As soon as we achieve any goal,

UPGRADE

A female meditation practitioner was complaining with Mr. Hai:

• My daughter is going to get divorced. It's so sorrowful. The happier we were when she got married, the sadder we become when she's getting divorced now.

Another man also complained:
• My son was fired, so he's unemployed now. My poor son! He still has to take care of his own family.

Another woman continued:
• This year my products haven't attracted customers, so the sales have been down sharply. It's really bad now.

Mr. Hai took a sip of tea, then says:
• Every failure has its own cause, but they also have the same point. The same reason is that we do not upgrade ourselves.

Most people think that the wedding is when they completely achieve the goal of having a family but they didn't know that it's just a beginning. Many difficult problems will appear as two people live together. There're a lot of issues that will emerge when the couple deals with earning a living, raising children and communicating with surrounding people. If the husband and the wife do not upgrade themselves to a higher level in all fields, they certainly cannot hold hands together to the end of their marriage journey.
Upgrading ourselves in all fields? What does it mean? It means that we have to keep improving our health, gaining more new knowledge, cultivating our morality, doing many good deeds, boosting a certain skill of art, such as singing or instrument playing, etc.

You should surprise your partner and make them admire you when they witness you become better day by day. Otherwise, your partner will gradually lose interest in you. Achieving happiness is not just about taking care of each other; however, it is you that have to upgrade yourself forever.

Working is the same. We are recruited into the company and think it is done. However, we don't know that the world always changes and the requirements of a job are getting higher and higher, while we just keep ourselves and do not develop. Finally, one day the company doesn't need us anymore. Therefore, each person has to make yourself more and more excellent so that the company cannot let you leave.

Or when we can create a product that attracts more customers, but we're so happy that we don't care to innovate it. However, what is unexpected is that our product becomes out of date just after over one year. Right after the new product is introduced, we should have kept researching to create another better product so that we don't miss the opportunity to launch it next year. This is the only way to make the market always need us.

Similarly, some pagodas have gradually lost their followers because they do not upgrade themselves. They become so intolerant and tightly hold the way of hundreds of years ago that is super out of date. In this era, staying unchanged for just one or two years already makes you so close with failure, so it's easy to understand the old thing from hundreds of years ago can't attract people.

One meditator speaks up:
• Mr. Hai, I'm also a Buddhist, and I understand that no one dares to change the Buddha's teachings. You tell pagodas to upgrade themselves, does that mean you tell them to give up on Buddha's teachings.

Mr. Hai replied:
• "Upgrade" I want to convey is that we have to make innovations in life, in the way of propagation, and rituals, etc. I also believe that upgrade means to seek for the right Dharma that the Muni Buddha taught again. I suspect that in this life there are not many people who can practice Dharma as Buddha's teachings. Even those who keep every word of the Buddha tightly are not sure fully what the Buddha meant.
Everyone was thinking in silence.

Later, Mr. Hai continued:
• Like in our meditation hall here, if we stay unchanged, no one will come here to practice meditation. Each person has to always try to upgrade ourselves, make progress in meditation and morality, treat others more kindly and repair the facility to be better, etc. By doing these, we cannot be refused by this life.
As soon as we achieve any goal, it's also the time we start a new journey. We often think that reaching a goal after overcoming many difficulties is when we succeed, but it is not. The word "succeed" never exists in wise people's dictionaries.

The road is always open ahead so that we can move forward. The greatness has no limits, the kindness has no finishing point and love never comes to an end...

The sentence "that's enough" is only a temporary consolation for the weak. After getting stronger, we have to understand "that's not enough".

Written by:
Janna

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