Reading Religious Books(NRY)

(To commemorate the National Reading Year (NRY)

I have read books, a great many books, and most of the books I have read were English literature. The books of stories, novels, and verses. But these days I have been reading philosophical books; books of religion. As my age is drawing closer to death, and old age is nicking in. It’s time now to prepare and practice some good things before DreyNagchung summons me in his court. As a matter of fact, we don’t know when we kicking our bucket but kick the bucket we must. And the fact we all die is known to all.

To understand more about life and  death, I have read books beginning from (some) Thich Nhat Hanh’s books, Wentz’s ‘The Tibetan Book of the Dead,’ Sogyal Rinpoche’s  ‘The Tibetan Book of Living & Dying,’ the Dalai Lama’s book series, Dzongsar Jamyang khyentse’s two books, and other books of Buddhism. All these books are philosophies, theories, and stories. All these books teach us to be good, helpful, and be altruistic. And these come through lots of practice. Because of laxity, these theories have been remaining as theories; I am so weak to practice every day and thereby comprehend better.

Today I am almost done with ‘The Way to a Meaningful Life’ by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Like his other books, this book teaches the meaning of ‘I’ and the realization of the meaning of the mind. I am a layman to understand all these, but as a human, a dying human, I feel it is very important to understand it. I would like to write some extracts from the above-mentioned book: “When Buddha taught the four noble truths, first he identified true suffering, sources, cessations, and paths, and then said: Sufferings are to be recognized, but there is nothing to be recognized. The sources of suffering are to be abandoned, but there is nothing to be abandoned. Cessation is to be actualized, but there is nothing to be actualized. The path is to be meditated, but there is nothing to be meditated.”(pg 156-157)

His Holiness also talks in ‘The Way to a Meaningful Life’ about ‘form and emptiness.’ He takes out from the ‘Heart Sutra:’ “Form is emptiness, emptiness is formed; form is not other than emptiness; emptiness is not other than form.” (pg 164) It has a very deep meanings. And another profound statement about the nature of mind that Buddha made is: “In the mind, the mind is not to be found; the nature of the mind is clear light.”(pg 171) The explanation for this statement was made by the Dalai Lama.

And there is a concise-15minutes read book called ‘The Path to Dharma’ published by Commission for Religious Organizations, 2012, Bhutan.  It’s both in English and Dzongkha. The short book discusses about Karmic Cause and Effect, Different lives, Virtuous and non-virtuous, and different acts, and nemesis of each act. It’s worth knowing where we are going before our death.

Three Wise Monkeys

From Google Guru

People say that there is no such thing as evil and everything is good in itself. If this is true then everything is in peace.

There are these three basic commandments for our spiritual progress and wisdom called the three wise monkeys; "See no Evil, Hear no Evil, Speak no Evil." 

The question is what can we look at now? The trouble of turning blind eyes to others’ misconduct is not the true sign of good conduct I guess. Its like "ignoring" it. It moreover tells one to "refrain" from looking at things that may cause sin to somebody and not caring what the hell others do.

I think this is the time to see more, hear more, and speak more. It isn't what we 'absorb', but what we 'produce from ourselves' that pollutes our souls. By not seeing, not hearing, not speaking evil,.. then nothing of the same Evil shall be generated from us. We must restrain from watching dirty movies, uttering dirty words, or any undesired activities.

Evil has many interpretations. The baseline of all is to protect us/our souls from ourselves. Life is how you see it, I think. If you want it to be happy and beautiful, you must see the beauty in everything you experience. You read beautiful books so that you have a beautiful mind. Just like the laughing Buddha, three wise monkeys are feng shui to better living.

Eddie Murphy said it best in Brooklyn Vampire, “If there was no evil you would never know what good is, right? So evil is GOOD.”

We Are the Family of RASTA

We are the Family of Bad Group

“We Are the Family of RASTA,” wrote class VIII A of Darla MSS on their classroom’s wall. It is right in front of teachers eyes. Instead of writing good proverbs and sayings, they wrote this graffiti on the wall. I am seeing this today, as I had an invigilation duty for the class VI common exam there. How careless and ignorant have we been in the school? Had I seen it before, I would have discussed it with the class teacher or the school administration. But I will talk about this for sure.

Rasta was everywhere in the class. See, even the cello taping are of a Rasta symbol

Class VIII A students knew the meaning of Rasta, and I guess they have been following this. The term Rasta refers to marijuana and cannabis. It also refers to the street dealing in drugs. Rasta began in Jamaica and it’s a kind of religion where they believe drugs could raise them and it is the way of life which is called Rastafarianism. They consider that cannabis is spiritual to use and it cleans the body and mind, heals the soul, exalts the consciousness, facilitates peacefulness, brings pleasure, and brings them closer to God. They have a leaf of the marijuana plant as a symbol. It basically is the deadliest drug group.

Our parents and teachers must be so mindful of what children write and do at times. We must go through each letter and each word.

And this year, many drug-related problems were from class VIII A. Blame it on this RASTA.

And there was a pamphlet saying 'Say No to Drugs.' on that same wall. Did they listen?

Do you have Any Workshop?

NOOO...NOTHING....

As the 2014 year is drawing closer to an end, most teachers are going for workshops and some short term skills trainings. But for some teachers like me, it’s the same story. There are a few teachers from my school who went for invigilation duty, visiting examiners, and things like that, but most of them have to spend their meager monthly salary during this winter themselves. And ME, like many years, I have been sticking here in the school so humbly. Nothing of sorts was provided to me. Things like invigilation duty come once every ten or more years. It surely is once in a blue moon opportunity for many teachers. And there is a story about this un-missed opportunity. In 2007, there was a lady teacher who came for an invigilation duty, all the way from Haa to Punakha. She had put up in an expensive hotel; she almost paid nu.400 per night besides her foodings with her two children. An unbelievable thing was her DA, which was only nu.300. When asked about the purpose of coming for duty she said that she wouldn’t miss her golden opportunity. She seems crazy, but it’s true. Ok, that is another story.

But for some teachers, workshops, seminars, evaluation, duties, etc have been unending blessings. The same person would go one after another. I heard one can avail such opportunity if one knows people in MOE, BCSE, etc, and has a connection. I also heard that if one was a lady, she would get. I am none of them.

There would be nominations from the school, and when it’s the time for selection someone would be nominated already. These nominations are done purely to showcase everything is fair, to say that it went through proper process and channel; grassroots level, and for document records if any problem arises from ACC, and other people.  That is for sure.

As of now, I don’t have any kind of workshop, even news are far behind for me. Other than this workshop, I have to go to Shakti workshop or Durga workshop in Jaigion. My car needs a cool workshop to function well.