- Acceptance: it’s important to accept yourself because then you can accept others. Everyone, including me, has strengths and weaknesses and living true to myself means accepting my strengths and weaknesses and working to get better each day.
- Altruism: giving to others feels good because I’m helping brighten someone else’s day
- Autonomy: it’s important to ask for help but I’m learning, too, that it helps to do things by yourself, too.
- Balance: you don’t want to have a life that is completely all work and no play or all play and no work. I’m learning to take care of myself when I get stressed, like exercising, eating well, spending time with family and friends and doing hobbies like reading and knitting. I think maintaining my hobbies and interests is helping me balance out a lot of stress I feel at work.
- Challenge: challenges hep me grow. It’s hard sometimes to believe because sometimes I think if things were easy I would be fine but then without challenges I couldn’t grow and become resilient.
- Community: I can’t do everything by myself. It’s nice to have a group of people you can feel comfortable being around. I think joining extracurriculars and volunteering has helped me find a sense of purpose.
- Compassion: it’s important to understand what others go through because I think that’s how we create connection. I have learned that it’s important to check in on friends and family to see how they are once in a while. It’s taken me out of getting caught up in my own problems.
- Connection: John Donne said it best. “No man is an island.” I’m an introvert so I do enjoy spending time alone but like any human being I need to connect and interact with others.
- Consistency: when working on my goals, consistency is important because if I quit after a week of working on something, I can’t see results. I’m working on still writing the book, blogging, chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo and exercising every day. Just putting on a calendar each day that I need to do these things is helping me stay motivated. There are days when I miss exercise or don’t feel like writing, many days. But when I finally do the action I want to take towards my goal, I feel good about the little progress I am making each day.
- Contribution: I want to give something to people that brings them hope in some way.
- Cooperation: I’ve learned that anywhere I’m with people I need to work well with them. I often let my ego or emotions get in the way and it’s still a work in progress but through practice I have learned to get along with others on projects and other things.
- Courage: I chant Nam myoho renge kyo everyday for courage because it’s not easy to do things you are uncomfortable with but in order to go for those big dreams I need to push past my fears of not being good enough to take action to write that book, practice my cello or even go up and talk to people.
- Courtesy: I am not perfect, I admit, and I sometimes forget to use my manners, but it’s important to respect people, especially at work. I need to be better at respectfully addressing people, whether my coworkers or people on the phone.
- Creativity: this is a big value for me because creativity is how I express my joys and sufferings, the entirety of the human condition. Whether I am writing, playing my cello or listening to music, it stimulates my brain and in general helps me destress. I don’t know where I would be without some sort of creative outlet to keep me busy. It’s really helped me get through my ups and downs, especially during my depressive episodes.
- Dependability: I’ve learned that it’s important to show up on time to things and look nice at work because when you make those efforts, people come to trust you. Building trust takes times, and it starts with my behavior. I haven’t always been the most dependable to be honest, but I am again working on it.
- Dignity: I practice a philosophy that believes in respect for the dignity of each person’s life. When I practice this, it helps me see the inherent value of my own life. Too many people’s lives are trampled on and disrespected in society.
- Encouragement: Encouragement motivates me to do my best and giving others encouragement helps me stay motivated, too. I always love reading Buddhist study materials like The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin and Daisaku Ikeda’s writings because Daisaku Ikeda encourages me to not give up on my dreams, to do my best and to live true to myself. Every time I feel stuck, I read these writings to remind myself that I have to keep pushing through.
- Equality: A lot of human rights aren’t respected or acknowledged in society. I think that’s why equality is important. I think I started to think about the inequalities in society more around the pandemic and the murder of George Floyd, and I am still thinking about how to address inequality in society. I think it can take many forms–donating to organizations that support racial and economic justice, writing to the people in government positions, or even writing poetry about injustice. I remember writing a poem in the wake of Breonna Taylor’s death because it really shook me, and even as a quiet person who didn’t know what to do, writing this poem was my small contribution to the racial justice movement. Of course, I can always do more to fight inequality, but I’ve learned that even just educating myself on justice and equality and learning from others’ experiences is a step in becoming more aware and inspiring me to take further action.
- Ethics: It’s important for me to be aware of whether I am behaving ethically or not, because then I can reflect on whether my actions help or harm others. I remember studying about ethics as a philosophy major in college, but to actually put it into practice is harder because it requires you to reflect on your own behavior and what you can do better.
- Faith: belief in some sort of cause is important for me to keep going in an uncertain and chaotic world. I practice Buddhism with an organization of other Buddhist practitioners, and we chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo and study Buddhist concepts together and discuss how we apply them to our daily lives. Having faith in Buddhism has kept me grounded when I felt my purpose in life was lost. I’m learning how to also be more open to having more dialogues with people of other faith organizations as well, because sometimes I can only get focused on my own beliefs, but I think learning from others and listening to their perspectives, whether I agree with them or not, is a step in finding common ground with others. In Buddhism faith means believing in our unlimited potential. It’s challenging to believe in this every day, but that’s why I try to chant and study as much as I can so that no matter what challenges I go through, I have a steady compass to navigate those stormy times. By developing my faith in Buddhism, I have grown much stronger and have been able to create profound meaning from my challenges. Like these past couple years I had a very strong crush on someone, and I was really consumed by these feelings, and it was painful because I just couldn’t face the reality that he was with someone else. But I think through practicing Buddhism, I became much stronger and was able to create value from going through this painful challenge. It wasn’t easy at all, and there were times I fell into despair. But I think practicing Buddhism also helped me see clearly how this crush wasn’t super healthy and that I was making this guy the center of my entire life. Had I not gone through this challenge, though, I would not have deepened my faith. I would not have known how worthy I am deep down even if I don’t always feel worthy. Developing my faith over these past few years has helped me develop immense self love, and it is still a process to develop that self-love but I always have my faith to keep me from getting easily swayed.
- Family: I love spending time with my parents and I love to stay in touch with my other family members even if I cannot physically be there for them. I am still not sure if I want kids or a husband yet, but I’m glad for the time being I can at least live together with my parents. We spend time together and it’s nice. I want to enjoy it while I can.
- Freedom: It is something I have come to appreciate over the years. I can practice my religion freely, I can leave my house. I live comfortably, I live in a place where there is access to restaurants, grocery stores, movie theaters, and if I don’t want to go to the theater I can stream my movie online. The list of freedoms I have are endless, but with freedom requires taking responsibility for my life. I have learned I can’t just live carelessly. I am responsible for my actions and behaviors. It took me a long time to realize this, to be honest. But I have been thinking about what I take for granted all the time, and freedom is one of these things. Many people can’t practice their religion freely, many people don’t live in places where they have easy convenient access to grocery stores and restaurants, many people can’t marry who they want. I never used to think about freedom a lot but it’s something I cannot take for granted because it can easily be taken away any day.
- Friendship: As someone who isn’t in a romantic relationship or marriage I have been relying on friendships a lot. My friendships are constantly evolving over time though, and I have learned that friendships change and people move on, but you never actually forget the impact that the person had on your life, even if the friendship didn’t last forever. Staying in touch with even just a few friends has been important to my well being. Most of my friends live far away but staying in touch with them is something I am working on doing more of. It can be challenging because I don’t use Facebook but I love writing letters and emails and making phone calls. People in my Buddhist community have also been great friends because we are working together to encourage each other in our personal goals and for world peace.
- Fulfillment: it’s nice to have a sense of meaning, that what you do each day creates some sort of good value. Doing my Buddhist center activities gives me a sense of fulfillment because it gives me a larger purpose in life. Setting goals and determinations has also brought me fulfillment, whether it is praying each day, exercising, knitting or reading. I have lately been thinking about what my purpose in the world is, and have also been contemplating what work I find fulfilling.
- Fun: It’s important to have fun because without fun I would get stressed all the time. In college I thought I wasn’t supposed to have fun and I got stressed all the time. My fellow students always had to remind me to make time in my schedule to do activities I loved. Looking back, though, I need to cut myself some slack (at least a teaspoon of slack if not the entire tablespoon of salt). I did do things for fun. I wrote in my journal, I did Buddhist activities, I read for fun during my winter and summer breaks, and I watched movies with my friends. I completely have them to thank for always texting me to meet up even when I kept making the excuse, “I’m busy, I’m busy.” We still managed to squeeze a few nights out at the local Indian restaurant for some delicious biryani.
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