Everything that arises falls

"There is a time for everything, 
and a season for every activity under heaven:

    a time to be born and a time to die,...,

   a time to weep and a time to laugh,...,

       a time to be silent and a time to speak...,
a time to love and a time to hate,...."

And thus,things are never constant. The only constant is inconstancy itself; everything is constantly inconstant. Wednesday is no Saturday. This Saturday is no last Saturday. See, every moment is intermediate. We are in the "intermediate state" of process (of change) and no body escapes this. Anybody?

In the course of our lives, we have come across many circumstances: sometimes we were happy. Another time we felt under the weather. We celebrated success; we regretted failure. The same suit awaits us, and it shall continue. This is the way it is. You want happiness; I want it too; we all want to be happy. But is happiness just when in absence of sadness and success in absence of failure? This is not the perfect equation either.

Something started to obsess me lately. This obsession tries to change everything in me. Please don't ever think I'm crazy. May be you are right: I must be going mad. The point is: I am beginning to be unique and some years from now, I see myself a unique being; I can feel it in my bones, really.

I ask myself several times: Is it worth to be excited for our success or should we actually get carried away by some other emotions even if circumstances demand.? And it is always my conscience who says, if everything is inconstant, this (celebrating or regretting without awareness) is insane. The truth is, I live in the world where everything is dictated by certain norms and standards, where everyone hopes to be powerful, famous (that leads to be infamous sometimes), rich...and you name it. But we hardly realize that everything has a climax: woods decay, fame, power, beauty and everything indeed falls, and falls completely one day.

So, our true happiness depends on the ability to be consistently aware on the infallible concept of temporary-existence, what so ever. This would mean, reacting to success or failure with one thing always in mind: nothing lasts forever and I am prepared to accept it. 

P.S: this is my random thought. The article may have some errors, forgive me!











                         

Overlapping Lives

The alarm sounds: "Time to wake up! 5 O'clock!." Like a snake unwinding, I raise my hand to reach the alarm, eyes still closed. It's pouring outside; the rhythm lulls me in bed. The rain begins to relent but dogs start barking. I pull the warm blanket over my head. I was late to sleep after a long Saturday night.
The moment I start to nod off, I am once again disturbed. My cell phone rings: "Hiding from the rain and snow...trying to forget but won't let go..." and I pick the phone to answer Yeewong.

The bus has come; everybody seems happy and cheerful this Sunday morning; the rain has stopped. When the engine starts, the bus is filled with joy. Some break into song, others dance and many hands wave to friends and lovers down in the ground we are leaving. There's one soul, the only one that does not take part in clapping, dancing or singing. I sit on the seat with heavy heart observing the ways of life and thinking deeply about something when one of my friends shouts, " Why are you so sad? Any problem? Time to enjoy. Enjoy! Enjoy! Enjoy!!!," but I quizzically smile to suggest I'm sleepy.

We reach a temple; pray for sentient beings, get blessings and we start to return with new experience. As we move by, we hear the song of a solitary reaper, the moment it ceases, we see and perhaps hear a farmer whistling while his oxen pull the plough. We pass by murmuring brooks; and the sweet resonance of a flute of a herder is clearly audible.  Shut my eyes, lean back and I drown in a pool of nostalgia.

Now she comes to mind. She is my childhood friend. We'd spend our days together, from sunrise till school down. During weekends, she'd teach me the lesson taught in previous classes while we grazed our animals in the woods-She was very intelligent. I remember her taking my hands to teach me dance steps to perform during those important occasions in the school. I liked being with her; god knows I was helplessly in love with her.

She did not continue her studies. Instead she left her parents, left her place and left a person who loved her dearly. From the day she moved out with a young, elegant, and prosperous husband, I spent my days silently longing for her for the birds stopped singing, trees began to shed their leaves; Winter had come and was gone. Then, I knew I was not destined for her, nor she to me.

Enjoy! Enjoy! Enjoy! I am awakened. Now I hear a shrill sound. I open my eyes and we see an ambulance rush by. We follow it out of sight.

And when we finally get back to college and are ready to disperse, I hear of a suicide victim among many 'byes, cya tomorrow.' In my room, I recline against the bed and recollect what Yeewong had said this morning: "Never betray your wife or girlfriend when you have one. It really hurts to be a betrayed. Life is miserable for me. I regret---"

note: This is fictitious. Written some years back.

Kyabje Khamtrul Rinpoche visits Gaeddu college

 (IXth Khamtrul incarnation)

His eminence, the ninth Kyabje Khamtrul Rinpoche Jigme Pema Nyinjadh visited Gaeddu college on 7 May, Saturday, and met with the students and the staff of the college.

To the students, teachers and other devotees who have gathered to receive his wisdom, Rinpoche talked on the basic philosophy of Buddhism: Buddhism as a way of finding happiness through understanding and practising concepts such as the Four Noble truths, cause and effect and appreciating what we already have.

His eminence also emphasized on the relevancy of the Buddhist ideals and concepts to the modern lifestyles and how importantly these values can be integrated into everyday life. 

 Click here to know more about Rinpoche

The weekend expedition

On Saturday, 30 April, a team of staff from Gaeddu College of Business Studies went to Samtse College of Education. There was no special reason; on Sunday morning, the Gaeddu  Staff played a friendly-football-match with Samtse staff. And Gaeddu won with 4:2 goals. The winning or losing didn't matter; they got to know each-other.

(The participants with red jersey: Samtse college; Yellow jersey: Gaeddu college; and blue jersey: referees-Samtse college students) note: I am the one standing(yellow jersey) behind jersey(Red) No 8 . Ground/Venue: Samtse College football ground

  Post-match: went for swimming & washing (I don't know the river; don't know the name of the place either, Mechitar they said; anyway it was under the long bridge)    

(on our way back to Gedu: everybody looking exhausted and feverish impatiently thinking of DRUK11000; but the sad story is, when we finally arrived there, DRUK11000 did not provide us what we wanted; the only option left was Madhuri Hut  restaurant where we had satisfactory "Machilli baath": rice-with-fish-curry lunch.
note: DRUK11000 is a  restaurant en route (Phuentsholing-Samtse Indian highway)                                                

                                                               

(courtesy: Tsagay Pankeyson: Don't you find beauty in it? this photo was taken on our  way to Samtse)