He who can save little by little will be taken by the law of karma to a life without shortage. He who often wastes, often throws usable things away, will end up in a destitute life. Especially those who get used to throwing food into the dustbin will search for food from dustbins again in the future.
FRUGALITY
To be frugal is to not throw away what can still be used. Vietnamese culture encourages people to pick up even a little grain of rice dropped on the floor and eat it, instead of wasting it. The culture teaches us many precious lessons. Each grain of rice traveled a long way before becoming our meal. While each grain of rice is very small, it contains lots of labor inside. If we can love every piece of rice, we can love the heart and the labor that came with it. It is ethical to love the heart and the labor of others.
It will be ungrateful if we ignore others’ effort and labor. Everyone values his or her labor and effort highly. If we put ourselves in the others’ position we will understand this. So, we must not ignore people, must not hurt them, and appreciate their contributions, instead.
Love and labor are expressed in all things: food and money in our lives. We probably aren’t able to use it all up, but we should not be wasteful especially when they can still be used by other people, at another time.
He who can save little by little will be taken by the law of karma to a life without shortage. He who often wastes, often throws usable things away, will end up in a destitute life. Especially those who get used to throwing food into the dustbin will search for food from dustbins again in the future.
He who uses money for wrong purposes will be in short of money. He who orders his people to do wrong things will live alone. He who destroys a good house will be homeless one day. He who usually throws away bottles with leftover water will be in the deserts or find himself dying of thirst. He who gets angry and smashes furniture will one day not be able to afford to have any furniture. He who leaves the stove burning for no reason will one day be short of fuel...
On the contrary, he who saves everything will not be destitute. Those who can recycle rubbish and reuse thrown away things may become rich look at a pile of trash in which many things can still be used, we understand how ungrateful humans can be. So, he who can recycle things from trash has redeemed the human sin. Such a person is noble.
To save is different from being a miser. Miserliness means to not use something when it is needed. They are afraid that things will get old if they use it. They are afraid to spend money even when it is needed. They go to parties without gifts, knowing that it can harm a good relationship. They don’t even buy food for their children willingly, let alone help others. It is a poor life for those who are misers.
Being frugal is moral while being stingy is cruel. Being generous is moral, while being wasteful is cruel. He who is moral and wise will walk the middle path of both saving and helping others. He loves helping people but can also be frugal.
Janna