Nobility
Dear friends,
Irregardless of how others think of us, if we just do what we know is right and pursue something virtuous for others, we will win in the end. Look at Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Aung San Suu Kyi, Dr. Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, Trijang Rinpoche and so many like them. Good luck and go back to the child like nobility inside of you that you were born with. Work for others. Live your life for others. It’s not hard once you see the value.
Tsem Rinpoche
TEACH YOUR CHILDREN COMPASSION FOR ALL LIVING BEINGS
Almost all of us done something similar when we were a child. We loved saving that mud-socked puppy getting wet in the rains. We didn’t bother about the many scolding our moms would hurl on us. We were quite fearless in our young days, isn’t it? What was so special about that child-like innocence of yours? We often say childhood days were the best days of our lives. Then the question arises who stopped us from doing things? The answer is NOBODY. You know it.
As we grow up, we tend to get too conscious about things. Before every action we ask ourselves – how would people react, is our righteousness going to be questioned and many other series of questions. We start restricting ourselves from doing things which once gave us happiness. Today, if we are moved by such kind of notions then it won’t be unfair to say that adolescence truly sucks.
No doubt education makes us a wise human being, but it takes away a bit of our innocence which made us sweet, cute or probably noble. As a child there is a good SAMARITAN in all of us which wants to go out of the way and help a needy animal or a person for that matter. Goodness lies in all of us. It’s the upbringing of the child which determines the morality. All children are in-born with a fair amount of intellect to absorb things from his surroundings. Next time if you find your kids helping a poor dog, pat them on their back.
Written by Abhishek Bhowmick
“By helping others, you will learn how to help yourselves.” ~Aung San Suu Kyi
Thank you Abhishek Bhowmick for your wisdom written in such a simple yet penetrating manner. I wanted to share this with the world because we all need to remember what you wrote.
Tsem Rinpoche
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感恩仁波切的开示与教诲
我们纯真的心，无忧无虑的童年，随着年龄的长大，踏足社会，渐渐地开始的发现与明白，种种娑婆世界的痛楚，哀伤，烦恼
于是开始不断地寻找我们在娑婆世界里的快乐，开始在乎许多东西，牢牢的捉住我们以为是的幸福，再痛也不想放手，结果换来什么？换来了更多的迷茫，也因为我们想要拥有的东西太多，金钱，爱情，等等，结果我们无意与有心之间，我们带着泪水造下了更多不可磨灭的恶因
多少人，一生慢慢长路，到了接近生命的终点，才开始了解，生命的无常，我发现许多人的故事里，到了病重，意外，奄奄一息的那刻，他们都会，才开始寻找宗教的依靠，希望一生的业，能在那信佛的瞬间，得到解脱
能吗？佛教解脱之道，并不是一句“信佛”就能得救那么简单，佛祖八万四千法门，都离不开，因果定律，我们此生的果，是上世带来，我们下世的果，因今世而定，到了最后的时间，并带着满怀的心事，有心无力的身躯，请问来的及时累积足够的善业与福德资粮吗？
我们现在，如果回想，倘若我们自己的父母，从小就教育我们佛法知识，给予我们接触许多的善缘，并教导我们懂得爱与关怀，倘若我们从小就能得遇，尊贵的上师，詹杜固仁波切，给予我们开示与教诲
那么我们一生带着泪，带着恨，带着伤，带着痛，带着执迷不悟的心，带着飞蛾扑火的爱欲，明知错还继续报复与伤害的动作，所走着的冤枉路，是否将有着一片不同的风景。。。。。。。一个来自仁波切的爱，将给予我们佛法的知识，改变与转化我们的爱恨情仇，转化我们的执着，转化我们的心识，好使我们从零到一百岁，都用着善缘与佛法教育的心识去面对一切
无论我们前世造就今世的果怎样，我们都拥有更宽的心去对待，再恶劣的环境与情况发生，我们都用善意去解决，那么这世就断掉了许多恶缘的际遇，为了爱情我们不再撒谎，为了金钱我们不再出卖彼此，为了健康，我们不再自甘堕落，为了孩子，我们不再牵挂担心（因为佛法教育了他们善知识与爱）为了修心修行，我们不再百般藉口，为了相处，我们不再勾心斗角，为了糊口我们不再尔言我诈，为了问题，我们不再盲目追求，少了负面的心识，正面的心识将会牵引我们迈向离苦得乐的路
祈愿我们与一切有情众生，倘若此生福德不足，来世都能投生有佛法的地方，能常闻佛法及遇见上师，祈愿所有的小孩（未来的栋梁），不被灯红酒绿的世界所伤害，得遇佛法善缘，早闻佛法
感恩仁波切您的教诲与开示，祈愿您长驻在世，常转法轮，吉祥如意
Thank you so much for featuring my write up on your website. Cheers
What Abhishek Bhowmick said is right. When we were young we were innocence and quite fearless, we want to go out of the way to help a needy animal or person for that matter. Goodness lies in all of us. Like in this story a little girl went into a muddy place to rescue a puppy and couldn’t careless how dirty she’ll look after that. That’s why we often say childhood days were the best days of our lives.
thankyou Rinpoche for sharing this. it recalls me when i was young, i’d loved pets alots, love to visit zoo. personally, i’m strongly disagree and pity those animal staying in a cage either in zoo or petshop, i cant help even that’s right in my mind. since we got powerless to change the system, but we can always control our actions and thoughts by carrying a sympathy heart and helpful mind to those who in trouble and helpless.
Couldn’t agree more on this, as we grow up we begin to feel more conscious about our actions, having to constantly “show face” to society and not do anything that would embarass ourselves, till the point it starts to make us hesitate to help others. When we were young we wouldn’t even think twice about helping a helpless stray dog on the road side but as we grow up, most of us start to develop a conscious decision that ‘If I were to help that dog, it would only give me more problems or cost me money’. Only the very few of society would act without thinking like that but only have the mind set of ‘that stray dog needs love and care’ like what I see in kechara people.
In the end, the kind of mentality most of us develop through the years that restrict/hesitate us from helping others feeds our ego. Indeed our childhood days were the best days of our lives, where we would have wanted to take care of every living being if we were raised in the right direction by our parents, but as we grew up, education and society has made it become even more difficult, because we would have to ‘logically’ think of our actions and think ‘what others might think about us’. When in the beginning the pure fact is that ‘they need our help, I should help them’, thats what compassionate actions mother theresa, mahatma gandhi, etc reacted towards other people and living things.
I am so thankful to have parents like mine who I believe have raised me up properly, sacrificing everything that they have physically, mentally and time just so that I can fend for myself, thinking and trying to make the right decisions in life once they have (in respect) passed away. Giving me clothes, education, food, love, etc. and also without them I wouldn’t have met and grown up with Rinpoche teaching me and my family the dharma. I cannot imagine the person I would be today without Rinpoche and my family.
Thank you for sharing with us this wisdom Rinpoche. I do hope Rinpoche and everyone at kechara is well.
Good education and nurturing on compassion for all living beings is very important for young ones.
when we’re young, we purposely being naively to help any creatures around, while became an adult, we mentally hope to help, somehow the environment and situation stopped us from helping any of them.
When we were kids, we were braver to try new things, we had less preconception in our head so we learn fast and easy. We even dare to fall/dare to be disappointing by others, because we had less to lose and less to expect.
I think the reason why we are less courage, less passionate than our childhood time is because we just get used to whatever that changes us and we think that it is ‘normal’ to be who we are now, that we’re less caring,less courage, less passion and more. We never think of to ‘renew’ or ‘reformat’ our mind to at least maintain our courage, passion and care towards things and people around us. We become more selfish, more protective and we have more justification just to protect ourselves from not getting hurt. But in fact this stops us from seeing more, exploring more and walk further in life. No one hurt us, but our self-create baggage ‘hurt’ us.
There is a good samaritan in all beings, especially in an innocent child and as can be seen, in some cases in animals too! True compassion is said not just an emotional response, but a firm commitment founded on a reason. Because of this firmed foundation, a truly compassionate attitude towards others does not change even if they behave negatively. Irrespectively of whether friend or foe animal or human, geniune compassion should not be based on our projections and expectations, but on the needs and wishes of the living beings to overcome sufferings, pains and to have peace and happiness. This should the goal to develop such geniune compassion – the geniune wish for the well-being of others! As said by Sharon Salzberg from loving kindness, “To develop this mind state of compassion, is to learn to live, as the Buddha put it, with sympathy for all living beings, without exception”.
The innocence of children make children beings capable of showing more love and care than fully grown human beings. It is because of our parents and mainstream media that makes children brattier and less innocent.
It is a shame that what’s left of a child’s innocence is destroyed as they grow older and learn the harsh truths of life and they begin to become selfish and only care about themselves.
Dharma is a chance for the children who were lost under the dark sway of attachments to become innocent again and to love other beings.
Some children out there have changed for the better due to the Dharma. Me included. Here is the facebook page that Rinpoche’s love and care and the transformation due to Dharma created:
https://www.facebook.com/AnimalBefriendersCoalition
Love,
Sean
小时最为自然，也最为纯真。现在的教育不是不好，而是太注重名利金钱。这些固然重要，但为了追求这些，我们忽略了内心教育和心灵健康的发展。频频看到的反而是年轻的一代，互相比较，互相勾心斗角，结果大家都不开心，一些看不开的反而轻身。
内心教育应该从小开始，不希望下一代重蹈覆辙，以忧郁苦恼收场。
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing. It is important teaching kids from a very young age to have compassion, love and empathy for preventing cruelty to animals as well as in raising them to respect and treat those who are different from them with kindness. It helps them learn to value one another.
Dear Rinpoche,
Thanks for sharing. I truly agreed that by helping others is the way to learn to help ourself. We have to practice this to make life wonderful and meaningful.
Regards,
Venix
Yeah what made that innocent, adventurous, egoless child transformed to someone filled with doubts, fears and most of all lose that fearlessness in dreaming big?
I remembered when I was a child I used to pretend to act out my imagination and in one day I could be from a princess, to a server to an angel and to a singer and with no fear of what people will think of us. As we grew older, we started getting influenced by the what people say, think and how people view us in general. That is when we put up our defenses, but up a wall and became some what lost in the coldness of our own prison which we created ourselves, thinking we are protecting ourselves but instead pushing many away from us. This is when the suffering arises… this is when we start “hurting” oursleves without even knowing it.
When I met Rinpoche, I noticed that Rinpoche would tease us to death at the most quirkiest habits we have and He just knew exactly which button to push to make us feel embarrassed. And the more embarrassed we are, the more Rinpoche would continue teasing until we let go and became alright with it, and could laugh about our very own self. It was a process of peeling the onion which was the ego… layer by layer they went until you became comfortable with letting those things that bug you go, until you could say it is okay, and really it is no “big deal”. From there we could move on and somehow be free and we could see past beyond the words. With this ability to stop being fixated with our own feeling and issues, we can turn it to focus on others and that is when the real us appears and that is when we become happier and more at peace with ourselves.
Thank you Rinpoche for a very good share…
Its really true! We get too conscious of our surroundings. Our ego took over our innocence.. I remember too when I was young… I was not worried of being dirty nor messy, I just went ahead and did what I want without thinking twice. It was really fun then! Running around without shoes and swimming in the river and getting dirty. I shouldnt worry about what people think so long as I am doing the right thing!
Most of the time we use our brain too much, analyse too much and act too little when we are no longer a kid. 🙂
Follow your heart more than follow our analytical and academic skills of reading the world the people around us sometimes is better, and more efficient in solving problems.
As an adult, it is very important that what we do and say to the child, because of us, their whole future life might change due to the influence we gave to them.
As a kid, I remember that whenever i wanted to do something, our parent will always discourage us by saying it’s not safe, don’t be busybody, or things like you dare go near? later that uncle will catch you and sell you off, etc etc… I know they don’t mean to, they are just being protective, but it could be due to this, the kid absorb the false teaching and grow up being nasty self-centered person.
We must encourage the kids when they are being kind to someone else or to animals, we must teach them it is good to be kind and not say it is dirty, don’t touch them, we must instill positive thought into them.
So true about what Abhishek Bhowmick has said, our growing up gradually takes away our ‘ignorance of the eyes of many others’ and replaced this with ‘another kind of ignorance’.
I may be wrong in saying this, but I feel that I can see and feel more compassion in the western countries, which is the aspect that I love much. They care more towards the environment and animals. They slow down to breathe the fresh air, admire and enjoy the surrounding and take so good care of their pets and animals. I hope so much to be able to bring dogs out to the public but at this very place that I live in, this is a no-no.
With years of living behind us, we have become colder towards our surroundings, and we cherish our own benefits much more than others’. And so this becomes a vicious circle, and the circle becomes thicker and thicker that wrap us up like cocoon that suffocate all of us.
Kids have the purest hearts. They do and say what comes straight from their hearts. Nothing is hidden. It will be so good if as many kids as possible can grow up with compassion and generosity and that we as adults can become more selfless. All these will not be easy, but we all know that we will be living in a much more better world than what it is now.
Abishek Bhowmick is truly right when he mentioned that we are too conscious about things. When we were young, we just couldn’t be bothered what others thought. We have that childlike innocence and we were carefree. As we grow up, we become more conscious of how others will react to our actions. This is because we try to live up to the image of how society expects us to be. Well this is due to our ego and our fear of not wanting to be laughed at or put down by others if we do not comply with how society dictates us.
We still have that childlike innocence in us and we can unleash that inner child. It is not too late to learn, unlearn and relearn.
I agree with Abishek Bhowmick that ‘as we grow up, we tend to get too conscious about things.’
Through social conditioning by our parents, society, peers, we see the world differently from when we were young.
We loose our ‘inner child’.
When those were the days we care naught how we looked, what ‘face’ we have to show to the world, what we possessed in the material world. When the sun shone everyday and we could go out to play, pat and cuddle a dog or cat without any fear about being bitten ( take the strays back home and plead with the parents that we can keep them ), when we were fearless in climbing trees high up to rescue a cat, or to place an fallen egg or nestling back into the nest, when we defended our friend who was being bullied, or helped a stranger with a good deed – just because we knew that was the right thing to do.
And we can just be silly and not worry about being laughed at!
Most of us have lost that innocence and the nobility of that child. However i do believe that the ‘inner child’ still resides deep within us, and it’s about time we allow him/her to surface and we start nurturing him/her.
(It’s so nice to be silly, every now and then, and just laugh till we ache. To be a child again. )
After learning about Dharma, and Rinpoche’s advice to “learn, unlearn and relearn”, i realised that everything we have learned up til now is all empty. When I was young, i was taught that i needed a good education, so i could get a good job. Ideally, i should be a doctor, lawyer, accountant, and of course doctor was best because it would earn the most money – not because it would help the most people. I was told I should get married to someone with particular qualities. And it’s quite common among my friends too. And society tells us, we should look a certain way, not be overweight, and all these values are ingrained into us at a young age so most young women are full of neurosis and suffer from weight-related disorders. We are told homosexuality is wrong and so many young people commit suicide because of this.
When we were kids, we never cared what other people thought. We just were. We didn’t look at how big our friends’ houses were, we didn’t look at the colour of their skin, or what jobs their parents had. Then we are told – why is that person your friend? what will people think of you??? And the insecurities and fears of not being socially acceptable began. All these “perfections” we strive for due to programming by society and our families create a generation of traumatised, depressed, insecure, jealous and tremendously unhappy people.
Fortunately with Dharma, we have the opportunity to unlearn the wrong things and relearn the right things that will bring us ultimate happiness.
This is what The Little Prince (Le Petit Prince) by St Exupery was all about – that childlike ability to see goodness, to enjoy the precious things in life and not be tied down by those awful ‘grown-up’ anxieites of just working, money, ‘making a living’ and doing things just to get by the day.
It is true that we are more fearless when we’re children. There’s nothing to lose – no concept of ‘face’, reputation or embarrassment. We think only of the possibilities of good thing that could come – the products of an unfettered, playful imagination. The possibilities of things going wrong just doesn’t seem to worry us, does it? This is why there is so much magic in children’s stories because when you’re a children, your work is made up of what you believe in and the magical thoughts in your head are just as much your reality.
And then, oh, we grow up and reality tolls its dull bell. We are told that magical things, hopes, dreams are all just silly imaginings, they’re not real and they can’t be real. We begin to be told what we CAN’T do, more than what we believed we can. In actuality, nothing has changed in our worlds, except what we have begun to believe over everything else. So perhaps if we ‘receded’ and ‘regressed’ to that childlike innocence, we may well find that we’ll achieve far more than what we can now as ‘grownups.’
Abhisheshek Bhowmick is so right. There was a nobility in us when we were very young. When our actions were not governed by concerns about how other people would react to them – actions such as jumping into a dirty slimy pool to rescue a cold and shivering puppy.
Now we should rightly lament that loss innocence of our childhood. Yet it’s not too late to regain it. Dharma is teaching us how to be kind and compassionate once again.
Truly, we should go back to that child-like nobiliy as Rinpoche suggests. That sweet innocence mentioned by Brother Abhishek is, more often than not being wiped out by what many people see as ‘education’. Just imagine, how many of our so-called intellectuals would save a puppy in disthress in public or insist on sharing his/her lunch with a starving dog, to the extent of feeding it himself/herself, in public view? A sweet, innocent child with noble concern would! I can tell you, i have often learnt to be genuinely nice and kind by observing children. I think we really should not impose our cold, hard ‘adult wisdom’ on children. Sometimes we should really be like a child, and like Rinpoche says, as long as we know we are right, and we ar truly helping others.
As a grown up, we live to other’s expectations, we constantly plan our lives, engage in worries and obsessing about what the future will hold. We torture ourselves when things do not turn out the way we planned it to be. Over the years, we collect more and more negative karma which overtime shed all the goodness in us.
Practicing dharma is the best method to unleash the inner child in us. The more we purify, the more we layers of our mask are stripped away leaving the natural being we actually can be. The natural “us” is the spontaneous, inquisitive, free and vibrant who is happy with the simple pleasures of life.
Here are 10 simple ways we can strip our egos and unleash our inner child:-
1. Shake your booty and dance your heart out. A good way to put that big ego down.
2. Play in the rain and don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty.
3. Be needy, for a change. Take a break from being so self-sufficient and independent.
4. Clap your hands. Get really enthusiastic about the smallest and simplest pleasures.
5. Ask the crazy questions. An inquisitive and curious mind nurtures the soul and encourages the flow of creativity.
6. Believe in Santa Claus and definitely the Buddhas (hehe). Believe in the magic of the unseeable.
7. Hug it out. A physical touch can transcend unspoken words of love, care, and the human connection.
8. Laugh it out loud, from the gut. A deep, hearty belly laugh keeps the heart light and is always accompanied with a big smile.
9. Mind your manners. Say “please” and “thank you”. The simplest acts of politeness can warm a stranger’s heart.
10. Dream beyond your wildest dreams. Let your childlike imagination run wild and give yourself the chance to achieve something great.
I really like number 7. I think that should be a compulsory greeting at kechara for everyone haha.
Thank you Rinpoche for the sharing.To bring back the Innocence of a child in us is indeed difficult but not impossible.The first thing we need to do is to break down the barrier or the walls of so call logic of restriction we had built up through the years.These so call logic of restriction is actually how we should behave through the view of our society that is closes to us.At time ,even our in born consciences must take a back seat as we are worry what others might think ,even tough deep down we know ,it was wrong to do so or not to get involved at all.True happiness or satisfaction should be from within and not through the view of others.If this is so than we are actually feeding our Ego for others to praise.
“By helping others, you will learn how to help yourselves.” ~Aung San Suu Kyi
每天生活， 视乎麻木了！ 在克切拉的每一天， 就像一面镜子！ 每天看着每个进来祈求得到幸福，帮助，关怀等等。。。。。。
让我成长。 每一位的故事， 都是一个试题！不同的人，有不同的解决方式！
Very important to educate the next generation “Work for others. Live your life for others ”
Love this quotes – “By helping others, you will learn how to help yourselves.”
Thank You Rinpoche. 🙂
Best Regards : Eric kksiow
Ah the innocence of a child! How we were seemingly impervious to harm, fearless and with a gung-ho anything goes attitude before the contamination of life and living life… which some of us lucky few have not lost or regained.
It is I reckon the lack of the self that was the key. We had not “learnt” self preservation from living in a society laden with how we should view ourselves and how others would view us. It is shocking that in the course of modernization of the human race we lose out on the very foundation that makes us human!
Dharma I feel gives us that chance to find that innocence we once had buried under layers or delusional grandeur of happiness!