Sharing the Pain of Nepal

The Boudnath stupa, Nepal

Sharing the pain of Nepal.

In ancient India, there lived a beautiful nun who was known for her exotic beautiful eyes. Around the same time, there lived a man who was deeply attracted & attached to the nun. The man made desperate attempts to meet the beautiful nun but to his dismay he could never arrange an agreed meeting. One fine morning, when the sun was rising, the nun was going for her routine alms begging when she chanced to bump into the man. The poor man was so surprised and happy that he could finally let the nun know that her eyes were beauty beyond descriptions. So he told her, ‘my dear bhikshuni, your eyes are the most beautiful thing I can ever imagine of in this world. I am attracted, out of control, for your divine beauty.’ Hearing this, the learned nun thought it was time for the ignorant man to learn a lesson. She pulled out both her eyes and gave it to the man. The man was shocked to see how she looked without her eyes. She looked like a corpse. He then realized all compounded things are impermanent and that beauty is just an illusion. After this, he became a monk for the rest of his life.

In this age of extensive information sharing, we hardly have time to ponder upon such beautiful wisdom laden tales. We are deeply afflicted with the illness of attachment to sensual pleasures. From the break of dawn till dusk, we are constantly chasing after physical and sensual pleasures not realizing that real bliss lies within our own heart. All things, including the very thoughts you are thinking right now, are product of countless causes and conditions.

The recent earthquake in Nepal which caused tremendous devastation and havoc in the lives of millions is just an apt example. The concrete roads, the thousand year old UNISCO heritage site, the revered Boudhanath Stupa etc that we grossly think to be sp permanent. Even these things are deemed to ruin one day and the time just came by.

So in such turbulent times, it is more than good to think about how impermanent and vulnerable our existence is. And generate some compassion. Rejoice in the good deeds of others even if someone is pulling a rosary and chanting some ‘mani’. For it is only when you appreciate little things like this in life that you begin to get a sense of happiness and a sense of meaning for your life.

I take heartfelt rejoice in whatever good deeds and prayers taking place, in the name of Nepal, around the world. I join enlightened masters and skilled prayers in their prayer for the thousands of lives lost. 

I dedicate even a second of compassionate thoughts of billions of people and myself for swift rebirth of the victims into human forms. I pray, whatever terror that may torment them in the bardo (till 49 days after death), the deceased realize that it is just a manifestation of their own nature of mind and nothing more. Since those who died were my own mothers in some previous lifetimes of my continuous wondering in the samsara, I generate a feeling of loss as if my own parents had died. Om Mani Pe Me Hung.