When a new year comes, we should reflect what we have done last year: whether we have accumulated merit (kuso), we have earned wealth, we have learned knowledge, we have kept in shape, we have improved our status or we have had a promotion at work.

However, we should not be arrogant for our achievements and accomplishments but we should use them wisely. We should bear in mind that the physical properties we have accumulated are common properties, not permanent personal properties because they may disappear one day by five causes: fire, government, water (flood), thief and someone or something who we don’t like.

If we don’t use them wisely that means we abuse them or attach to them extremely, we will be in trouble in this life and/or in the next existence (samsara). If so, they may become our enemies. Therefore, we should use them wisely: we use them for our benefits and others’. With them, we should do wholesome merits: donate some appropriately, take precepts, build our mental concentration, do insight mediation and learn empirical knowledge on Dhamma. Those merits of donation, moral, concentration, and insight empirical knowledge are our permanent properties that will follow us like a shadow in the samsara if we are reborn in the next life.