bhikoy

LIVE, LEARN, LOVE

LIVE

To live means to care for your life - as I mentioned, not squander it. Be aware of what you are doing to your mind and body. You do not need to obsess it, to the point of boredom, but gently be aware of what you eat, drink. Be aware of what lacking sleep will do to it. Having a healthy body makes you a great deal more capable of happiness, sleeping well, confidence, thinking clearly. It makes all of these concepts, living, loving, learning, respect and responsibility much easier than if you have not looked after your body.

To me, a life well-lived is living well, regardless of your situation. There will always be someone richer, poorer, happier, or less fortunate than you. Questions I ask myself regularly are: what are you doing with what you’ve been given, and are you aware of blessings as they appear.

Above all, take responsibility for living - for your life, for your body and for those around you - although that begins to overlap love.

LEARN

In my life, I am always learning. I have never stopped. When you experience, you learn. When you see something you have not noticed before, this is learning. Learning is not restricted to hallowed halls of some academic institution. While books are valuable for learning, they do not confer as much as actually doing something.

Always challenge yourself. Always try something new. With the internet I now have more ways to learn something than ever before. Do not restrict yourself to treading only the well-worn paths. While there is sense in safety and not doing anything truly daft, there is much room for exploration and trying things you have not before. For those you did not like, you now know why you did not like them, what they do taste like. Either way you have experienced, you have learned. And I find there to be huge joy in learning.
When you love someone, make it part of your life to experience and learn about them, from them and with them. Never let yourself say "I already know enough" or “I don't need or want to learn anything new". In my humble opinion the day I stop learning will be the one I pass away, and not before.

Find wonder at how much there is in the universe there is to learn. It is overwhelming that there is more than any one person, perhaps even all of humanity can learn in their life time. You do not need to add anything to the universe to see how much there is in it to discover and be curious about - this to me is beauty, and means that I can never run out of things to learn. If you truly could learn everything there was to learn, about everyone and their life, about every animal and its habits, including the individuals and their individual traits, about every technology, make every discovery in one lifetime I can guarantee there will still be many things to learn, something you have not yet done something you have not tried.

LOVE

Love yourself - without compassion for yourself, you can have little for others. Do not hate, mock or put yourself down. You cannot live properly if you hate your body or mind. Neither can be healthy if you treat them without compassion.

Love others - love your family, fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters. Love or at least have compassion and respect for everyone, colleagues, friends and strangers. Without this love, there is no binding between people. A person alone is a husk of a person. Seeing someone else's joy at your kindness or compassion is one of life's pleasures.

I love the earth and love the universe - it is truly an amazing place. Sure, it has its ups and downs, but on the whole it is what you make it. When I walk through a park and live, it is through loving the feeling of walking, through loving the good air in my lungs, through loving the sound of birds, the look of grass that I enjoy it and live.

Do the things you love or better still love what you do. It is easy to say, and hard to do, but you should aspire to enjoy it. Work done well, with pride and having done your best can be another one of life's pleasures.