BUDDHIST IKIGAI_Eng

3

4 ISBN : 978-616-91640-5-0 Buddhist Ikigai Author : Asst.Prof.Dr. Veeranut Rojanaprapa © Edition 1 : September 2021 Copies : 1,000 Publisher : THE LAST MAN STANDING CO.,LTD 1191 Soi. Aree 1 Phahonyothin Rd, Phayathai, Phayathai, Bangkok 10400 Tel. 06-3324-4519 Publishing House : SUPA PRINTING CO.,LTD 118 Soi. Charansanitwong 68 Charansanitwong Rd, Bangphlat, Bangkok 10700 Tel. 0-2433-1123

5 Table Of Contents Preface 6 Introduction : 9 Who wants to change the world ? Raise your hand 13 24 Part I 33 Chapter 1 Disaster from Misbeliefs 38 and Having Wrong Life Goals 52 Chapter 2 Cause of the disaster 54 Chapter 3 Understanding the Disastrous Cycle 58 Chapter 4 Way of Solving Problems 65 72 and the Disastrous Cycle 77 Chapter 5 The True Life Goals 97 Part II Chapter 6 The Best Life and World-Changing Tool Chapter 7 Power of What one loves Chapter 8 Power of What one does well Chapter 9 Ring of interested social problems Chapter 10 Identify the intersection of the 3 Rings Chapter 11 Canût find answers to the ç3 Ringsé ? Appendix Authorûs Biography

6 Preface When I was 10 years old, my dad took me on a trip oversea. After I got my favorite robot, I decided to return to the hotel to play with my new toy like any kid would do. On my way back to the hotel, I met an old Chinese man sitting on an old plastic mat. There were pens lying in front of him with a sign that said, ç3 for $1é ($1 equaled around 10 baht at that time). At first, I didnût pay much attention, but once I took a good look at him, I realized how hopeless that person was. What I saw at that moment was so depressing that I decided to give him $1 without knowing that it would change my life forever. The moment he saw the money, I could see his lifeless eyes immediately brightened up. It was as if those 10 baht was his whole life. He slowly held out his hand and handed me 3 pens wrapped together with an elastic band. That picture has been lying deep in my mind until today. After time goes by, my live turned its focus towards working to earn money and fame, following the norm of the society. Sometimes I succeeded, but sometimes I failed. One day, a question caught my attention: çWill you keep on working 16 hours per day just to look at the numbers in your bank account ?é

7 I was trying hard to find the answer for that question when the picture of that old man suddenly appeared in my mind. Realizing what you do for others is even more valuable than money. Therefore, I decided to pursue public interest jobs. I got to experience so many things and got to know many people who ask the same question in their lives. When I told them the story about the man, many people agreed and wanted to live for others too. However, it is hard for them to make it possible since the tools that they own cannot fulfill such goal. This is the background of this book. I have compiled knowledge from many related institutes and organizations, analyzed, and synthesized using my own personal experience to create a tool for çdesigning a great lifeé and çsetting a powerful goalé which will both be valuable and have value at the same time. Asst. Prof. Dr. Veeranut Rojanaprapa The founder of Kid Mai

8 PART I

9 Chapter 1 Disaster from Misbeliefs and Having Wrong Life Goals From the rapid advancements of material and technology, it cannot be denied that there are many problems hiding in every corner of our society. Once we look back at the root causes of these problems, unfortunately, all of them are from humans. This is because there is still one jigsaw left undeveloped, which is çthe human mindé. The human mind which has not been fostered with the right beliefs and life goals will certainly leads to thoughts that are dangerous both toward oneself and others. For example, instead of trying to gain more knowledge and developing themselves in order to get a job or start a new business, some unemployed choose to become thieves or commit suicide to avoid their problems. In the global scale, conflicts of beliefs and ideologies spread and turned into wars in which people were brutally killed. There are many terrorist groups around the world. People are fighting for resources because they are limited

10 while human needs are unlimited. This leads to intrusion into nature, decreasing natural resources and causing many natural disasters, such as great floods, climate change, global warming, land subsidence, etc. These natural disasters are directly affecting human because they destroy both numerous lives and assets. They are getting alarmingly worse and more unpredictable. Everything is the result of the fact that human never learn to live appropriately. Most of us are attached with materials and money. Human destroy nature, use power against each other, and expand more want and greed which leads to us competing against each other for victory without thinking about morals or uprightness. Thus, success in the secular world grows simultaneously with social problems which are currently multiplying rapidly. Behind the facade of world chaos lies çdesireé which completely destroys çthe true value of human lifeé. The human mind goes off the right path and is filled with stress and suffering. Other great consequences are social problems which appear in many aspects of the society. These problems then inevitably spread and develop into global problems It can be simply concluded that çWe are currently living in a world that is growing externally but is decaying internallyé

11 If we look back at the root cause of these problems, it is clear that they are all caused by the fact that human is losing their morals and having çwrong life goalsé which distorts our thoughts, methods, and actions. The growing capitalist system takes complete control of humansû true spirit. We are being tricked into thinking more about ourselves than others and be so selfish that we couldnût care less about morals which causes social problems. Once there are problems in our society, we canût avoid their consequences. For example, if there are many criminals in our country, we can end up being the victim of their crimes ourselves. You are people on a boat Society is the boat Problems are the holes Even though you were not the one creating the holes, if there are holes on the boat, you will die because you are a part of the society. Thus, in the next chapter, I will explain more to you about the cause of problems in life and in society and how these problems are currently growing. In the end, I will give you some tips to set right life goals that both create and have

12 çvaluesé by using a tool called çthe 3 rings of thought revolution and new life creationé. I can assure you that this is a life-designing innovation that will allow you to have a great life and be able to escape the disastrous cycle. It will also play an important role in making our world become peaceful like it was before. Because you are the çheroé that the world is looking for ......................

13 Chapter 2 Cause of the disaster Once we have identified the problem, the next step that we must take is identifying the cause of the problem. If we do not know what the cause of the problem is, we would not be able to completely solve the problem. Without realizing what the cause is, temporarily easing the pain is all we can do. This is like suffering from a severe disease but choosing not to go see the doctor to get a proper diagnosis and treatment. The disease could never be truly cured. Problems that we are currently facing, whether it be problems about disintegrating family, sexual repression, politics, and many other social issues, including those in the global level, although they might seem to be problems from different aspects, they actually share the same root cause: çmisunderstanding of life.é This is the origin of the disastrous cycle which starts from an individual human being and expands to the global level. The start of having a wrong goal I would like to bring us back into the past when we had not yet become a part of this disastrous cycle. I want to mention the words of Buddha regarding the origin of the

14 world and the relation with accumulation that makes our society be full of competition and exploitation. This is to further illustrate the cause of human greed which has been gradually developing into the current state of misunderstanding. It started from when all of the resources were adequately allocated to each individual by nature. When people felt hungry, they went out to find their own food. Until one day, humans began to feel lazy and no longer wanted to go out to find food every time they were hungry. Each person started to compete against each other to accumulate food. Once human donût listen to nature and accumulate too many resources only for themselves, we are faced with scarcity. We compete against each other, create fences to keep others out of our resource, and use force to get things from others. That was the beginning of the çdark ageé or çthe age of decadenceé. Friends turned into enemies who live with fear of getting possessions stolen. People started using force which leads to war and many other problems. From my several years of conducting research and studying sociology, I learned that the main factor that causes the decadence of our society is capitalism which is based on greed. We have been using accumulation, collection, and greed to move the society forward. This made us forget the good parts of life. We went off the path of the right belief. I have summarized into 3 main causes that lead us to having wrong life goals

15 1. The environment Since we were born, we have been surrounded by capitalism and bad social values. There are advertisements scattered all over the city. We have been so accustomed to these things that we think they are normal without questioning our own lives. This is a problem that everyone in this world is facing, including newborn babies who receive the influence of capitalism in every single way. It can be said that this is truly çthe rising age of materialism and the falling age of mindé. I will give you some examples of people who set wrong goals as a result of capitalism ë Students cheating on tests to enter their dream universities ë Adults accepting bribes to upgrade their status ë Women caring more about their external looks more than their inner beauty ë Men boasting to show off their power ë People selling their bodies and honors for designer items ë People seeing money as God and neglecting humanity ë People invading nature which causes unexpected disasters ë People working hard to become rich and ending up being sick or dead alone These phenomena are the results of capitalism. They were driven by çdesireé and ended up being misbeliefs and wrong life goals.

16 2. The upbringing When we were young, we were taught to be scared to make mistakes. Students who make mistakes will not be appreciated by teachers and friends. The word çmistakeé is something we must avoid because getting punishments is considered a shame. Being the black sheep is like being an alien. However, in reality, mistakes commonly happen to everyone. Sadly, our society never teach children to çlearn from the mistakesé which make people çlack of learning skillsé and çlack of questioningé Once we make a mistake, confusion shrinks our view of the world. We become selfish and unsophisticated, which then leads to all types of crime (any action that doesnût align with the five percepts which exploits oneself and others for survival) and actions motivated by emotions, such as greed, hatred, and delusion. Some people might spend their money on people who donût even know them well enough, such as fortune tellers and mediums, which rather creates more risk in their lives because this kind of answer will only make them become more familiar with terror and dread in life rather than make them learn, improve and develop themselves from their mistakes. I want to tell you that the actual problem is not the system because the system is just a phenomenon in a specific period of time. However, the real problem is the fact that most people go too much with the flow of global trends and never question them.

17 3. Not questioning life Have you ever asked yourself about... what do you actually want out of this life as a human ? Is this truly a life of human which is said to be better than any other animals ? Are we being tricked into living in the wrong way ? Are we being enslaved by misbeliefs ? Are we really having the right life goals ? These are the questions that will get your attention. I want to tell you that we need to practice posing questions because asking questions wisely is a good start to get out of çcapitalismé which is the environment that we are currently living in, but we never notice it like fish that donût notice water and birds that donût notice air. Our thoughts and spirits have been unconsciously taken over by it. These 3 reasons that I have mentioned made us go with the flow instead of realizing the reality. Therefore, it can be concluded that çlife can totally change with wrong goalsé and çlife with no goals is not a lifeé ......................

18 2 problems that lead life to disaster As for the problems that lead human to disaster, I have summarized their causes into 2 main points 1. Having wrong goals 2. Having no goals About the source of human disaster, in my book çRETHING TO AWARENESSé. I have mentioned this in detail by going deep into the root cause of the problems of human, society, and the world. I found that all of these problems, despite their differences in scale, is all about çinterests and the protection of interestsé. This is because setting a life goal in the world of capitalism, despite having many principles and techniques, distortion appears in every steps. This is because we are told to set our goals based on çgreed or desireé without thinking about other factors in life. At the end, people who set goals with çdesireé, which are greed, hatred, and delusion, will do whatever it takes to get what they want. The fact that they do not care if what they are doing is right or wrong is where the disaster comes from. Therefore, human disaster is caused by having wrong life goals which started from having misbeliefs and being guided by desire. ......................

19 Life changes with wrong goals Have you ever asked yourself what is your goal in life ? This question is a very difficult one because everyone would think hard about it. This is because most people have no goals. Even if they do have, their goals are the same as the others. Many peopleûs answer to this question is simply... My goal is to become a successful person. My goal is to become rich. My goal is to be loved by my children and grandchildren. I want to tell you that these are not goals; they are just things that we want to own, want to have, and want to become. These only depend on certain context or surrounding. They donût lead our lives to our dreams. For example, if someone tells you that their goal is to be awarded with a gold Olympic medal, but that person couldnût answer which sport they would want that medal for. Do you think this person will ever get the medal ? Therefore, people who say they want a gold medal must be able to specify whether they are going to be a boxer, a swimmer, or a taekwando player, in order to more forward in practicing and developing their skills to achieve this goal. Similarly, people who say that they want to become rich, successful, and happy, might look like they have their goals in life. However, these are just the consequences.

20 Therefore, you must be able to identify how are you going to become successful. For example, I want to be an owner of a Thai fabric company that export my products to other areas of the world. I want to be the best stock market analyst. I want to be the greatest banker. If you have these kinds of answer, you will then know the direction that you are going and the things that need improvement. ...................... Having no goals is like having no life A personûs life goal is something that is meaningful to that person. It is something that the person gives importance to and want it to happen. Peopleûs life goals usually work like a magnet that attracts them to do things that would lead them to their goal. People who have a clear idea of what their goal is will know what they have to do. They will know for what reason and for who they are living for. If we donût have goals How can we know what is important ? If we donût know what is important How can we prioritize ? If we canût prioritize How do we know what we should do today ?

21 If we donût know what we should do today How can we make sure that our live wonût just simply go with the flow ? Before you even realize, you will eventually reach the end of your life. Therefore, life must start with a goal, and every goal in life must start from determination. People with no goals will not see their çself-valueé and will lack of çmind poweré which is an important problem in life because this not only affects you directly, but it also becomes a problem for the society and the world. If you are a person with no goals, it is inevitable for you to encounter these bad salutations. I will categorize them into 3 levels. 1. Problems to oneself 1. çPeople with no goalé will never know their self-value. 2. çPeople with no goalé will be confused because they flow with the trend. 3. çPeople with no goalé will have no determination, tolerance, and effort. 4. çPeople with no goalé will have no power and enthusiasm. 5. çPeople with no goalé will give up easily once faced with obstacles. 6. çPeople with no goalé will have their lives be determined by others.

22 7. çPeople with no goalé will not seem charming to others. 8. çPeople with no goalé will never be proud of themselves. 9. çPeople with no goalé will less likely be successful in live. 2. Problems to the society 1. çPeople with no goalé will never be able to inspire others, not even people who are close to them. 2. çPeople with no goalé will never be able to make a big change. 3. çPeople with no goalé will be easily persuaded. 4. çPeople with no goalé will not be able to lead. 5. çPeople with no goalé will be overlooked. 3. Problems to the world 1. çPeople with no goalé will not be able to change the world into a better place. 2. çPeople with no goalé will not be praised and remembered. 3. çPeople with no goalé will never create new things for the world. 4. çPeople with no goalé will hinder world development. Do you have a goal in life ? If not... what is holding you back ?

23 You do not have a goal in life because you do not have enough motivation to start doing something. Some people might have a goal, but still donût have a clear destination. We have our finish line which means that we know what we want to achieve and what we must do to achieve it. However, we will never reach that çfinish lineé if we do not have a çdeadlineé which is one of the factors that prevent you from drifting around and living without caution. Before you realize, it might be too late because we can never know whether çtomorrowé or çthe next lifeé will come first. One eternal truth is that whether you have a goal or not, we all move forward to the same thing which is çdeathé. However, there is one difference between these 2 groups of people. People who have a goal will leave this world valuably. People who have no goal will leave this world in vain. Therefore, the çthought innovationé in this book will act as a compass that helps you find the right goal in life, fix your distorted life, and restore happiness and sustainable growth of the eroded society and world by having the right çbeliefsé and çlife goalsé which will help you create a great new life. In the next chapter, I will present you the result of a study that I have been conducting for a long time which shows where çcapitalismé and social problems that we are currently facing evolved from and became a disastrous cycle that destroys lives, takes over human, and enslaves them with materialism. This cycle is like an evil noose that tightens around ignorant humans, enslaving them forever. Follow me.

24 Chapter 3 Understanding the Disastrous Cycle From my study about the evolution of the disastrous cycle, it was found that once human has greed, there will be surplus accumulation and exploitation. It starts with small things, develops into cheating, expands into betrayal, and becomes corruption like we see today. Since the interest gains was illegitimate, people who possess such interest will become anxious in keeping the çsurplusé as safe as possible by securing çpoweré to themselves. The development of the disastrous cycle or the disastrous triangle that I am going to present starts from the bar of power and interest. When interest increases, increasing power requires totalitarian power, which is called çdictatorshipé, as show in the picture.

25 Nonetheless, although there is interest and power, this bar can easily be destroyed from outside force, such as online criticism, media presentation, and demonstrations. Dictatorship was the start of the evolution, but it is starting to disappear in presents days. The bar transformed into a çtriangleé. It starts from being an obtuse triangle which the interest side is longer than the power side. However, once the interest side extends as peopleûs greed grows, it will exceed the çcenter of gravityé or çmomentumé and the system will eventually collapse according to the engineering principle.

26 Therefore, in order for this cycle to survive and for the leaders to seek for power and interest, they have to manipulate people into thinking that çmoney is Godé which will make people become lost in materialism and end up being their source of money, or as known as being the çcustomer of capitalismé. The leaders then use the money to seek for more power through çpopulismé. These actions continue as an endless cycle and further expands the triangle. Interest doesnût refer to only an amount of money or assets that are tangible, but it also refers to an abstract area of comfort zone which is a place that we feel confident and safe. Violence that emerges in many places is to protect this zone. It can be said that the cause of violence is the attempt to protect oneûs interest which leads to the struggle for power and manipulation.

27 Relationship between interest, capital, and power 1. Capital refers to money nowadays. Its broader meaning refers to weapons, provisions, armed force, fame, etc. People have to accumulate capital in order to make themselves powerful than others. People who have plenty of food left and trade them with other things that they want, and they can order other people to work for them. Once they accumulate weapons and armed force, they can use them to attack other cities and rob their resources. This is a way of extending oneûs power. çCapitalé leads to both positive and negative use of power which depends on the person using. 2. Interest refers to assets, fame, honor, or even beliefs and values since they are all interests that serve some group of people.

28 3. Power refers to the strength or capability that can be used to seek for and protect interest. It is the ability to make other people do or not do something according to the order of the person who holds the power. There are many sources of power. ë Power from the use of rules or laws ex: authority and function ë Power from the capability to use force ex: military power ë Power from the possession of assets and money ex: economic power ë Power from the possession of superior knowledge and skills ex: power of media ë Power from affection ex: power of beliefs For example, in the past, people colonize to seek for interest which were plants and food which were used to feed their citizens in order for them to become labor that produce weapons. Later, they fought for gold which can be exchanged for weapons. These weapons were used as a tool to seek for more interest in other areas of the world. This action continued until the empire was almost able to rule the whole entire planet. To conclude, once humans become greedy and want interest, they turn their capital into power. Then, they use the power to further seek for more interest and accumulate all of their interest as their capital which will later be tuned into more power. This cycle continues until their greed is fulfilled which is almost impossible, unless that person meets a life-turning point or is wise enough to realize that this cycle is a double-edged sword.

29 The Disastrous Triangle, the vileness that destroys the cycle of human, society, and the world By adapting this system to an individualûs life, it can be seen that the problems of violence in our society all are all caused by the disastrous triangle. 1. Capitalism: thought based on being greedy, accu- mulating, and collecting. 2. Populism: thought based on being afraid of hardship, poverty. 3. Materialism: thought based on being manipulated. These 3 sides perfectly align with the concept of desire in human which creates a disastrous cycle consisting of 1. Greed: human is greedy. They want to have, want to own, and want to be, so they seek for interest. 2. Hatred: human protect their own interest using power and fear to rule. 3. Delusion: humans have a lack of knowledge and proper life goal, so they have delusion.

30 From the disastrous triangle, capitalism expands the gap in our society and sinks in the mind of humans. As a result, we will find that people around us will start to act, think, work, and live differently to conform to capitalism. Volunteering system, morality, and honesty is considered outdated. Humans long for a higher position so much that they have to borrow money to spend on things they canût afford with their revenue, causing them to be indebted. This also leads to both direct and indirect corruption, as well as policies that allow them to get their interest. From life driven by çvirtueé, which focuses on sufficiency, peace, and comfort, turns into life driven by çgreedé, which aims to endlessly accumulate and gain. It is said that we are living in the age where çGood people are shy, but bad people are braveé. To conclude, our problems and the problems in our society nowadays all come from these 2 disastrous cycles. ë Greed : interest (capitalism) ë Hatred : power to secure the interest (populism) ë Delusion : lust and affection (materialism) Once greed, hatred, and delusion lie deep in the mind of humans who focus on seeking interests for themselves and expand to the macro level which is capitalism, populism, and materialism, the society is completely degenerated. I call this the çdisastrous cycle of human and societyé.

31 These problems inspired me to research and study to create a thought innovation to solve them. I eventually found a tool that can help humans improve their lives in every aspect, survive the crisis, have a business that can generate income and benefit the society and the world simultaneously. This tool is called çthe 3 rings of thought revolution and new life creationé. It can be used as a guide to get you through the 4th era and continues to the 5th era which is the future era. The 5th future era or the era of truth is the upcoming era of the future. In this era, humans will start to get bored of a highly competitive world. They will start to realize the difference between a true self and an impersonated self and realize how nonsense and intangible social media is. This will make humans want to return to nature and long for a more tangible reality. This is because humans are social

32 beings who need to be in a real society, not a virtual one. The worldûs problems will be that humans want to know about the truth of life. They will start to look for real friends, food, places, and nature. Therefore, once we have an idea of the direction of the 5th wave, we should start planning our lives now so that we are prepared enough to step forward into the future with confidence. In the next chapter, I will walk you through the process of solving the problem and escaping the disastrous cycle, so that you can find your true self and happiness. Moreover, it will also help everyone escape the trap of capitalism in which we have been lured by malicious people. Follow me. ......................

33 Chapter 4 Way of Solving Problems and the Disastrous Cycle If morality does not return, world will perish. Buddhadasa UNESCOûs great international personality for the study of religion, culture, and peace. In the previous chapter, we have learned about the danger of the vicious cycle of the disastrous triangle, or as known as the unwholesome roots which are greed, hatred, and delusion. In this chapter, we will learn about how to avoid becoming victims and slaves of capitalism with a triangle of salvation called the çmerit triangleé. As we know well, capitalism is the cause of all deep- rooted problems in the human mind and in the society that we live in. Therefore, the best way to solve these problems is to çovercome evil with goodé. That is, this new triangle is a triangle of merit which we have to build up, so it can dominate the disastrous triangle.

34 What does the merit triangle consist of ? I would like to give a straightforward answer. The merit triangle is the opposite of the vicious triangle. ➔ From greed, hatred, delusion ➔ abstinent, mercy, aware From capital, interest, power ➔ sufficiency economy, collectivism, idealism 1. Abstinent: çWorking to earn a livingé is crucial for everyoneûs life. Nowadays, we are living in a capitalist world where greed is fundamental, and çprofité is the ultimate goal. Therefore, many people doubt if there is a way to earn a living without being greedy and excessive and causing problems for others and the nature. I can assure you that çthere isé The system is çsufficiency economyé by Phrabat Somdet Phra Paraminthra Maha Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX)

35 The royal speech written in the Chaipattana Founda- tion Journal, issued in August 1999, regarding the concept of sufficiency economy shows that... çSufficiency economy is the root of life and the foundation of the countryûs security. It is the foundation pile that supports the whole body of the house, allowing the structure to stay secured. However, it is also something that many people do not see and forget that it exists.é This is truly the foundation of thought and the start of the modern age society ! Sufficiency economy is, therefore, the answer to an honest way to earn a living and is a concrete path for life. The concept of sufficiency economy can be used not only for pursuing faithful profession and proper life, but it is also the key to a peaceful coexistence.

36 The principle of Sufficiency Economy consists of 1. Moderation refers to not having either too much or too little and not exploiting others, such as a moderate amount of production and consumption. 2. Reasonableness refers to making a decision with reasons by carefully considering related factors and the consequences of such action. 3. Risk Management refers being prepared for the effects and possible changes that could happen by considering the possibilities of the situations in the future. 2. Mercy: The opposite of hatred or fear is love and mercy. Therefore, government should not be based on fear and should not be the relationship between the governed and the governor. It should be based on love and mercy. People in the community should help each other which is called çCollectivism-Localismé. 3. Aware: People become aware when they have enough knowledge about life. Religious knowledge will set us free from all unfavorable things. It is the basic knowledge of human, knowing why we were born and how we should live our lives. We will then explore the true goal in the next chapter. ......................

37

38 Chapter 5 The True Life Goals çThere are two great days in a personûs life- the day we are born and the day we discover whyé -William Barclay-, a philosopher Why setting life goals is important ? Answer: because having no goals is like being a dead man The right path of life is initiated from the right path of pure souls. In Buddhist moral, çyour soul is the master of all, everything can be achieved by your soulé, this means whatever you are doing, if you have kindness with good acts and do it for common interests, your goals will be obvious and powerful which can be extended limitlessly. In fact, this will directly affect your life because many people will appreciate you. To be more precise, you will become a generous person with higher morals in your souls, or if you follow the way of Buddhism, you can even have çrealizing eyesé

39 çSoul affects thoughtsé çThought affects actsé çAct affects peopleé çPeople affects societyé çSociety affects the world and nationsé As for secular perspectives, Iûve been working in the field of social welfare to help people and I found that setting life goals is significantly important. In particular, 97% of successful people all have clear and obvious life goal. For example, Bill Gates, an American business magnate, has the clear goal to contribute for society. He once said about his lifeûs motto çliving means dedicating yourself for societyé leading him to have potential to do technology business by using new innovations and he was successful eventually. After that, we see that he has been donating his money for charity and people for more than ten years without expecting for any rewards. His actions can define his good moral. Therefore, Goal is tangible force that wake us up from bed in every morning with ambitions to achieve goals. Goal is the reason to make important decisions. Goal gives meaning to humanûs life. Unfortunately, many people waste their time on spending each day without having goals. Not realizing their values leads them to confuse what they should do with their lives.

40 In addition, some of them are not brave enough to organize setting goals because they are afraid of pressure or failing their tasks. I want to tell you that if you decide to reach your goal and found out later that it is not what you want, you can change your goal in your life anytime. However, one goal that must not be changed is çto do good thingsé because our good morals can lighten up this world. I want to let everyone know that çWe are not born as humans very often and we donût know whether we will be born perfectly like this again or not. Therefore, donût be afraid to live by following your dreams.é It cannot be denied that our lives are counting down. I would like to invite you to think about how much valueable time you will be wasting if you keep spending your time with trials and errors with a hope to find the perfect life that you wish for or dedicating yourself to something that isnût worth it. The best way to answer the question about the importance of time is asking from people nearby. Ô If you want to know the importance of 1-year-period, try to ask from students who failed on their course and had to retake the course. Ô If you want to know the importance of 1-month-period, try to ask from mother who gave preterm birth.

41 Ô If you want to know the importance of 1-week-period, try to ask from monthly publisher editors. Ô If you want to know the importance of 1-hour-period, try to ask from lovers who wait to see each other. Ô If you want to know the importance of 1-minute period, try to ask from passengers who cannot get on the plane in time. Ô If you want to know the important of a second, try to ask from people who luckily avoided cruel accidents. The one who realize their goals takes more advantages than the one who doesnût realize their lifeûs meaning. ...................... 4 positive aspects that are discovered from setting goals. If you spend your day like people who have obvious goals, you will see yourself waking up from your beds with positive power and ambitions. On the other hand, the one who doesnût have any goals would wake up with no lifeûs meaning and broken dreams. In this unit, I would like to illustrate 4 positive aspects why you need to have life goal for every step of your life in order to make your life mean something.

42 1. Goal makes you know your living paths Without goals, people seemed like a little ship in the middle of the sea with confusing destination because they wouldnût know the reason why they need to have destination or goals. Although some people have set their goals, theyûre still confused with their lives because they were told to have one but they donût actually know the great meanings behind the goals. According to my working experience involved with social field and its issues, I would like to tell everyone that whenever you donût have your standpoint or goals, the loneliness from your souls will lie to you that çyour life is meaninglessé. In addition, if you follow those lies and cannot find your standpoints, loneliness and depression will be immersed to your soul leading to depressive disorder which could makes you donût want to live in this world. As a result, it is suggested to remind yourself whether you clearly set your standpoints or not, and deeply determine what good merits that your standpoints are composed of. çLosing your way is not as terrified as losing your lifeûs direction.é Therefore, setting your goal according to your lifeûs direction is necessary !

43 Therefore, setting your goal is like finding a compass for your life. Having a good compass means you need to have a good soul which can lead to a first step of your journey or even an impact step that could significantly impact the world. Good souls are composed of: 1. Not involving yourself with any kinds of bad things including with physical, verbal, and mental aspects. 2. Immersing yourself with any kinds of good merits by doing good things with your good physical, verbal, mental actions. 3. Making your soul to be pure by prohibiting and bad actions and being prepared to cleanse your soul by not bringing greed, anger, and lust. 2. Goals give you power. çEven any angels cannot stop a person who is constantly having efforts.é Hundreds of obstacles cannot block the ways of determined people. Goals will strengthen your bravery.

44 Goals will give you good attitudes towards works. Having good attitudes could contribute to a higher chance to be successful. In fact, if we perceive your goals as something challenging, it will encourage you to have ambition and bravery because we see çadvantagesé of those goals. Therefore, having a precise goal can productively inspire you, even when you fail on working, you will have a positive energy to move on. 3. çGoalsé make you to be more skilled. çProblem always makes people stronger.é Goals lead us to be prepared for any problems. When we encounter with any difficult obstacles, we will do anything to solve those hard issues and constantly learn to develop ourselves to achieve the expected goals. This will definitely make you stronger. When you overcome any obstacles in your life, you will find yourself that you are having enhanced potentials and reaching more goals; hence, goals will become your powerful determination that can achieve anything.

45 4. çGoalsé give you values. You will be yourself if you organize your expected goals effectively because you will be able to find your true value which is quite worth to pass on this value to others. Even though you are gone from this world, the good things that you give to society will be beneficial. Therefore, having a goal can make you to be a unique person with new innovative ideas that can efficiently inspire to other people in the society. The comparison between a person who has goals and a person who does not have any goals. 4 Positive aspects 4 negative aspects of having goals of not having goals People without goals will goals give your life a direction have unclear direction. goals give you power People without goals will lack of energy and ambition People without goals will be goals make you to be more a loser who is easily surrender diligent for any obstacles people without goals will goals make you to be yourself depend on other people

46 From 4 advantages of having goals, they guide you to have precise life directions, power, and efforts in order to define your own faith. This is the origin of having çdesireé with means to love what you do. Love motivates us to create a cause in order to move toward our goal which allow us to feel çsatisfied to be alive...é This is different from how people these days look for passion since they only look for things that they love, or they think they love. Passion is an imagined state of feeling that occurs, prevails, and perish which can change with the environment, belief, and social values. Therefore, searching for passion is basically looking for something that does not exist. However, if we have desire which is all about love and the pleasure of creating a cause rather than lustful desires that only happen when we reach the result, our mind will feel satisfied to be alive because we create value, consisting of both virtue and benefit, for the society. Once we realize our self-worth, we will then feel love. In conclusion, once we have goals of wanting to create and give something good to other people, we will feel the value and love (desire). ......................

47 Example of a great personûs goals Life goals refer to something that you would like to achieve or desire in the future. It inspires you to have encouragement to drive to forward. Having life goals helps people to have meaning, precise directions, and hope in their life. Unfortunately, many people lose their ways to find some goals. In addition, they donût know value of their lives because they donût know what they really desire. They donût find their own paths because there are no tools to facilitate them to find the answer. As a result, they wrongly follow the ways of current society or even words from their surrounding friends. An example of a great goal: 2600 years ago, before Buddha became the prophet of Buddhism, he had been a prince who had a great goal to get rid of any miseries, so he went to be a monk in order to put his effort achieving this goal. Due to the fact that he was constantly determined on getting rid of misery, he intuited and enlighten the way of Buddhist. All the knowledge that he enlightened have been being taught to us until this present day. If there was no one to dedicate himself on enlightening that day, there would be no great prophet to teach us about Buddhist religious morals today. What would people in this generation be if there is no religious lesson ? Therefore,

48 the act of enlightening of Buddha became something that he can be on his own, and he dedicated himself to pass on his lesson to other people in the world. Another example of some inspirations that inspiring me is King Rama 9th. On the day he took his thrones, he declared his motto that çI will rule this nation with good morals and righteousness for the sake of all citizensé this is like setting a precise goal to thrive on something. The phrase çrule this nation with good morals and righteousnessé means ruling the country with good intention which has 10 aspects. 1. Donating means sacrificing some stuff to help poor people. 2. Cannon means the good morals to follow as a good role model for general people. 3. Sacrificing means donating happiness for others. 4. Honesty means being honest with good intention for others. 5. Humble means being humble for others. 6. Efforts means determination to achieve something and not be distracted by any bad distraction. 7. Steady means being not angry and not stimulate anger for other people. 8. Nonviolence means not showing an act of aggressive actions.

49 9. Patience means being patient for any hard workings. 10. Justice means doing good things and not be shaken by any bad actions. According to these 10 aspects of ruling nation by the king, he constantly followed his rule for 70 years for the sake of Thai people from more than 4000 projects that he created. People may have different kinds of goals, but I would like to say having a goal is like sacrificing some of our happiness for others and share our good intention as far as we can. Therefore, the true meaning of having goals is dedicating oneûs self for the sake of other people or being a part of solving societyûs problems. The greatest goals of oneûs life is about getting rid of misery and using our knowledge to help others like Buddha and King Rama 9th. Live your life as there would be no tomorrow. Die as inspirations for others. When we know the circle of issues and how to solve it, the main key to initiate merits is having a powerful thought and the right tool to truly designate your life in order to design your life in every aspect.

50 As for the next part, I would like to illustrate the solution of any problems by presenting productive tools that can definitely change your life which contribute you to change the world by your own without waiting for others because those tools are like intelligent weapons that are not only utilize yourself but also help society in many aspects. ......................

51 PART II