FROM NOW ON

So how long did our New Year Determinations last this time? Do we find ourselves making same determinations every year because for various reasons, some seemingly outside of our control, we have not managed to keep them.

Sometimes our determinations are relatively trivial and we can safely console ourselves by saying that we will try harder next year. At other times we feel guilty because we have failed to act on a really serious determination such as changing a behaviour pattern which we know is destructive to ourselves and others or doing something positive to patch up a long-running family rift.

Cheer up! There is absolutely no need to feel guilty about anything. Buddhism teaches that the time to start improving our lives is NOW. The present moment is in fact the only time in which we can act and so, no matter how many times we may have failed in the past, there is absolutely no reason why we should not succeed this time. This teaching is known as Hon'nin-myo (literally "from now on", meaning that we base our lives on the present moment and so on into the future rather than on the past, which is known as Honga-myo).

An important part of Buddhist philosophy is that we should live our lives to the full and never cease making positive efforts to create happiness and value for ourselves and for others. Our lives are actually a whole series of present moments, each of which presents us with a wonderful opportunity to do something positive.

So we must not dwell on past failures. Instead, we must learn lessons from our past and, armed with this knowledge and with the wisdom we derive from our Buddhist practice, get on with living a great life.