What is the best life advice you would give?

What is the best life advice you would give?

A Lesson for your life:

There was a Japanese Zen master called Ryokan. One day Ryokan heard his family complain that his nephew was wasting money on prostitutes. Ryokan went to visit his nephew whom he had not seen for many years. His nephew invited him to stay. All night long Ryokan sat in meditation.

As he was preparing to leave the next morning, he asked his nephew-

“I must be getting old, my hands shake so. Will you help me tie the string of my straw sandal?”

The nephew helped him. Ryokan replied,

“Thank You. A man gets older and feebler day by day. Take good care of yourself”.

Ryokan smiled and left, without mentioning a word about prostitutes or complaints of the family. But from that day on his nephew was truly reformed. He stopped spending money on prostitutes and stopped dissipating his life.

You see in life, It is easy to point a finger at someone and tell them stop doing this or that. Instead, we should lead by examples and maybe give them some food for thought.

Like Ryokan did with his nephew by meditating all night long and reminding his nephew that we all get older and that we should, indeed, take care of ourselves.

His nephew understood at that moment, the way he lived, was not bad per se, but it just didn’t have any future. And he realized that time always goes on. We all had our past, but we should all have a future.

Therefore, we should be compassionate and empathetic in dealing with our words. Each person has his ego and self respect. Sometimes our way of communicating a message plays more important role than the message itself. Never try to hurt anyone.