A kind man who makes good use of wealth is rightly said to possess a great treasure; but the miser who hoards up his riches will have no profit.
Gautama BuddhaRead
Death carries off a man busy picking flowers with an besotted mind, like a great flood does a sleeping village.
Interpretation
Life is transient, and while we may be absorbed in our pursuits, we must remember that death is inevitable.
This quote by Gautama Buddha highlights the fragility of life and the unexpected nature of death. It serves as a reminder that being preoccupied with earthly concerns, like picking flowers, can lead us to overlook the reality that death can come at any moment, much like a great flood surging into a tranquil village, disrupting the peace and normalcy of life.
In practice
During a memorial service, to encourage reflection on life's fleeting nature.
A kind man who makes good use of wealth is rightly said to possess a great treasure; but the miser who hoards up his riches will have no profit.
There are having flowers in Spring, breezes in Summer, moon in Autumn, snows in Winter. If there is nothing worrying over you, it will be the best seasons at all times.
Make an island of yourself, make yourself your refuge; there is no other refuge. Make truth your island, make truth your refuge; there is no other refuge.
When a wise man is advised of his errors, he will reflect on and improve his conduct. When his misconduct is pointed out, a foolish man will not only disregard the advice but rather repeat the same error.
The tongue like a sharp knife ... Kills without drawing blood.
Care about your children. Just bless them instead of worrying, as every child is the little Buddha who helps his parents to grow up.
Our instinct may be to see the impossibility of tracking everything down as frustrating, dispiriting, perhaps even appalling, but it can just as well be viewed as almost unbearably exciting. We live on a planet that has a more or less infinite capacity to surprise. What reasoning person could possibly want it any other way?
The Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, is seen as the beginning of modern depravity.
It is impossible to live in the past, difficult to live in the present and a waste to live in the future.
Had it not been for slavery, the death penalty would have likely been abolished in America. Slavery became a haven for the death penalty.
There would seem to be nothing more obvious, more tangible and palpable than the present moment. And yet it eludes us completely. All the sadness of life lies in that fact. In the course of a single second, our senses of sight, of hearing, of smell, register (knowingly or not) a swarm of events and a parade of sensations and ideas passes through our head. Each instant represents a little universe, irrevocably forgotten in the next instant.
The public interest is not always the same as the national interest. Going to war with people who are not our enemy in places that are not a threat doesn't make us safe, and that applies whether it's in Iraq or on the Internet. The Internet is not the enemy. Our economy is not the enemy.
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