I recommend you to refer to Master Daan’s related stories:
College student A: As a sophomore student, I am very dissatisfied with my college life. I cannot make progress in my studies and live all day long. It’s very decadent, and I feel like I regret every day I live. I know this is wrong, and I plan to change it, but I always find that my actions and my intentions are not consistent, and I feel very helpless. I would like to ask you, how can I calm down and get rid of decadence?
Master Da’an: The four years of college are a critical period for growth in a person’s life. At this stage, in addition to learning professional knowledge, it is more important to establish correct values ????of life and find the value and meaning of life.
There is a metaphor in the Buddhist scriptures of a blind turtle worth its weight in wood to illustrate the rarity of the human body. There is a wooden board floating on the vast sea. There is a round hole in the middle of the wooden board. There is a blind turtle on the bottom of the sea. It sticks out its head and reaches the surface of the sea once in a hundred years. The chance that the blind turtle's head would just stick into the round hole in the board was extremely small. But the probability of obtaining a human body is even lower than this. Therefore, in the six realms of reincarnation for countless kalpas, most of us get bodies in the three evil realms. It is very, very difficult to obtain a noble human body. If you do not make good use of this hard-earned life to practice Buddhism, you will be reincarnated endlessly in the future. If you think too much about the difficulty of human life, the unpleasantness of Buddhism, the danger of reincarnation, and the suffering of hell, do you still have time to be decadent? Then think about the pure and solemn world of Ultimate Bliss, and the evil world of five turbidities that can only be escaped by chanting the Buddha's Dharma, and you will understand the meaning of life. Therefore, we must uphold the name with deep faith, seek rebirth in the Pure Land, and at the same time study hard to benefit all sentient beings in order to repay the Buddha's kindness. Once you have established this lofty goal in life, you will have a kind of motivation in life. You will concentrate on learning knowledge and skills, practice good deeds, chant sutras and recite Buddha's name as you go. Life will be fulfilling and meaningful, and you can stay away from a decadent life.
College Student B: Could you tell us what the meaning of life is? What kind of values ??should contemporary young people establish to live a life worthy of themselves? Another problem is that we are often faced with choices. When we choose a path to go on, we find halfway through that it is not what we want at all. However, we have paid too much and have to give up. At this time, it is time to look back. Or keep going?
Master Da’an: When we encounter a fork in the road of various choices in life, what are the criteria for our choice? "If you want to know the road in the mountains, you must ask people who have been there." Don't make random thoughts on your own. You must ask saints and good teachers for advice. The Nirvana Sutra also says: "I wish to be a teacher of the heart, but I don't want to learn from the heart." This means that you should not regard the mind of this sensory system as your own teacher, but you must control it and be your mind teacher. Because it is difficult for ordinary people to establish a correct worldview and values ????by relying on their own thinking and reasoning, they must study classics. Just like when we write calligraphy, you can't just pick up a pen and write your own thing. If you do this, you will fail in all likelihood. First, copy. Copying means giving up all the glyphs and strokes in your mind, and just follow the rules to imitate what you write on the copybook. The more similar the copying is, the more progress will be made. In this process, the feeling for words and aesthetic values ??are established. As human beings, we also need to learn the classics of saints and establish a correct set of life values, the so-called right knowledge and right views. Don't think blindly on your own, and turn back when you're halfway through.
Nowadays, society is pursuing wealth and power as the value and meaning of life. It is your blessing to know these things. If there is a destiny, it will happen naturally. If there is no destiny, it will not happen even if you break your head. This is the law of cause and effect. By studying Buddhism, you can understand the reincarnation of cause and effect, the nature of life and the laws of the operation of all things, and the emptiness of all dharmas; you can find the value and meaning of life, establish correct values ??in life; and you can also develop a sense of freedom. My mind and emotional intelligence will also improve. When doing things, you should not only consider yourself, but also consider the people around you. Be filial to your parents, help your classmates, study hard, and fulfill your corresponding social responsibilities. Do things with a normal mind, take everything as it comes, and live in the moment. At the same time, engage in the worldly business with a transcendent spirit, work hard with perseverance, and pay attention to the practice of merit and wisdom, and everything will go smoothly and auspiciously.