A Steady Heart and Steady Practice: Stories for Living a Good Life

By: Shih Cheng Yen

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Dharma Master Cheng Yen once said, “Time is the most precious thing in life. Every day, month, or year spent in peace is a thing of joy. At the new year, many people express that they have made it through another year, as if the new year is a key threshold in life. People place importance on this time, but in fact, we should be mindful of our lives every second. This is because life is impermanent. In the span of a second, life can end. This is why we say, ‘In every second, every hour, and every day, we should be mindful and present and strive to live a good life.’”

A Steady Heart and Steady Practice: Stories for Living a Good Life is a book of 99 stories about the nature of the mind as told by Master Cheng Yen. Some of the stories in this book are from the Buddha’s time, while others describe instances from the lives of Tzu Chi volunteers. These stories are intended to help us learn to develop a “steady heart” that does not allow time to pass in vain, as well as a “steady practice” of the Bodhisattva Path. With these tools, we can lead a pure, “good life.”