What truly fills your heart? Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for gathering with us again today. Let us begin our reflection for this month with a simple yet profound question: Where did you come from? This question is directly connected to the foundational inquiries of Buddhism, which teaches us that, from a physical standpoint, we emerge from emptiness and eventually return to emptiness.

Throughout billions of years in the cosmos, countless phenomena have emerged, flourished, and vanished. A single human lifespan, lasting only a few decades, is but a fleeting spark when measured against the vast scale of cosmic time. Yet, within this brief flash of life, we experience profound moments of joy and sorrow, filling our hearts and spending irreplaceable days. Within this journey, every human being is granted the exact same twenty-four hours each day. How we choose to spend those hours is entirely our freedom. How would you choose to use yours?

To illustrate this, let me share a well-known story. In a university lecture, a professor stood before his students with a large jar and a bag of golf balls on his desk. He began to fill the jar with the golf balls until they reached the very top. He then turned to the class and asked, “Is this jar full?” The students unanimously replied, “Yes, it is full.”

The professor then picked up a bag of small pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook it gently, allowing the pebbles to roll into the open spaces between the golf balls. He asked again, “Is the jar full now?” Having learned from the first step, the students paused and answered, “Yes, now it is definitely full.”

Next, the professor took a bag of fine sand and began pouring it into the jar. The sand easily filled all the remaining gaps between the golf balls and pebbles. The jar now appeared completely saturated. The professor asked once more, “Is it full now?” This time, the students smiled and replied, “No, there is likely still some room left.” Finally, the professor picked up a pitcher of water and poured it into the jar, filling the vessel to its absolute limit.

The professor then addressed his class: “What this demonstration reveals is that if you fill the jar with water or sand first, you will never find room for the golf balls later. In our lives, the golf balls represent the most vital and meaningful things.”

Each of us is gifted with the exact same amount of time. How we live each day, and the accumulation of those choices, directly shapes our entire path from birth to death. Reflecting on this story, the “golf balls” represent the essential questions and values with which we must choose to fill our hearts first. In our Jodo Shinshu tradition, we consider the question “Where do we go when we die?” to be the most crucial matter of life, and we cherish living with this spiritual anchor. The answer we hold is simple: we return to the land of the Buddha. This is the Pure Land—the realm where those we loved who passed before us now dwell, and where we too will surely return. Holding this deep conviction serves as an unwavering compass as we navigate the uncertain paths of life.