What can you achieve by changing the world? Can you achieve perfection? Never, you will only be able to feed your vanity and fulfill your ego. You will be bound to the wheel of existence. But by changing yourself, by realizing the nature of self through selflessness, self-discipline and self-exertion, you can achieve perfection.

By achieving such perfection, your life becomes meaningful and you can render great service to other. People will be inspired by your examples; they will follow you and also achieve the common aim in life. This is why one man, Siddharta, who wanted to become a Buddha gave up his kingdom in order to become an ascetic. By becoming a king he would have served only his subjects, but by transforming himself through self effort, he was able to save the world. Man today is the result of millions of past thoughts and actions. He is not ready-made for he ‘becomes and continues becoming’. His character is determined by his own thinking process. Man is not perfect by nature; he has to train himself to be perfect.

Life does not belong to human beings alone. Many other life forms exist in this universe. However, human beings have a greater thinking and reasoning power. In that respect they are superior to other living beings since they have the intelligence to mould their way of life in order to get rid of their worldly sufferings. Hence, if the purpose of life is just to get rid of sufferings, then human beings can achieve that end through their own effort. But life will be a failure if it is not used properly. The Buddha stresses the value of being a human. He painted the most perfect picture of a human being striving and struggling from life to life in his quest for perfection.

In fact, life is an unique experience. There is nothing with which to compare it; no measure of its value could be determined in terms of some other things, and money cannot purchase it. Yet, many have not learned what to do with this ‘priceless pearls’. Life does not mean mere physical body or senses, but the thinking human mind.