Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Probably you have seen this scenario thousands and thousands of times, so familiar that you don’t even think about it ever: People are born, grow up, go to school, get a job, marry, have children, age, become weak and sick, and die. Many go through that life journey, without ever being conscious of the meaning of that journey. People live as a matter of reflex – I happen to be here, to live, so I live, until I die.

What is the purpose of our life journey – To where? For what?

If you try to envision your life from now until you die, you will automatically have this question in your mind: “I will have to go through several more decades, for what? Is there something that makes all that trouble worthwhile?”

Many people do have that question but don’t have an answer, and they usually have a big hole in their soul, going through life with the notion that their life is meaningless. Probably you have heard that sigh many times: “Life is meaningless.”

The people most positive about living are the saints and Bodhisattvas – they help the sick, the poor, the downtrodden, the distressed, the oppressed; they pray for the suffering world; they teach people to love one another.

If you ask them: “What are you doing?” they would say: “I try to help the world be a little less suffering and a little more comforting.”

Brothers and Sisters, I have heard and read that sentence thousands of times, and for many years I couldn’t grasp its essence, which stood out clearly in the sun, for me “not” to see. You know, “When the conditions are still insufficient” (chưa đủ duyên), or speaking differently, “When the Holy Spirit has not opened your mind yet” (Thánh linh chưa khai mở), the Himalaya stands right in front of you, you still can’t see it. “Seeing” is a blessing from Heaven and Earth, at the right time and right place.

Anyway, back to the answer of the saints and Bodhisattvas.

The first Himalaya-sized point is the vision. Each saint can only help a small group of people, but his/her vision is the entire world. Saints and Bodhisattvas help the entire world, one person at a time.

The second point, related to the first, is “What you do is not as important as how you feel about doing it.” You save money to buy a scarf for mom – winter is coming. A scarf is not a big gift, but your love and care for mom is as big as Himalaya, and mom’s emotion upon seeing your gift is also as immense as Himalaya.

That is the two teaching points in what the saints and Bodhisattvas often say.

And that is exactly the answer for your search of life’s meaning: The meaning of your life is: “I try to help the world be a little less suffering and a little more comforting – one person at a time.”

Just do whatever you’re doing right now, with the vision that you are serving the world, helping the world be a litte less suffering and a little more comforting – one person at a time.

Think globally, work locally.

My dear friends, we all are saints and Bodhisattvas in the making.

Wish we all do our global work, one person at a time.

With compassion,

Hoành

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