taking time to reflect – consider – learn – is one way to make your life richer and more fulfilling. It isn’t hard to do – you don’t need some gadget or prop – you just do it. But most people don’t do it – and they suffer lost fulfillment because of that – and remain completely ignorant of the loss. Examine Your life: Old Socrates sure had that one right. To leave a day without giving a thought about how that day has been lived is to waste the time and effort of living that day. It is more tragic than having lived a decade without reflecting on how that decade was lived. It is much more tragic than living a year without reflecting on how that year was lived. It is only slightly less tragic than living a moment without reflecting on how that moment was lived. What is the point of going into tomorrow if you haven’t learned the lessons of yesterday? The truth is that, if you don’t learn, you end up going back into yesterday all over again! A person is condemned to confront the same challenge over and over again until they master it. Then they get to go on to the next one. Those of you who have been paying attention will find this statement a judgment on those who have not learned Socrates’ lesson. I was, of course, referring to those ‘deer in the headlights’ types that you meet all the time. Much like a TV soap opera, they can pass out of mind for years and, when they return, their continuing lives seem like just more of the same. Making the same mistakes over and over is a sign of inattention – a sign of being asleep. The simply ridiculous thing about the insight which Socrates delivered to humanity those many centuries ago – an insight which lies at the very core of Buddhist teachings – is that, like most fundamental truths, this enlightenment is more a matter of dedication to simple actions than to mind bending mental gymnastics over Byzantine logic and convoluted theories of existence. But for the well educated amongst us, the latter is always easier than the former. By three methods we may learn wisdom: first, by reflection, which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest. Confucius