Introduction
The main message from this book is that it’s not that we have a short life but that we waste a lot of it. Life is long enough and a sufficiently amount of time has been given to us for the highest achievements if it’s well invested. But many choose to spend their time on not so good activities caused by their desires and lack of purpose. So it’s not that we are given a short life but we make it short because we waste a lot of it. What happens is that it’s only a small part of life we really live.
About Time And Life
Lesson 1
Many people are frugal and are willing to do a lot when it comes protecting their materialistic things and money but wasteful and careless when it comes to protecting their time. We should put higher priority and value on our time.
Many people are living life like as if they are going to live forever. We don’t notice how much of our time has already passed. A lot of our time is being wasted on unimportant activities and uncontrolled desires.
Lesson 2
No goal can be accomplished if a person is surrounded by a lot of distractions. The mind absorbs nothing when distracted and instead just rejects everything.
Lesson 3
Time is one of the most valuable things in our life. Time will just keep on moving by quietly. Once it’s gone it’s not coming back. But many people use their time and lend to others like it costs nothing. Only when they get sick and are threatened by death do they start to worry about their time. You will see them willing to spend their all just to stay alive so they can have a bit more time. Remind yourself regularly that the time you have is limited.
Lesson 4
Putting things off is one of the biggest wastes of life. We lose each day as they come, it denies us the present by promising the future. The greatest obstacle to living in the now is expectancy, which is living in the future and expecting it to be better. We depend on tomorrow at the loss of today.
Lesson 5
Old age is approaching day by day. Many people are unprepared for it and are surprised for when it arrives. They have made no preparations for how to face it and never thought about it when they were young. The distracted person becomes aware of life only when it’s soon over.
Lesson 6
Life is divided into three periods: past, present and future. Of these, the present is short, the future is uncertain and the past is certain. Many people don’t wanna look back at their past because of activities they are ashamed of or not happy about. But this is a mistake, we should try to instead learn and reflect on our past to improve our future. Most often, a person who fears his own memory is a person who has been selfish, dishonest, wasteful and just lived and overall an uncontrolled life without a purpose.
Lesson 7
People who has nothing going on in their lives and no personal interests can often feel that time moves slow in the present moment. They don’t know how to spend their free time. They wish that time could move faster, sometimes hoping to skip whole days, so they can get to the next event or entertainment. Yet they don’t think about how short actual these moments they look forward to actually are. Even during the actual event they won’t enjoy it fully because they will already be thinking and planning for the next thing.
In modern world, this is how people who look forward to the weekend, vacations, event and holiday behave. They just wish that time would pass faster so they can get to that next fun thing but don’t realise how short those very moments really are. Hoping that that a couple of days would pass fast just to enjoy a few hours is a bad way to live life.
Lesson 8
All fortunes create anxiety because we don’t wanna lose it. The more we have, the more scared we become of losing it. To preserve wealth we need more wealth. We never take into account all the time that will be required and that the time will never return. It’s important to know when enough is enough so you don’t fall victim to uncontrolled desires. Meaning that you should be happy because of all the things you have but choose to be sad because of all the desires you have and thinking of the things you lack.
Lesson 9
Some of our activities should be quieter, slower and safer. Otherwise we will be distracted by life and never have time to think.
About External Belongings
Lesson 10
We shouldn’t be too associated with our external belongings and our happiness shouldn’t depend on them either. You wanna keep a distance between you and your belongings so if they were taken away you won’t be too affected. Many people are attached to their things as if they will belong to them forever and are devastated when lost.
Lesson 11
A persons needs to live a comfortable life are few. If you lose something maybe see at as if you lost a distraction. If we want things that are unnecessarily it’s not because of our needs but because of our desires.
Many people already have many things but still feel like we lack and want more. The problem then isn’t that we need more things but the attitude of our mind. It’s the mind that determines if we feel rich or poor.
About Tranquillity of Mind
Lesson 12
Tranquillity is to be in a state of peace where a person is stable and there are no ups and downs. The number one thing that makes it impossible to be in a state of tranquillity is dissatisfaction with oneself. This arises from when a person is not living up or trying to live up to their full potential and when all their desires can’t be fulfilled.
Most people know what they need to do but are unable to take action. Or if action is being taken, chances are they are not getting the results they want which defeats them and they are not willing to try again. Time just keeps on moving and eventually they feel like the situation is getting out of control and they start to look for short cuts and do dishonourable things in order to fulfil their desires. It can also be that they also start to hate on people who have succeed, start to feel jealous of them and complaining (and many more overall negative things).
So many negative feelings comes from the fact that we are not happy with ourselves. We are not happy with ourselves because of our own unfulfilled desires and this is our own fault since we created these desires. When we are not happy with ourselves and doing nothing about it, then the mind will continuously send us negative emotions which puts us in a negative state. Not a good place to be in if you want a calm mind.
Lesson 13
Many people could have achieved wisdom if they had not thought they already achieved it.
