All of you good knowing advisors, honored guests, and elders, what you have not finished eating, please take your time and eat slowly. Don't get nervous. Eating is a very important matter in everyone's life, as are wearing clothes and sleeping. These things are essential to every person, and so we should know how to do these things correctly.

When we eat, we shouldn't eat too fast. We shouldn't get nervous because if we do, then we'll suffer from indigestion and all kinds of stomach complications. That's why there's this saying:

Sicknesses enter through the mouth,
Calamities come out from the mouth.

During mealtime, we should be very respectful. We should maintain an attitude of gratitude and thanksgiving, because this is a country of plenty where we are all able to get our fill. Since this is the case, we should take our meal slowly.

Although eating is a necessity, we shouldn't be greedy for the flavors of the food. It's said:

The superior person does not pay
attention to food.
He pays attention to the Way.

The very best way to eat is to ignore the flavor. If you are able to do that, it will be very easy for you to digest your food, and the food won't make you sick. If we can learn to eat without being greedy for flavors, then we will also be able to apply the same principle to everything we do. Everything we do has both benefit and harm in it. Everything we do has some good and some bad in it. Everything we do has the potential for victory or defeat.

In eating correctly, we should eat wholesome food in order to preserve our health. We should be very calm when we eat, natural and at ease. When we eat the very best is to not have any polluted thinking, to have no discursive thoughts at all. That would truly be "eating and not knowing the flavor," and then you could use the food you ate to its maximum benefit, because you wouldn't have derived the maximum nourishment contained in the food.

Clothes are the second necessity. Our clothes should be clean. They don't have to be elegant or costly. There are many problems involved with wearing expensive clothes. You're afraid to sit down and afraid to stand up. You're reluctant to sit for fear that the place where you are about to sit is dirty and the expensive clothes you're wearing will get soiled. You are reluctant to stand for fear that you will brush up against something that will ruin the appearance of your clothes. Wearing expensive clothes becomes as burdensome as armor. The clothes you wear need only to be clean. This is my simple opinion.

It seems to me that since eating, wearing clothes, and sleeping are the most fundamental aspects of our lives, we should learn how to do these things properly. In that way we won't be wasting our energy. If we don't go after the best food and the finest clothes then we will be properly managing the first two necessities.

As to sleep, when it's time to sleep, we shouldn't think about yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Then we can sleep easily. Many people in this world rely on sleeping pills so they can go to sleep and stomach medicines so they can digest their food. Many people also never feel warm no matter how many clothes they put on. Other people never feel cool enough no matter how few clothes they are wearing.

This shows the importance of knowing how to properly do anything that we do. If when doing things we can be peaceful at heart, with our whole selves in harmony, then none of the many kinds of sicknesses will come to trouble us.

My words have been very simple and yet, if you've listened to what I've said you'll find there's much about education and how to conduct oneself within it.

There's one more important point I'd like to mention, and that is that we should be without a temper, and we should be without afflictions. Being without afflictions means that we shouldn't let anything upset us. At Dharma Realm Buddhist University, Cultivating Virtue High Schools, and Instilling Virtue Elementary Schools, our guiding principle is to help people develop into poised, and well-grounded individuals who are not greedy, who don't contend, who aren't selfish, and who don't seek self-benefit, or lie or seek. Basically we try to help all students establish virtue, so that in the future they can do the jobs that they need to do. I've just talked about the essential things that we do every day, but if you can do those daily things without getting angry or upset, then you will be making progress. Our temper and afflictions, the things that upset us, are our biggest enemy. They are the biggest enemy of each of us as individuals; they are the biggest enemies of our families; and, they are the biggest enemies of our country and of our world. If we didn't have anger or affliction, then the world would be peaceful.

The very basic reason why world wars start, is because people are upset about something.

If we could all just learn to yield rather than contend, if we could all learn to be patient with what most people find it impossible to be patient with, if we can bear what others cannot bear, and eat what others cannot eat, and take what others cannot take, and practice what others cannot practice, then we will have come a long way in establishing what is fundamental to giving people proper educations.

In this world there are many kinds of educators. Although there are some educators who are very good, unfortunately there are many who are not. At Dharma Realm Buddhist University, Cultivating Virtue High Schools, and Instilling Virtue Elementary Schools we teach children tuition free because it is our genuine hope that we can help all promising young people.