I guess it would be fair to say that most of us are caught up in the big things of life. We’re programmed virtually in the modern era to be successful with big things, big diplomas, PhDs and above.
I think if somebody could invent a PhD plus or a PhD too, it would have been invented, because we have this educational inflation, and we all want to be educated. I don’t know if we’re wise, but we want to be educated, don’t we? We want big things.
And then after school, after that big school, we want a big job. And a big job will give us, of course, in theory, big money. But of course, the negative side is big time.
We’ll have no time for each other if we have a relationship, or perhaps for our friends. We’ll just work and, God willing, we’ll make big money. But I don’t know if there’s ever enough money to compensate for that lost time, right?
And the big will go on. We’ll eventually look for the big house. Yes, of course, and then the big car, and it’s huge.
Everything is huge. And then you have an experience that humbles you. Sure story.
I’m on my way to Donghai University one day, teach a class, and I just happened to look down, and there was literally a stream of ants, and they were going from my left side, then in front of me, and up the wall, and they were gone.
And not one single ant, can you believe this, not one single ant looked up and said, wow, Leon, how are you doing today?
Those tiny creatures were just doing their necessary function, like blood in a sense, that they were a life force going from A to B, right?
And so then I reflected on the small things in life, the small things. So what are the small things that really bring us a lot of value? Well, I think the first small thing that we perceive when we awaken in the morning is a clean bed, a clean bed.
We have a clean bed. Miraculous, really. Many people do not have that, I am sure.
And we’ve had sleep. Sleep is a very small thing in that sense, isn’t it? And then we’re able to wash with water.
It’s a very humble phenomenon, but very, very important. Brush our teeth, get dressed. A very humble thing, small thing would be personal safety.
Cup of hot coffee. And then we’re off to work in safety. I think that it’s the same for all of us, isn’t it?
Is that we’re so busy trying to conquer the world that we forget that it’s the multitude of little things that really make life worthwhile. And if we walk along the street, we can see the smile of a child. We can hold the hand of a loved one.
We can look in the eyes of our pet dog, pet cat. These are very small things, right? But they really make our world, our life much, much better.
So I think that we should stand away every now and then from this conception of big, and go to the small, go to the humble.
Because that’s where life is probably really shaped, to a very large extent. So if we learn that relationship, how do we put it? We can always be modest before our fellow man and humble before God.
So if we learn that relationship in the universe, that I’m only one of eight billion people, eight billion, that’s a lot of people, right? Striving to be a decent human being. In that sense, I think it kind of makes me extremely humble, doesn’t it?
Because I realize that I’ve got a task to do, and that’s to fit in my piece of life in the puzzle of humanity, so to speak. And that requires introspection, right? It doesn’t require greatness.
No, I think it is important to have self-respect. I do think it’s necessary that you answer that question, why am I here? What’s my mission?
What happens when I leave here? All of this is very, very true. But by the same token, I have to realize that I am given a time slot, a hundred years of life, and then I will in that sense disappear.
My ego will be expunged, my soul, I’m sure, goes on. My universal consciousness, my immortality, yes, it continues. But I’m not so sure about the ego in the way I identify ego.
So I think it is important to really look at the small things, right?
And I think if you meet people, for instance, if you meet people that live a decent life, you’ll notice that they look after the little things, little things like their clothes are properly pressed, for instance.
And when they eat, they eat in a proper manner. And when they’re speaking, they’re polite. And they have a decent career.
And they followed their mission in life in the sense of a God-given understanding of what it’s all about, right? And I think if we really do those things, life will unfold properly in a way, won’t it?
When we were thinking of the big things, like we were discussing before, I can’t get over this idea that during the Second World War, most of the death squads in Soviet Russia, most of those groups were headed up by people that had big degrees.
They were all doctors or lawyers. Now, how is it possible that you spend eight, ten, twelve years at university, learning something to achieve a degree, and yet your concept of humanity doesn’t exist?
So you don’t understand that little gift that we all have, which is love, right? You somehow don’t understand that you’re humble before this power of love, right? You forget you’re on to bigger things, conquering worlds, dictating empires.
The evil was perpetuated by seemingly thoughtless people, basically. Because any fool standing back from what was going on in Germany or god knows where at that time in the world would have realized this is not a good thing.
You know, you don’t need a great deal of depth to really get yourself involved, right? To really think that it’s the small things, the humble things that make up humanity, not this expansive militarism. And we come to the same thing today, don’t we?
Once again, we’re on to the big, big empires, big money. Elon Musk is going to get a bonus of over a trillion dollars, whatever that means. And yet, in many, many societies, the young people cannot even buy a house.
They can’t put together a few hundred thousand dollars to buy a house, because the cost is so ridiculous of the house. Impossible.
So I do think that we do have to get back to this concept from many years ago, a man called Schumacher, which was small is beautiful. Big is grandiose, and big is good, but small is beautiful. Like those ants, those ants didn’t look up.
They did their task. And I guess that’s what we should do as well. So, you know what they say.
You know what they say. Let us look at the small things in life, so we can really understand what the big things are. And critical thinking is great.
Truly great. You take care. God bless.