Cattāri Brahmavihārā

Recently, perhaps as a result of regularly contemplating the preciousness of a human birth wherein one has met with the Dhamma, I have been reflecting on the futility of becoming overly concerned with temporal losses and gains. In the best of all possible rebirths as a human what is there to look forward to? Of course, meeting with the Dhamma is at the top of my list but it becomes much more difficult to call anything else a real gain since it will all be lost at the end of one’s life. So, whether I become a millionaire in this life or the next I will lose it all at death. There is no refuge in conditioned phenomena but delusion swamps my feeble mind time and again and tricks me into believing in the lie. My only consolation is that each time I am fooled I seem to recover more quickly.

May we all come to see that the only source of riches is our virtue and liberating insight is the only attainment ultimately worth pursuing.