knew the moment they gave, much or little, the moment they gave, because they gave with a full heart, right? They had already made a huge deposit in their karma. The deposit had been made. That's how your ancestors were always a very prosperous batch of people. We are a nation, we were a people who had technology that surpassed by yons certain technologies that are available today. Today, people marvel at the technology that was used back then and they wonder how was that ever even possible? Scientists today are still baffling at some of those things that they see. Because people received from the universe the gifts that they needed. There were people who were born with these talents. They had it in them. And what did they do with what they had in them? They gave. Not for gold, not for silver, not for copper, not for cash. No. Just because they could. You know that is why we must give. Because we can. Give because you can. Don't ask what's in it for me. I encourage you. Give because you can. Without asking what's in it for me. What do I get out of it? Give because there's a need. Not asking, what do I get out of it? If you give because you can, that is what registers. In your karmic strand. Whenever you ask, once you give what's in it for me, that is what registers. See, when you give something because you can, what is your attitude? Your attitude is one of abundance, isn't it? I have, I can. I have, so I can. That is an attitude of abundance. But the moment you you soil that, right? Wick, what's in it for me, is that something that one would say if they have an attitude of abundance? Or is that something that someone would say if they had an attitude of deficiency? That's the kind of question you would ask if you felt a sense of deficiency, right? What's in it for me? Because I need something I don't have, so what is in it for me? When you ask that question in your mind, it doesn't have to be spelt out verbally. In your mind, if you have that sort of attitude, when you give something, it registers in your karmic strength that void. Here is a lack, here is a deficiency. And then when it comes back to you as Vipaka, it also comes with deficiency. What you throw up is always what comes back down. Through deficiency, deficiency comes back down. Through abundance, abundance comes back down. That's how this stuff works. It's almost magical, isn't it? Do you see how much power is vested in your ability to think? Do you see that your intention is practically everything there is? Doesn't this knowledge empower you? To choose your future, to choose how you want to be, to choose where you want to be. Because people knew this, they didn't go slave at the devas and the gods' feet.

SPEAKER_01 17:33

Thank you for joining us on The Art of Being Happy from Caitavanarama Buddhist Monastery. May today's wisdom bring you peace and joy in your daily life. We'd love to hear how these talks have touched your life. Share your experiences with us on plus 91-6361-803371. Until next time, may you find happiness in each present moment. Brought to you by Sanat Navani, the Voice Eternal.