Reflections on priorities in life

One continuously progresses, or rather, evolves as she/he grows. Not only in terms of age but spiritual and intellectualness. The following summarises to a good approximation the current state of my own introspection. The following notes was taken by Cheng Siew as she summarises a round of conversation among a group of Dhamma friends in a pre CNY-gathering. Some ideas are her, and the rest are mine. In anyway, all items mentioned below are essentially agreeable irrespective of who mentioned it.


Prioritization: Focus on the importance; e.g. step up to move forward vs continue dwelling in the story / problem

Give benefits of doubt: Not to judge (judgement is based our past experience) as we may not be having right clarity to understand

Be Open: cultivate the skill of learning as we can't learn new things with our existing learning

Less interpretation as interpretation comes with our perspective

Use the guidelines of if any reduction in the three defilements (greed, hatted, delusion) to determine if to continue our endeavor, discontinue it if there is an increase in the defilements.

Living in the presence focuses on cultivating mental faculty to receive the "raw information" as it is and without clouding it with our interpretation and judgement. The motivation is to live happily with less or no defilements.

In the process of refinement, as we aware of the defilements arose (effect), investigate the reason (cause) and then cultivate the right thinking and habit to minimize/eliminate the re-occurrence.