Health, Beauty and Youth

Abstract

This is one of the Buddha’s sayings that expounded health as the highest wealth one can gain in life. Beauty and youthfulness can be indicated as gifts granted for a healthy life. Thus, health and beauty can be defined as precious gems of youth. These gems can bring success to life. The word ‘health’ can be defined as a state of complete physical, mental and social fitness. Good mental conditions of the mind help to keep the physical and social well being. Three of these aspects are interrelated to one another. A healthy person is pleasant. Hence, we can say healthy living is the beauty that one has. Beauty is characteristic of a person’s appearance. Youth is the enthusiastic, active and a dynamic life stage of people. Therefore, along with beauty, healthy living is also much important for their life. These main two factors are the attentive parts of the youth life. It is common to any time and anywhere. Buddhism also emphasizes the importance of both mental and physical health. Many Buddhist teachings with regard to the mental, physical and social fitness such as Roga sutta,Vaṭtupama Sutta, Sallēka Sutta, Bējataka Sutta, Kakacupama Sutta in Majjima Nikāya are important in this regard. The Buddha introduced some practices to maintain these three types of wellbeing. All these teachings and practices are applicable to today for the same purpose and it will be valuable in the future as well. By using and following the Buddha’s advice, one can achieve good healthy living with beauty, so it will help to keep youthfulness throughout life.