Expert: John Willemsens aka Advayavadananda - 7/5/2003

Question
How can I become a better person?
---
Hi. I decided to become a better person. And not only morally, but in all aspects of life. After a lot of thinking and asking questions, I realized that growth and improvement is our sense of life so to speak. Not money, or respect of others, no power etc, just constant improvement of ourselves, of our abilities, trying to become our best. The difficult part is because it is against our nature. We need efore to do this. So I decided to make my motto for the near future "to become a little better person every day". I decided to make some kind of excercises for this. I can divide improvement on several categories:

Moral gowth - the most important for me I hink, it is needed to become a better person, kinder, nicer, less egoistic, more compassionate, more ethical and respectable to others, because you can be happier with yourself and people around you would be happy. Excercises: to read a web page on ethics today, to read 1 page more every other day. If I feel tired or dont have time, stop increasing amount of reading. When there is no info on the net, read books. Substitute ethics reading with a bible, buddhism readings, other philosophies to broaden your mind. This way I will be able to control myself, because I know what should I do. Ask yourself if I live according to those principles, how can I be better. I could volunteer. I could ask how can I benefit society.

Health growth - to eat more and more healthy food, to increase both physical and mental health by reading books on this, meditating, excercising.

Educational growth - ask yourself what type of education I need. Read 1 page of a book or webpage today on the topic I am interested in, increase pages other days.

Professional growth - ask yourself every week or so, how can I improve my professional life, maybe I should take some certificates, change job for more challenging one, read some books on career improvement, consult with career conculors.

Financial growth - the least important, but still important. Ask yourself if I manage my finances right, maybe I can save more, earn more, invest better etc.

I am a beginner at this, so I ask you to evaluate my plan and let me know what you think about it. I chose these types of growths, because they are connected. If you dont pay attention to one of them, you become degrade on other plins slowly. Do you agree with me? Comments? What would you add, delete?  

Answer
Dear Tom,
Please note that I speak for Advayavada Buddhism only.
If you want to know more about this form of Buddhism, please visit www.advayavada.nl.
I am very impressed by your commendable intentions to become a better person.
In Advayavada Buddhism we do not breakdown our endeavours in that fashion, but live according to five basic precepts and then follow one overall comprehensive noble eightfold path.
Maybe you would like to have a look at our page http://www.euronet.nl/~advaya/patipada.htm describing the path.
Kind regards,
John Willemsens a.k.a. Advayavadananda.