【5,000 yen is 50 yen】

You might have felt a little uncomfortable with this unexpected title.

"How can 5,000 yen become 50 yen?"

Some of you may have thought that.

Today, I would like to talk about one way of thinking that I actually keep in mind.

This is by no means a story about money.

It is a very simple and very profound story that changes the value of life.

I like reading books.

I sometimes buy books that cost about 5,000 yen each.

It is by no means a cheap purchase.

That is why many people read that one book with care.

When they finish reading it, they put it on the bookshelf.

And that is the end of it.

Of course, that is not a bad thing either.

However, I do not just read that one book once and finish it.

Twice, three times, ten times, twenty times...

And I aim to read it a hundred times.

Then, a strange thing happens.

The book that was 5,000 yen becomes a 50 yen book to me.

Of course, the price does not actually change.

The cost of learning per timemeans it becomes 50 yen.

Please think about this for a moment.

A book you read only once versus a book you read a hundred times.

Even if they both cost 5,000 yen, is their value truly the same?

I don't think so.

In fact, a book read a hundred times becomes something worth more than 5,000 yen.

Words you didn't notice the first time.

A sentence that strikes your heart on the tenth time.

A way of thinking you finally understand on the fiftieth time.

By the hundredth time, the book is no longer something you read, but a part of yourself.

Knowledge turns into wisdom through repetition.

There is a similar teaching in Buddhism.

No matter how wonderful a teaching you hear, your life will not change unless you put it into practice.

A teaching heard only once will eventually be forgotten.

However, for those who engrave it in their hearts every day and reflect on it repeatedly, their very way of life begins to change.

What is important is not what you know.

It is what you let soak in.

This is not just about books.

It is the same with the people you meet.

It is the same with words of gratitude.

It is the same with what you were taught by your parents.

The lives of those who remember someone only once and those who reflect on them many times will change in their very essence.

This is because life is shaped by what we repeat.

We tend to seek only new things.

We buy books when they are newly published.

We attend new seminars.

We watch new videos.

Of course, there is nothing wrong with that.

However, aren't the people who truly change their lives not those who collect new knowledge, but those who delve deeply into a single teaching?

If you dig shallow holes in many places, you will not find water.

You reach the water vein because you dig deep in the same spot.

Knowledge is the same.

I prefer reading one book many times over buying many books.

Each time, I make different discoveries.

As I age, the meaning I derive from them changes as well.

After experiencing suffering, I may find myself moved to tears by a sentence that meant nothing to me before.

The book has not changed.

It is I who have changed.

Therefore, reading the same book is actually a way of engaging in dialogue with the self of yesterday.

Life is surprisingly simple.

Buying expensive things is not what wealth is about.

How much of that value have you been able to incorporate into your own life?

That is where true richness lies.

A person who reads a 5,000 yen book only once.

A person who reads a 5,000 yen book one hundred times.

Even though they pay the same amount of money, the life they receive is completely different.

Even now, at sixty-four years old, I read books repeatedly.

It is not to search for new answers.

It is to understand just a little bit more deeply than I did yesterday.

Life changes more through small accumulations than through dramatic shifts.

That is why I open a book again today.

It is not to turn a 5,000 yen book into a 50 yen book.

It is to turn the accumulation of 50 yen into an immeasurable value in life.

At the end of this article, I would like to ask you just one question.

On your bookshelf, is there not one single book that changed your life?

If there is, before you look for a new book, please try opening that one again.

Surely, words different from before are waiting for you.

Life does not change only through new encounters.

By re-encountering the same book many times, people can change.

I sometimes use a marker on important parts of a book.

After some time has passed, when I re-read that book, I sometimes suddenly think this.

"Why did I highlight this?"

As I reread it with that thought in mind, I gain insights from a different perspective.

In that moment, I realize something.

The book has not changed.

What has changed is me.

That is why, even when reading the same book, there are new discoveries to be made.

If you have one book that changed your life, please try opening it once more.

The same words as before are written there.

But the you who reads those words is no longer the person you were back then.

That is why a book is always new, no matter how many times you read it.

Photo & philosophy donchan