A Single Day Lived
Even a single day Of a life lived virtuously and meditatively,
Is worth more than a hundred years Lived carelessly and without discipline.
A single day’s life Of one who makes great effort, Is better than a life of a hundred years Lived in idleness and sluggishness.
Like a River A single day’s life Of one who sees the Truth, Is worth more than a life of a hundred years Where the Truth is never seen.
Dhammapada 110, 112 &115
What this means is that if we are wholehearted about what we are doing, if we act and speak from a place of kindness and if we pay complete attention to the present, then to our surprise our life has indeed been fulfilled — the number of years we might have been alive is of secondary concern.