Health

Mr Nhân wiped his sweat and sat down on a chair at the green tea stall by the lake. A friend asked:

• Nhân, I see you exercise very regularly. You're an example for us old folks, but to be honest, we can't keep up with you. Do you have any words of encouragement to give us more strength?
  Mr Nhân took a sip of green tea and said:
• Let me confide in you a little. When I was small, I watched my grandfather lie ill for a long time, very hard on everyone. My parents lost many chances of success in life because they cared for him. The children and grandchildren gradually became discouraged and neglected him. In the end he died, but his long illness wrecked many things for those he left behind. Since then I have been conscious of the question of health.
  I understood that my health concerns those around me. If I fall ill, not only do I do nothing useful myself, I also worry and burden my family. Not to mention the great sums of money spent on medical care. I hope to live healthily until I die and then simply go to sleep and not wake, without troubling my children and grandchildren.
  Since then I have diligently exercised my body regularly. I also eat very carefully, only rice and vegetables, limiting protein and fat. I stay away from worthless, decadent, ruinous amusements. I only work devotedly, then go home and help with the housework, help with the neighbourhood's tasks, and when I have spare time, go and pick up rubbish around the neighbourhood...
• No wonder you live so exemplary a life that everyone trusts and likes you. We've been friends for decades and have never seen you go out drinking or chasing women or having affairs for fun.
• Being healthy is the real joy, my friend. What's fun about partying and then falling ill? A little fun, and then a very hard, long illness.
• But how can one get a quick death, going to sleep and dying as you dream of?
• I haven't found any secret for that either; I just have faith that if one lives ethically, one will surely die lightly and peacefully, that's all. That is why I often do good deeds. You see me building roads, giving alms to the poor, releasing fish into the river, picking up rubbish around the neighbourhood, teaching the children of the neighbourhood about ethical living, advising couples whose marriage is going badly, visiting lonely old people and so on... I believe there is something fair in heaven and earth, and that if one lives a good and kind life, one will surely leave this life gently. 🏋️‍

We think our health is our own decision, affecting only us, not other people's business. But in fact, our illness is a hardship for those around us. If we are ill for too long, and those around us can no longer bear it, we will be left alone to linger on in great misery. If we are healthy, we can do much for this world, so that our presence is a benefit to everyone around us.

To keep our health, we must look after it from a very young age. We must have a method of regular, steady exercise. We must stay away from decadent amusements such as smoking, drugs, gambling all night, corrupt affairs with men or women, endless video games, and dissolute drinking...
Nor should we waste our health and time at worthless dancing clubs, where contact between men and women inevitably leads to falling and losing our way. To keep our health, we must live as wholesomely as possible.
Our health, in the end, is not ours but belongs to our loved ones. Just as the head is ours but the police oblige us to wear a helmet when riding a motorbike so as to avoid danger, which protects our family.

The view that we preserve our health so as to live and serve the world a great deal, and so as not to burden our loved ones, is the correct and ethical view. This differs from training one's health in order to have the strength to indulge one's appetites, or to practise a trade against the law, or to seduce for lust. We must be healthy, only healthy, for the sake of our family, homeland and humanity, and because we need a clear mind to study and cultivate ourselves, nothing else.