You have come a long way, and you're still learning and growing. Be thankful for the lessons. Take them and make the best of things today.

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 RD BK HUMILITY ITNS

SMART

Today the dominant definition of “smart” is quantity based. It means that I’m smarter than you if I know more than you. To determine that, we typically see which one of us makes the fewest mistakes or gets the highest test scores. This definition is partly a legacy of the Industrial Revolution’s need for mass education of workers who could perform the required repetitive manual tasks in factories without making mistakes. Today it’s a consequence of a knowledge-based economy where “knowing more” is rewarded.

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 Think about it! How can you prove to yourself that you are alive and that you exist? What can you do? One of the standard methods for making sure you are not dreaming is to pinch yourself. These days, people try to feel more alive by cutting their flesh, even their wrists. Less dramatically, others go shopping, or get married, or provoke a fight with their spouse. There is nothing to stop you from trying all of these methods; you can fight and cut and pinch to your heart’s content, but nothing you do will prove, categorically, that you are alive. Yet, along with most other human beings, you continue to fear death. This is what the Buddha called “fixation.” 

You fixate on the methods you use to try to prove to yourself that you exist. Yet everything you imagine yourself to be and everything you feel, see, hear, taste, touch, value, judge, and so on is imputed—meaning it has been conditioned by your environment, culture, family and human values. By conquering these imputations and your conditioning, you can also conquer your fear of death. This is what Buddhists describe as freeing yourself from dualistic distinctions, which requires very little effort and costs nothing.

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