The food and nourishment consumed at each and every meal is eaten for the sustenance of life — eaten to dispel hunger — so that one may have the strength and vitality to go forth and cultivate wholesome deeds.
The ancients have taught us to reflect carefully upon how we pass each and every day: do we eat in order to live — or do we live merely in order to eat and to seek pleasure? This is a matter worthy of earnest and thorough consideration.
For a life to be one of true and enduring worth, it must not be a life lived for the sake of eating and consuming. Rather, one eats and makes use of what one has in order to sustain life — and one sustains life in order to cultivate wholesome conduct. This is a life that fulfils its true and rightful purpose.
Reflect upon this with care and discernment. For without such reflection, life shall amount to nothing more than a piece of driftwood floating upon the current — awaiting the day of its decay and disintegration, before sinking silently and without trace into the flow of the river, having left behind not the slightest vestige of worth or wholesome goodness.
April 30th, 2014
