Meaningful Life

Meaningful life –what tools do we need to make our lives truly meaningful? What is important so that we can make the most of our precious human lives? Finally, how do we keep the focus on what is meaningful?

Three Key Points for a Meaningful Life

Phakchok Rinpoche explains three key tools in this short audio clip.  If we can keep these points in mind, we can make sure that our priorities are on the right track.

meaningful life

  1. Goals: we need to think about our goals carefully.  As we do this, we should contemplate the meaning of our life.  Right now, we are very fortunate.  We have a precious human life. So, we can rejoice in that–really appreciating our opportunity.  Additionally, we can resolve not to just be swept along from one stage of life or one project to the next.  Time passes so quickly and if we don’t appreciate this opportunity, it will soon be over.  Thus, we need to consider our purpose and regularly reflect on what is meaningful. And we shouldn’t restrict ourselves to small mundane goals!  We need to keep our main purpose as our touchstone.
  2. Next, we can learn to uphold good ethics. By knowing what is beneficial and what is harmful we can make good choices in life.
  3. Finally,  we can learn the skills that allow us to manage and overcome difficulties.

Meaningful Life: Develop the Skills

Especially relevant is knowing the skills. Rinpoche reminds us that meditation is a tool. Meditation helps us to overcome the problems and obstacles that come our way. When we learn to meditate we then gain the skills to manage our lives.

Additional Resources for Further Study

Learning meditation skills means learning how to deal with our minds.  In our online study program, Training the Mind: An Introduction, we offer more four more teachings from Phakchok Rinpoche on mind training.  This course gives a simple introduction to working with our own minds–making our lives more meaningful!  We hope you feel inspired to join us.