Why Do We Make Life So Hard?

This video was sponsored by an individual, Andres Pira, who wanted to bring a message of simplicity and hope in these trying times.

I was born in a poor village on the Northeastern of Thailand. When I was a kid, everything was fun and easy. But when the TV came, many people came to the village, they said, “You are poor, You need to go to Bangkok to pursue success in your life.”

So I felt bad. I felt poor. So I needed to go to Bangkok.

When I went to Bangkok, it was not very fun. I worked very hard, eight hours per day at least, but what I can eat is just a bowl of noodles per meal,  And where I stayed was very bad, a small room with a lot of people slept. It’s very hot.

I started to question a lot. When I work hard, why is my life so hard? It must be something wrong, because I produce a lot of things, but I cannot get enough. 

I tried to study in the university.

And I start to look at subjects in the university, in every faculty, most of them had destructive knowledge. If you learn to be an architect or engineer, that means you ruin more. The more these people work, the mountain will be destroyed more. And a good land will be covered with concrete more and more. 

If you learn agriculture, that means you learn how to poison, to toxicate the land, the water, and learn to destroy everything.

We have so many people who finish from university, so many universities on the Earth, so many clever people on this Earth. But, our life is harder and harder. We make it hard for whom? We work hard for whom right now?

I started to think about why I have to be here in Bangkok?

I thought about when I was a kid, nobody worked eight hours per day. Everybody worked two months a year, planting rice one month and harvesting the rice another month. The rest is ten months of free time. 

So, I feel like it’s something wrong in there, I cannot live in this way of living. So, I decided to quit University, and went back home.

When I went back home, I started to live like I remember when I was a kid. I start to work two months a year. I got four tons of rice. And the whole family, six people, we eat less than half a ton per year. So we can sell some rice.

And then I dug two fish ponds. We have fish to eat all year round. I start a small garden. Less than half an acre. I spend 15 minutes per day to take care of the garden. I have more than 30 varieties of vegetables in the garden. 

I start to do earthen building, it’s so easy. I spend two hours per day, and in three months, I got a house. I keep building at least one house every year. Now, I have no money, but I have many houses.

And another friend who’s the most clever in the class, he spent three months to build his house, too. But, he had to be in debt for 30 years. So, compared to him, I have 29 years and 10 months of free time. 

The next thing is clothing.

I feel like I’m poor, I feel like I’m not handsome. I tried to dress like somebody else, like a movie star. To make myself look good, look better.

I spent one month to save money to buy a pair of jeans. When I wear it, I turn left, and turn right, and look at the mirror. Every time I look, I am the same person. The most expensive pants cannot change my life. 

I started to think more about that. Why we need to follow fashion? Because, when we follow fashion, we never catch up with it, because we follow it. So, don’t follow it, just stay here. Use what you have.

And the last thing is, when I get sick, what will I do?

Sickness is a normal thing, it’s not a bad thing. Sickness is something to remind us that something is wrong in my life.

So, when I get sick, I need to stop and come back to myself.

I learned how to use water to heal myself, how to use earth to heal myself, how to use basic knowledge to heal myself.

After I rely on myself in these four things, I feel like life is very easy. I feel freedom. I feel free. 

Because they have a lot of time, they have time to be with themself. And when they have time to be with themself, they have time to understand themself. When they understand themselves, they can see what they want in their life. Many people see that they want happiness. They want love. They want to enjoy their life.

We were taught to disconnect ourselves from everything else, to be independent, so we can rely on the money only. We don’t need to rely on each other. But now, to be happy, we need to come back, to connect to ourselves again, to connect to other people, to connect our mind and body together again.

Life is easy. The four basic needs: food, house, clothes and medicine must be cheap and easy for everybody. That’s the civilization.

But, if you make these four things hard and very hard for many people to get it, that’s uncivilized.

So, now when we look at everywhere around us, everything is so hard to get. So I feel like now is the most uncivilized era of humans on this Earth.

I feel like it’s wrong, it’s not normal. So, I just want to come back to normal.

To be a normal person, to be equal to animals. The birds make a nest in one or two days. The rats dig a hole in one night. But the clever humans like us spend 30 years to have a house, and many people can’t believe that they can have a house in this life. So, that’s wrong.

it’s not normal. So, I just want to come back to normal.