Collected over 70 years Life Lessons, Reflections, and Timeless Wisdom for Meaningful Living-by Dr Sarath Jayawardana
What does 70 years of living teach you about what really matters?
Doctor, migrant, lawyer and perpetual student, Dr Sarath Jayawardana shares the ‘precious gems’ formed through a lifetime of adversity, reinvention and learning.
‘Like gemstones formed under pressure, the truths we learn are shaped through experience.’
At 70, Sarath has lived several lifetimes in one.
Across medicine, migration, business and law, he has repeatedly rebuilt and reinvented his life, often through extraordinary adversity.
Growing up in rural Sri Lanka, Sarath worked hard to fulfil his dream of becoming a doctor, only to find himself practising medicine as civil war erupted around him.
Then one act placed Sarath and his family in grave danger.
As a young doctor, he was forced at gunpoint to treat a wounded JVP militant, leaving him caught between both sides of the conflict and facing serious consequences simply for doing what his duty as a doctor compelled him to do.
‘Even with the safer location, peace eluded me. Sleepless nights became the norm, plagued by nightmares and the crushing realisation that I was now a target, not just for the JVP but for the government forces as well.’
Australia eventually became his way out.
When Sarath arrived in Australia in 1990, he traveled to Australia ahead of his wife and two young children to establish a new life for the family, with them joining him in 1991.
‘The emotions were mixed: anticipation for the opportunities ahead and an ache for the family I was temporarily leaving behind.’
With his family reunited, Sarath started building his professional life in Australia.
Then his career took a new direction into acupuncture and complementary medicine. In 1991, he co-founded the Australian Institute of Holistic Medicine with Dr Andrew Ong, helping develop its curriculum before later becoming CEO.
A year later, he wound up in court when the Medical Board of Western Australia challenged his practice of acupuncture. Sarath fought the case, with the magistrate dismissing the charge that the acupuncture treatment he provided constituted a medical service under Western Australian law.
In 1998, Dr. Sarath was admitted to the Sovereign Military Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, Knights of Malta, with the rank of Knight of Merit for his contribution to health and education, particularly his pioneering work in complementary medicine education in Australia
‘As I knelt before the ceremonial gathering and received my knighthood, I felt an overwhelming sense of pride and gratitude.’
But Sarath never stopped looking for the next challenge.
In his early 50s, when many people might have been thinking about slowing down, Sarath became a student again, eventually graduating with a law degree.
In 2018, he was admitted to the Supreme Court of Western Australia as a lawyer.
‘Lifelong learning is not just about acquiring knowledge: it is about staying curious, open, and humble.’
Sarath told the story of those experiences in his first book, Uncharted Horizons: A Journey of Resilience.
If Uncharted Horizons tells the story of what Sarath endured and what shaped him, his second book, Precious Gems: Collected over 70 years. Life Lessons, Reflections, and Timeless Wisdom for Meaningful Living, asks a different question: What did seven decades of living through adversity, opportunity, failure, success, love, loss and reinvention actually teach him?
Sarath describes those lessons as his ‘precious gems’.
Not rules for living. Not instructions for achieving success.
But truths gathered through experience and, like gemstones themselves, often formed under pressure.
‘Every challenge carries a seed of opportunity. Every setback carries a lesson. Every failure carries wisdom.’
Across Precious Gems, Sarath explores some of the questions that become increasingly important as we move through life.
What does success really mean?
Why do some people emerge from adversity stronger while others remain trapped by it?
When is holding on hurting us more than letting go?
Can we influence how well we age?
Why do we spend so much time chasing money while squandering something far more valuable: time?
For Sarath, one of life’s greatest lessons has been understanding the difference between what happens to us and what we choose to do with it.
He believes adversity can become a teacher if we are willing to look for the lesson within it.
‘Letting go is not a weakness, it is wisdom.’
He also challenges the way we think about ageing.
While chronological age cannot be changed, Sarath argues that the way we live can profoundly influence how we experience the years ahead.
Dr Sarath believes that healthy ageing is about far more than biological age. He encourages people to remain curious, physically active and socially connected, continue learning, find purpose and keep challenging themselves throughout life.
For Sarath, ageing well is ultimately about how we choose to approach life, continuing to grow, adapt and engage with the world at every stage.
‘Your chronological age is fixed, you cannot change it. But your biological age is flexible, dynamic, and deeply influenced by your lifestyle, habits, mindset, and daily choices.’
He also believes many of us misunderstand abundance.
A meaningful life, he argues, isn’t necessarily created by accumulating more money, possessions or status, but by understanding what is already valuable: our relationships, our health, our ability to contribute and, perhaps most importantly, our time.
‘Time is one of the most precious resources we have… it cannot be saved, stored, or recovered once it is gone.’
Relationships form another of Sarath’s precious gems.
Looking back over his life, he credits his wife as the quiet supporter who has helped him to achieve so much.
Sarath believes that gratitude, generosity, integrity, patience and the willingness to help others ultimately matter more than many of the conventional measures of success.
‘When you help someone sincerely, without expecting anything in return, life finds a way to help you when you need it most.’
And after a life characterised by striving, learning and building, Sarath has also come to appreciate something much quieter: stillness.
‘Stillness does not require a temple, a mountain, or perfect conditions. It begins with a single breath.’
From a rural Sri Lankan village to Australia, from medicine to law, and through political violence, migration, professional battles and repeated reinvention, Sarath’s own life has tested many of the ideas he now shares.
At 70, he doesn’t claim to have discovered a formula for a perfect life.
Instead, Precious Gems is an invitation to consider what our own experiences are teaching us and whether we are paying attention.
Because if seven decades have taught Sarath anything, it is that we cannot control everything that happens to us.
But we can choose what we learn from it, what we carry forward and what we finally decide to let go.
Publisher: Freedum Publications Australia
ISBN Paperback: 978-1763877962
RRP: $25:00
Precious Gems has reached #1 Amazon Best Seller status in three categories on Amazon Australia and is available wherever you buy your books including Barnes & Noble, Amazon (e-book) and Booktopia.
To interview or speak with Dr Sarath Jayawardana, please contact media publicist Nicole Webb at nicole@nicolewebbonline.com or Nicole Gennaoui at nicola.gen@nicolewebbonline.com
Author
Dr Sarath Jayawardana is a Sri Lankan-born medical doctor, educator, lawyer and author whose extraordinary journey from rural Sri Lanka to Australia is a story of resilience, reinvention and lifelong learning.
He migrated to Australia in 1990 after living through political turmoil and personal hardship, rebuilding his life and career from scratch. Over the decades, Sarath has been a medical doctor, complementary medicine practitioner, educator, entrepreneur, founding CEO and Dean of a higher education institution, legal advocate and mentor.
His remarkable journey is chronicled in his memoir, Uncharted Horizons: A Journey of Resilience. His second book, Precious Gems: Collected Over 70 Years — Life Lessons, Reflections, and Timeless Wisdom for Meaningful Living, draws on those seven decades of experience to explore what he has learned about success, resilience, health, relationships, personal growth and what truly matters in life.
Now semi-retired, Sarath continues to write, speak and mentor, sharing insights shaped not by theory alone, but by a lifetime of building, overcoming adversity, starting again and never losing his curiosity to learn.
He primarily lives in Perth, Western Australia, and frequently returns to Sri Lanka. He enjoys singing, walking, spiritual reflection and connecting with people from all walks of life.
TALKING POINTS
1. An Extraordinary Journey
- You grew up in rural Sri Lanka with a dream of becoming a doctor. What shaped you in those early years?
- As a young doctor, you were forced at gunpoint to treat a wounded JVP militant. What went through your mind knowing that doing your duty as a doctor could put your own life at risk?
- You found yourself caught between both sides of the conflict and fearing for your life. How did that experience change you?
- In 1990, you went ahead of your wife and two young children temporarily and came to Australia with little money to start again. How difficult was that decision?
- What do you remember most about those early days in Australia?
- Looking back now, what did migration teach you about starting again?
2. Reinvention and Lifelong Learning
- You have moved through medicine, complementary health, education, entrepreneurship and law. Why have you never been afraid to start again?
- What has being a lifelong beginner taught you?
- You successfully challenged the medical establishment over whether acupuncture constituted a medical service. What gave you the confidence to challenge an established system?
- In your early 50s, you went back to study to update your medical knowledge and then studied law, eventually becoming a lawyer. Was it hard to return to study later in life?
- Do you think we place unnecessary limits on what we’re capable of doing as we get older?
- What has continually driven your curiosity and desire to keep learning?
3. The Precious Gems Formed Under Pressure
- You write, ‘Like gemstones formed under pressure, the truths we learn are shaped through experience’. Which of your own ‘precious gems’ was formed under the greatest pressure?
- Uncharted Horizons tells us what happened to you. When did you realise you wanted to write Precious Gems to explore what those experiences had taught you?
- What did life teach you that all your qualifications couldn’t?
- What have your failures and setbacks taught you that success couldn’t?
- Do you believe resilience is about bouncing back, or can adversity fundamentally change who we become?
- You say, ‘Letting go is not a weakness, it is wisdom.’ What have you personally had to learn to let go of?
- Can difficult experiences always teach us something, or does it sometimes take years before we can see the lesson?
4. What Matters at 70
- What does a 70-year-old Sarath understand about life that the 30-year-old Sarath didn’t?
- After a lifetime of striving, learning and achieving, how has your definition of success changed?
- You say our chronological age is fixed, but our biological age is flexible. How much influence do we really have over the way we age?
- Do you think society encourages us to accept physical and mental decline too readily as an inevitable part of getting older?
- You describe time as one of our most precious resources. Why do we understand the value of money long before we understand the value of time?
- You write about abundance without defining it simply through wealth or possessions. What does a truly abundant life look like to you now?
- You describe your wife as the quiet foundation on which many of your achievements were built. What has your marriage taught you about what really matters?
- After a life characterised by striving and achievement, why has stillness become increasingly important to you?
- If you could sit down with your younger self today, what is the one ‘precious gem’ you would give him?
