At that time, most of us considered eating well and having fun the meaning of life, but the Buddha told us that those are just the way of living.

In general, the richer the life is, the higher the toll it would take on one’s well-being. So the Buddha’s suggestion of a simple way of living is actually a better choice for all.

- Quote from The Right View, "The Way of Living and the Meaning of Life"

The purpose for practicing the Dharma is not to gain health and wealth or be trouble-free in life but to attain liberation. In order to reach that final goal, all defilements must be eradicated first. Although it is somewhat impractical aiming to accomplish that in three to five years, one can still check if defilements have been reduced or at least have tended downward over time. This is what we should be concerned with, not what it would be like in the realm of the Buddha or the great bodhisattvas. There is simply not enough time for us to explore and argue all the points presented in, say, Ornament of Clear Realization or Madhyamaka. In other words, we cannot hope to reach the same height as Nagarjuna or Chandrakirti by way of discussion only.

- Quote from The Right View, "The Way of Living and the Meaning of Life"

But so far no scientist or philosopher can completely refute the idea of cyclic existence or disprove next life. Rather, the evidence of a cycle of death and rebirth is becoming increasingly more abundant, which is based not on any assumption but facts available in everyday life. We cannot evade reality and the reality is that next life does exist. 

- Quote from The Right View, "The Way of Living and the Meaning of Life"

I have met many successful businesspeople who are running large corporations. They told me their goal is to have the means to help the needed or to spread the Dharma. If that was true, perhaps it would not be necessary to give up the pursuit of wealth, but the attachment to wealth must be checked.

- Quote from The Right View, "The Way of Living and the Meaning of Life"

Lay practitioners like you should be even more careful not to repeat the kind of mistake I made as you have limited free time to begin with. If all your time was spent on learning different teachings while little on actual practice, you would not be able to retain any in the end, just like someone who has to throw up due to over-eating and indigestion. It is all so pointless!

In the last few years, most of the teachings I gave were relatively short on theory and logic, except for a few easily confusing questions laypeople had that required further explanations. The emphasis was primarily on the way of actual practice. But did you do as taught?

- Quote from The Right View, "The Way of Living and the Meaning of Life"

There are many different views on this, but ultimately the meaning of life is to get oneself prepared for the liberation from cyclic existence.

In theory, we all know the difference between the way of living and the meaning of life. However, in practice, we often behave like the uninitiated making wealth accumulation the meaning of life. We ought to know better now to separate the two and be less attached to material wealth than before. The word ‘money’ can mean a lot of things in addition to its traditional definition; in fact, it can be used to denote all worldly possessions.

- Quote from The Right View, "The Way of Living and the Meaning of Life"

Many lay practitioners often told me that they pray for the Buddha’s or the bodhisattvas’ blessing to help them succeed in their jobs or business so that they can afford to offer more money to the Three Jewels. This is good motivation, but in fact we need not offer money to the Three Jewels. Real Buddhas and bodhisattvas would not care for us to have more money. Rather, they would very much like us to have developed renunciation and bodhicitta. As long as we can manage to live a reasonably decent life, they wish we should concentrate on the practice of Dharma and do our best to take control of our own cyclic existence. This is really what we should be doing now.

- Quote from The Right View, "The Way of Living and the Meaning of Life"