Learning and Experiencing Life

Most of the time, for most people, keeping young is one of most important mission in life. I think somehow, most of us, if not all, are afraid of sickness, old age and death. Whether we like it or not, we all have to go through the “grand finale”, no matter what. Wealth, power, position, modern technology, etc. cannot get in the way, when it comes to samsara. The time just continues to go on and on and on.

So how should we be looking at life? Should we let time slip between our fingers? Should we use our time for self-indulgence? So the question is: how should we be using our time? I am not going to tell you how you should be treating your life, everyone has his or her own rights. For me, as I grow older, I really feel and believe that learning and experiencing life is the best way to kill time, if I am allowed to say this.

Whenever I have the chance, I love to go out and experience everything, be it nature, food, making friends, meeting different people. We don’t live in this world alone, which is a wonderful truth. It’s up to us to reach out and experience. When I say “experience”, I don’t mean “interference”. We experience with a deep sense of appreciation. We learn with a spacious mind of humility. After all, there are things that others know, and that we don’t know. Of course, there are things that we know, and that others have yet to know.

We always talk about “power” and “strength”. They come from learning and experiecing with a huge space created by humility. Without being humble, always thinking we are the most knowledgeable, the most powerful and the most intelligent, we will not be able to learn anything more than what we already know.

This world is full of different sorts of beings, but I normally categorise them into two types, one is the selfish type, and one is the selfless type. I think the second type are always the ones who benefit themselves the most.

I was very honoured to be invited by Sadhguruji to visit his ashram in Coimbatore and to participate in a inter-faith gathering, ornamented by the 14th anniversary of Dhyanalinga. I am grateful to be able to meet religious heads from different beliefs and exchange our views on issues of the world. I think it’s a great deed for Sadhguruji to be able to put together such kind of events. The warm hospitality extended to me and my entourage of monks and nuns was just amazing. I felt totally at home at Isha Ashram.

Meanwhile, back in Druk Amitabha Mountain, nuns are very busy learning, practising and trying their best to help beings. Without the interest to learn anything in this life, life can be quite boring, I guess. I feel that to experience life, we need to have the drive to learn something, something good and helpful for ourselves, and also for others. As I daringly said in the conference, “Learning and experiencing are lifetime work for me.”