During the Ming Dynasty, there was a man named Hu Jiushao. He farmed while teaching his son to read and study, and the family had enough to meet their basic needs. Yet every day, he would burn incense and offer prayers, thanking Heaven for blessing him with another day of peace and contentment.
His wife laughed at him and said, “We eat vegetable porridge for all three meals. How can you call this a blessed life?”
He replied:
“First, we live in a time of peace and do not have to endure the suffering of war.
Second, our family has food to eat and clothes to wear, so we neither go hungry nor suffer from the cold.
Third, everyone in our family is healthy, and none of us has suffered the misfortune of imprisonment. Aren’t these blessings?”
In fact, people often fail to experience a sense of happiness because they have too many desires and do not know how to be content. As Namo H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III taught:
“A person not appreciative of the good life he is living is one who has forgotten his past miseries. A person in good health is not aware of its blessings until he loses it.”
This means that some people are blessed without realizing how fortunate they are. Even though things are going well for them in many respects, they still feel that this is unsatisfactory and that is not as they wish. They are full of complaints and feel unhappy with their circumstances. This is mainly because, while living in happiness, they have forgotten the hardships of adversity.
When enjoying happiness, they forget the difficulties they once experienced. It is just like people who are strong and healthy often failing to appreciate how painful it is to become ill. They may neglect their health and fail to cherish their strong and healthy bodies. Once they fall ill, however, they may find themselves confined to bed, unable to move about and without even the desire to eat. Only then do they realize the joy and blessing of good health.
The story above reminds us that many of life’s blessings can be found in the ordinary things we have grown accustomed to. Peace, having enough food and clothing, and good health may seem ordinary, but once they are lost, we come to realize just how precious they truly are. Therefore, we should learn to be content, cherish our blessings, and appreciate everything we have in the present.
Only by being content and knowing how to cherish what we have can we experience an enduring sense of happiness and joy.
Written by: Yazhu
Edited by: Bodhi Seed
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