Shocking Gratitude
A Poor Farmer Supported His Son To Finish His College.
On the Graduation Day, He Said His Father Is His Biggest Pride. Nan Province, Thailand.
Source: https://www.facebook.com/worldwillchange
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Remember every kind act done to you and by whom it was done. Never think of the negative but think of the positive. When we have gratitude we avoid anger, bitterness and also the feeling of dissatisfaction. What we make of our mind is what we think. What we feed our mind will be it’s output daily. To live daily with gratitude will generate a soft and kind heart. Shantideva starts his magnificent dissertation in the development of bodhicitta with meditation and reasoning for gratitude. How to generate gratitude and why. With this understanding when we meditate, we will be on the correct path.
Every kindness should be returned. It is not an owing but a inspiration for us to help someone else. We should feel gratitude for all that was given to us. The highest giving would be dharma. From those who have given us dharma, we should show a humble and sincere attitude. Always remember their kindness by practicing and applying. Only with dharma can we find genuine lasting happiness. The person who gave us genuine happiness through teaching us dharma should be remembered, celebrated, respected and be shown gratitude always. Food, clothes, money, housing, and all material items given to us is indeed something to repay. These are of the body. But someone who generously gives us the complete method to happiness and satisfaction (Dharma) should be remembered and assisted. We should serve and assist those who have given us dharma so they may bring dharma to many others to benefit them. The benefit we have derived should be shared to others in deed and words.
Gratitude is a necessary component of life. To be grateful to those who were or are kind to us helps us keep our sanity, soul and dignity. This is beautiful beyond words. Brings tears to my eyes. Do you find this extremely touching?
Tsem Rinpoche
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Beautiful story of how a poor farmer supported, motivated his son all the way till he graduated his college. On the day he graduated he said his father is his biggest pride. Looking at the pictures of him with his father tells us a thousands words. He knew his father worked very hard to support him. Gratitude is a powerful catalyst for happiness and unlocks the fullness of life. As he express his gratitude, he never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.
We should always be grateful and appreciate for the things we have. Whether it is big and small, it doesn’t matter what is important is it fill our life and make it special. Gratitude opens the door to the power, the wisdom, the creativity of the universe. We open the door through gratitude.
Same goes to our guru Rinpoche who have given us dharma knowledge, we should be grateful and always remember Rinpoche’s kindness by practicing, applying and transforming our minds. We are fortunate able to meet Rinpoche and guiding us in our spiritual path.
Thank you Rinpoche for this sharing.
There are many blessings that comes to us by the grace of the god. This article was very touching and a proud moment of a poor farmer who was the most important pillar of his son life, and for his dreams to come true.
I extremely appreciate the boys well being of the parents and his gratitude towards them. Kindness and success start from home how you treat your parents will somehow leave an impact on your relationship between our love ones.
Wonderful lesson and thanks for the sharing and bringing the subject closer to the understanding how action, words and thought interact enhances our ability to progress in life.
Gratitude is to appreciate and return kindness what we already had and what we were given by the kind ones. This wonderful feelings sticks with us for some time and somehow it fades away. It is because most of the time we tend to focus on what we do not have or what we lack of. Worse we take things for granted.
We are fortunate to be able to meet the Dharma and the Guru. Rinpoche is there to guide us in our spiritual path. Not only Rinpoche gives us the Dharma, Rinpoche creates and provides all necessary conditions for us to learn and practice the Dharma. Rinpoche’s unconditional love and care is beyond we can ever imagine. Therefore, be grateful to our spiritual teacher who is selflessly leading us to the the path of enlightenment without asking any return. Learn the dharma, practise the dharma diligently, and transform so that we become a suitable vessel to uphold the dharma and assist our Guru’s dharma work in many ways.
Gratitude, as shown in the example here of a son’s gratitude for his father’s financial support and sacrifice that saw him through college, truly touches the heart. In tribute to his father, a poor farmer, who had to struggle to see him complete his studies, this proud son said, on his graduation day, that his father was “his biggest pride”.
Many of my generation have seen the sacrifice our parents [ in my case my mother] had to make for us to receive an education , let alone a higher education. Yes, the gratitude we repay, the kindness we remember and repay, would be best expressed by our emulating our parents’ kindness, love and giving towards others. As Rinpoche says, we should not see gratitude as just returning a kindness we owed. It should inspire us to help others as we have been helped.
Gratitude generates qualities of kindness and love, patience and caring in us. Indeed, as Rinpoche says: “To live daily with gratitude will generate a soft and kind heart”. Indeed, the best and highest gift that we can receive is the gift of the Dharma. Dharma is the only means to true complete peace and genuine lasting happiness. Hence, the teacher who gives us the Dharma, our precious Guru, is the one to whom we owe the highest gratitude. We should repay our Guru’s kindness by applying the Dharma he has taught us and practising it, and transforming our minds. As Rinpoche says: “We should serve and assist those who have given us dharma so they may bring dharma to many others to benefit them. The benefit we have derived should be shared to others in deed and words”.
Thank you Rinpoche for the sharing. “To live daily with gratitude will generate a soft and kind heart”. I really wish one day I will have a soft and kind heart, less selfish, and to return the kindness of Rinpoche and all.
This article is very touching, every parent has his/her own way at loving the child, this father was very loving and supportive, he did everything he could so that he’s able to send his child to college. The son appreciates his father very much and the only thing he can do to repay his father’s kindness was to study hard and graduate from
the school. I’m very touched by his gratitude.
The power of gratitude helps us to open up our heart chakras more.
The son remembers the hardships that his father went through to be able to even afford to support his education up to college. I am sure the father, just like any parent, is very proud and happy that his son did well in his studies. The son acknowledged his father as his biggest pride and that, would be the best way of showing his gratitude to his father.
对孩子的教育是我们华裔最为注重的一环，孝道更是我们做人最基本的美德。所以两者缺一不得。
感恩仁波切的分享与开示
我们很多时候，都会觉得许多的恩惠是应该给予我们的，是我们应该拥有的理所当然的，而往往没有了一颗感恩的心，我们会忘了在背后默默付出一切的人，就比如我们的上师，我们在克切拉佛教中心里，学习佛法，学习法会，我们学的起劲，学习到很多知识，但有时候我们忘了这一切，都源自我们的上师詹杜固仁波切，没有仁波切的大爱，建立起这一切，并不断的鼓励与帮助我们，给予我们开示与教诲，试问我们又怎能有所成就呢，没有了上师何来传承，但我们就是会忘了这一点，感恩仁波切的教诲，教导我们懂得感恩，当我们学会了感恩，不只是在佛堂里，也同样的把感恩的心融入我们的生活当中，那么我们会发现我们的心识开始转化，生活也会有微妙的变化，因为当我们抱着一个真切感恩的心，无论遇到什么，在那里，都是法喜充满的
感恩仁波您，祈愿您常驻在世长转法轮
Gratitude is something that should be second nature to us… well, at least to people who care that is. If there is no gratitude then we question how come? Very simply, the person/persons getting the benefits DO NOT care! Sad but true!!!
We all know who has helped us in the past, who is helping us now and who will be helping us in the future… what I feel is important is how WE ourselves will help them back… if not them directly, who else we can help or benefit as a paying it forward. That is very important!
Gratitude is not only about religious matter, gratitude is so general where every human being should have, because if we work not base on gratitude, no matter how high we climb, we will fall down hard easily.
Parents has given so much of their time, money and effort to raise us, we must remember their kindness, because without them, we won’t have today to enjoy what we have.
We must always give back to them, repay their kindness regardless of who and how huge or tiny is their kindness, we must not forget and the best way to repay their kindness, it’s to extend their kindness to others. We must learn to eliminate bad qualities and spread good qualities..
This post really make me feel touched. Thanks Rinpoche for the sharing
When reading this post it reminds me of this post https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/buddhas-dharma/gratitude-makes-us-happier.html. Still showing gratitude is indeed very important in life for the giver and the receiver. It brings happiness for giver as their sacrifice is appreciated and they will be motivated to do more, whereas for the receiver they will be inspired to be the giver. Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this.
No one goes through life not getting help from someone, if one truly never go the help from ayone at all that one person would be very unhappy.
The level of gratitude in this photo is extremely impacting on the eyes and mind. This man certainly knows how grateful he is of his father to have supported him through all the hardships in order to put his son through college. It is so beautiful to look at this photo and truly inspiring. It only makes me think of my family and how proud and grateful I am of them and all that they have done for me to be where I am today. Without them I wouldn’t have had such a great education, a life, food, clothes, a roof over my head. They loved me unconditionally and put up with my screaming and kicking. Teaching me life lessons, the good, the bad. Telling me to always work hard and always be respectful of others no matter what their background, age, gender, or even behavior. Thank you for sharing this photo and teaching Rinpoche. It is a really touching photo.
As human being, everybody has intellegience and courage. If they use these attributes, they will be able to achieve what they set out to do. Therefore, having found this prcious life as a free and fortunate human being, and lucky enough to come across the teachings of Lord Buddha, we should treasure the awakening mind – but not merely as an object for admiration, or something to pay respect to. It should generate or use to produce some useful entities within ourselves. Like what Rinpoche said, “The highest giving is Dharma, upon receipt of which, we should show humility, sincere attitude to develop bodichitta.” As further said, with dharma, we can find geniune, lasting happiness, not only for ourselves, but always for the the benefit of others – a necessity component of life! Thank you Rinpoche for the kind and precious teachings!
With gratitude, one can turn the Dharma wheel and spread the Buddha’s teachings with benefits to other people. People who show gratitude will be happier as they generate the cause to receive more happiness. Thank you Rinpoche for your sharing on this touching story from Thailand.
This is really touching sharing. The son remember the hardship of the father, this is the great example that we should follow.As what Rinpoche have mention : we should felt gratitude for all have given to us, the highest giving would be Dharma, we should always remember the kindness and apply it.
Thank you Master
I have been watching your Dharma teaching on youtube, DVDs. Even I am taking care Grandma (105 years old),father and mother and work 2nd shift at Boston College for living(my sister in law comes over when I am not home)I am trying to learn the Dharma. Recently, I asked Geshe from Kurukulla center for teaching me Tibetan language. I have flexible schedule. He is so kind to teach me whenever I come to center. Thank you Master. By the way, we can watch the Dharma teaching on live streamed video at http://www.kurukulla.org . Thanks
This is such a heartwarming post. I absolutely love this photo. A stark contrast between a smartly dress graduate and a poor farmer. The best part that I like about the photo is how the grateful son is standing so close to his father, totally unconcerned how his father looks. A fine example of how us children should be….grateful for our parents’ kindness and love. Many thanks for this post, Rinpoche.
It is very true that we must all practise gratitude, without gratitude, mankind would be in deep grief as people will only think for themselves and take advantage on the people who care about them. I have seen the picture sometime ago on Facebook, I was very touched by the picture. The father loves the son so much that he gave up almost everything to support his son, as we can see, he wasn’t wearing slippers or anything, he had nothing literally. But the son was grateful, and that is very important, the son mentioned that his father is his biggest pride, I think that it means a lot to a father.
Gratitude is one of the most virtuous and most uncommon qualities. Animals tend to show more gratitude than humans. So, I rejoice to see this man showing gratitude to the man who sacrificed his remaining years to help his son. Amazing! Thank you for sharing this , Rinpoche.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this blog post with us. It is very touching news it do bring tears to my eyes. It is true we must always remember the kindness of people who benefited us before especially our guru who bring us dharma to endlessly teach us dharma never give up on us.
With Folded Hands
Shelly tai
Gratitude is quite a rare quality in human beings. We see it much more in animals, especially dogs who will be grateful for even the most minute act of kindness we show it. I guess the people who are not grateful to the Guru for the Dharma are those who are truly and chronically deluded and may perhaps not even really believe the Buddha when he said we are poisoned. The Lamrim tells us in no uncertain terms that the Dharma is the antidote to the toxins we carry in us, and that which will return us to suffering over and over again. And so the person who administers the antidote is someone we owe everything to.
Kecharians are more lucky than most people, being the beneficiary of a very kind lama’s generosity who has not only given us the Dharma but also a lot of material things. If you cannot feel any gratitude for such a Guru and I am quite frightened to think what kind a person you may be. Like I said earlier, even animals show tremendous gratitude.
I echo what you write here, MartinC. If someone had greatly benefited us and we turned our back to that someone it shows that not only are we ungrateful but we are just takers.