#channel/bodhi-light-teachings  Whatever you do in life, the last thing you want to do is against your true nature. Because you go against your true nature, you will suffer more and you regret it terribly. Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of Tea Talk with Master Young Hua. In today's episode, we're going to discuss the challenge of changing directions in life, what's needed to make change, and how our spirituality can be beneficial for us during these challenging times. And the person who's going to unpack that for us is Master Young Hua himself. Hi, Master. Hi, Jim. Um Master, I feel like, you know, changing course in life is pretty common for most people. But I feel like it can be more difficult as you grow older. For example, a friend of mine, he's currently going through nursing school because his old profession was heavily affected by AI. But the the issue is he has this fear that he's not sure he's going to have the same passion for this career when he graduates. So, if you know it's time to make a change, and you have these mental obstacles that is holding you back in some way, what can you do about it? >> Your doubts, your hesitations, are normal. There's nothing wrong with it. And it's very healthy for you or for your friend to hesitate, and analyze, and reanalyze, and that's uh a good thing to do. It's a natural. When especially when you are about to make a a big decision, it's good to do it over and over again. There's nothing wrong with that. So, how do you know that you make the right choice? You don't know. No one wants to change. Okay, especially when you get older like me. I don't like to change anymore. Okay. Uh and so, well, fundamentally, doesn't matter how old or young you are, you change you make changes because you must. And if you say how do how can I prepare myself myself for changes and make it easy for me to change? Um can I paraphrase it? Because what your question says uh I am not sure I can handle it. I'm not sure what's going to happen in the future, whether it's the right thing for me, how it's going to affect my love, my family, uh my career, what would people think of me, and so forth. All those are valid. Uh and those questions will always arise for you. Okay? The main thing to me is how to make changes wholesomely. Whatever you do in life, the last thing you want to do is against your true nature. Because you go against your true nature, you will suffer more and you regret it terribly. Uh Ordinary people, they the views of life, the understand of life is very static. Huh? For us in in China, now, we want to have continuing improvement. So, that so that we give our best today and keeping in mind we still want to improve so that when we are get to a higher level, now we contribute more and more and more. And that is part of your self nature. So, how can I enfold the better version of me? >> First of all, it requires you to believe that you could be better. >> That's hard. Not everybody believes that. Most people don't believe that. Most people don't think that way. Most people have a static view of life. Okay? They get married. They said, "I'm the one who love you." Mhm. Okay? And this is my best version. Yeah. Okay? Uh but they fail to understand that relationships change. I feel you obligated to become a better person so that you can love him more. And that's a sign of healthy relationship. Why can't people work on home? Why can't people do that? You know, I feel like Because they don't know how to be better. They don't know how. It's a good question. You know, why don't people think about it? Why why don't people set it as a goal? It's because their parents don't know how to do it. Their teachers don't know know how to do it. You go to universities and they only taught how to look outside. Mhm. How to analyze external things, but they never taught how to look inside and make that better version of you emerge. Sometimes there needs to be change, but you can't see it. What do we do when we realize like there's a feeling that there's an aspect of of ourselves we have to overcome, but it's so difficult but it's cuz it's so emotionally there's no way to describe emotions really. Excellent. The reason that we cannot improve inside is because we don't know how to measure how we improve inside. Outside, there are criteria. There is uh grades, uh however, for yourself personally, there's really no criteria for you to decide whether you improve or not, or you get better, or you have a better version of yourself or not. I like to propose one very simple measure. Mhm. Uh it's called gooder. What is gooder? Gooder is as the word says, you become a more good version of yourself. I'm not using the word better because better has many interpretations. I'm talking about the goodness in your heart. And that's the most important yardstick as far as I'm concerned. Oh, by the way, young people, if you think that spiritual spirituality is not important, you're mistaken. Spirituality brings balance to life, brings refinement to life, brings happiness to life. Without spirituality, you'll be lost. You won't know what to do. How can we express that spirituality? >> Commit to becoming a gooder person. It's not talk. Mhm. What does it mean to be a gooder person? One there one aspect of it is that you don't harm others. No matter what the reasons, Uh no matter we have all the reason in the world, all the justification in the world, okay, to do it, we stop ourselves. Okay? That's the definition of good. And gooder means that you have less and less of a harming mind. You know, a viewer May be watching right now and they they might be asking, why should I be good? Fair question. Why should I be good? Because Master Jun Hong says so. This is not my question. I'm naturally good. So, we don't have to worry. But for somebody in the audience go that far, but That's why should I be good? Mhm. Because you'll be happier. You know, we keep on uh talking round and round, but what drives us is basically the desire to be happy. Okay? And to be gooder means you happier. Really? That's why. Yes. Mhm. You happier. That's the real reward. And you happier, you make people around you also happier. And that's what will motivate you to be gooder. Mhm. In a different episode, we talked about how depression, for example, is so contagious that you depression, you have depression, you spreading to the people close to you, your family members, your wife, your husband, your children, and so forth. People who who really care for you, you spread it because it's very contagious, okay? Uh a lot more people are willing to admit. Uh the flip side of it is that when you gooder, I've been observing that for 20 years now. When you be my students, our child students become gooder, they come back to me and they said, "You know, uh my husband changed. My children changed. My mother changed." So, that's proof for me right there that when you become gooder, actually the goodness spreads as well. So, you look at a necklace negative side where you where you have depression, you have all these pressure, and all these mental issues, it's contagious. Also, if you go into the gooder side, the positive side, it's also contagious. Mhm. That's spirituality for you.