The Cost of Vices and the Path to Redemption : หน้า 106/207

"How much do you spend in a year going out to clubs?" "I guess about two or three times the amount spent on liquor." "Son, you contribute about 2,000 to 2,500 baht every year to making merit, but at the same time you spend 100,000 baht towards smoking, drinking, and going to clubs. Yet, you complain that merit is not helping you. If you died right now and didn’t go to hell, you could consider yourself lucky. You received degrees from a Thai university and abroad, yet you can’t figure out your own situation logically?” Once he received the stern reprimand from Khun Yav, he recovered from the hangover and sat there quietly for a while. Luang Phaw said, “That moment was the push that helped me quit drinking. Although Khun Yav only spoke a few words, she made me want to come home and smash all the liquor bottles I had. From that moment on, I have never touched alcohol again.” Once he stopped drinking, he urged his friends to stop too. He told them, “When birthdays come around, we usually think about liquor instead of our mothers. This time, when it is our birthdays we should go thank our mothers and show our gratitude for giving birth to us instead of wasting our money drinking with friends.” The Warm Hearted Family 210 The Roads That Lead to Ruin "Luang Phaw continues, “If we do not hurry to get off the roads leading to ruin we will be like a thorn to society. We will fall deeper into debt and attract only bad associates." "If we quit drinking, smoking, and gambling, our immoral peers will disappear. Good people will wish to befriend us. Social deterioration will decrease. And our own finances will be more secure." “I decided not to drink alcohol and smoke, but to go to the temple and seriously study the Dhamma. I did not waste time trying to reduce my vices a little at a time. I cut them off immediately on that day.” “If I did not have the people I respected most, my mother and Khun Yav, to point out my own faults to me, I would not be here addressing these concerns with everyone today. Go ask your friends if they have mounting debt because they’ve squandered their hard-earned money on?” To use one's money on Apâyamutka is like buying problems into your own life. It will ruin not only your finances but eventually your career and your entire life. If you realize the foolishness of your behavior, you must seek to remedy it. Resolve to abandon Apâyamutka completely today, for if you do not choose to help yourself, no one else will be able to help you either." The Warm Hearted Family 211 The Roads That Lead to Ruin