Buddhist way of thinking

To be honest, I'm probably not the best example of a Buddhist. I eat meat (who said a Buddhist has to be a vegetarian anyway), I seldom go to the temple, I don't pray, I sometimes don't remember the history of Buddhism and can't really tell people what it actually is. But I do know one thing, very important thing actually. Buddhism provides me with a choice to be happy and think happy thoughts.

Today, I lost a 10 dollar voucher which I got from participating an activity at university. I didn't expect to get it but I was happy to have it. I was so glad and I was going to use it but then I lost the voucher. I tried to look for it and couldn't find it anywhere and I feel really sad. The funny thing was, if I hadn't had it in the first place, I wouldn't have felt sad to lose it. It's funny how we sometimes suffer from losing things that we wouldn't have needed it anyway. And I think we do that a lot in our life. We grieve on the lost of things that might not be as important as we thought. I spent much of my afternoon mourning over this loss which is really quite a waste of time. I then realise that if I had adopted the way of thinking that things come and go and nothing stays forever just like I was taught during my Buddhism class then I might not have suffered so much over such a silly little thing. That's the moment of enlightenment for me.

For me, it doesn't matter what religion one hold but what matters is whether that system of believes provide the person with the way to be happy and think positive thoughts about life. I found that realising that what is my loss might be fortunate gain for other people and that can be a good thing (Tham boon). It might not be logical but it helps me to calm down and mourn less over the loss. I do agree with the Buddha when he said that people are sad because they suffers from the desire of holding on to things that are not forever.

Sometimes I do think that Buddhism makes people passive and lack of ambition to overcome challenge. What's the purpose of fighthing for something that you know it's not gonna last forever? But when it comes to deficult times of having to accept the loss, I think Buddhism is actually helping me to cope and see things positively which lift up my spirit to goes on without letting it affecting me too much.

So I am grateful that I have the choice to chose my believe and reflect upon it. That makes me more appreciative of what I have, my believe and who I am.