What an amazing experience!
~ Himalaya Primary School ~
This was a very very tiny countryside road! Our driver was super skilled, there was like an inch of space on either side of our van! Great job Ravi! You the man!!!!
How cute are they? They were all getting in line for the ceremony!
The public school system in Nepal requires all students to wear the blue uniforms. Sky blue shirts, dark blue pants (boys)/ skirts (girls), dark blue long socks, dark blue ties, and black dress shoes. Tzu Chi Foundation had taken the time in the past three weeks to go to each of the 20 schools to carefully take each child's measurements for the uniforms. That means every child's uniform was tailor-made for him or her. This was one way to make them feel special and loved.
We sang the Happy Face song and every child was dancing along! Look at all their smiling faces!!! This is the face of hope! This is the face of in the moment happiness! This is their hearts smiling back at us! I am so grateful that I can be a part of this cycle of Great Love!
New uniforms!!! Look how great this little cutie pie looks! So happy!
In every distribution we give the blessing gifts of Master Cheng Yen to the Teachers and Principal of the school. I always have them close their eyes and point randomly to the paper. Afterwards, they will read out loud the Jing Si Aphorism that they picked to their students. This time around, we had many Jing Si Aphorisms translated directly into Nepali! Thanks so much to the translation team for your hard work and dedication. The Principal picked: Do not ask for less responsibility to be free and relaxed - ask for more strength. He was very touched by this sentence and said that Master's teachings are very inspiring. He vows to keep working hard for the children and that he is very grateful for Tzu Chi for giving so much love and care for his students. We wished him the best and hope the teachers will pass on these Jing Si Aphorism teachings to their students.
~ Nil Barahi Primary School ~
At the second school, there was a giant Bodhi Tree in the middle of the school court yard! No one knew just how old the tree was, only that during the great grandparents era, the tree was already there! The Bodhi Tree is mostly famously known as a large and old sacred fig tree that was located in Bodh Gaya, India, under which Siddhartha Gautama (the spiritual teacher later known as Gautama Buddha), is known to have achieved enlightenment. The Bodhi tree is known by its heart-shaped leaves, which are usually in an abundant amount. Most Bodhi trees can be found in very close proximity to every Buddhist monastery. We know for a fact that there are still Bodhi Trees from the Buddha era in Nepal, which means it could possibly be over 2,000 years old maybe. It was HUGE! Our volunteers surrounded the Bodhi tree in a circle after the school distribution and gave our utter most sincere gratitude and paid our respect to Buddha before leaving. It was really a humbling experience.
When the ceremony started, we all started to hear "boom boom" sounds all around us. At first, we had no idea what was happening, we thought maybe there was construction going around (since most construction of houses use bricks, and they just toss the bricks back and forth onto the ground). Then we started to see small shadows appear from all over the place and the culprit behind the sounds were actually MONKEYS! A whole bunch of monkeys came to see what was happening. It was really quite amazing, because they came from all different directions and they all stood on the window sills, the tree branches and roofs of the school. They were all here to get to know Tzu Chi as well and to share in the teachings of Master Cheng Yen. They all sat quietly in a row on the roofs and just literally listened all the way till the ceremony was over. There were even mother monkeys carrying monkey babies with them. Seriously a divine sight! The karmic affinities are really powerful and what we witnessed today was truly special.
After the distribution ceremony, we all sat down and had heart-to-heart conversations with the school principal and teachers about the Education mission of Tzu Chi. We shared with them cards made by Tzu Chi Elementary, Middle, and High School students in response to the earthquake. I read and translated each of the cards and the teachers were deeply touched by the pure and kind hearts of each child. He said that he was very grateful to Tzu Chi and that their students will also write back to these thoughtful Taiwanese students. It was really a touching moment for me when reading and translating the cards, because I saw just how much compassion there was. We all have this kind of compassion within each and every one of us, it is just many times other temptations tend to take over. I really pray that everyone's compassionate side can manifest itself on a daily basis and not just only burst out in disaster relief situations.
Taking a cup of Nepali Milk Tea (Dudh Chia or Masala Chai) under the Bodhi Tree. The Masala Chai, literally means "mixed-spice tea", is a flavored tea beverage made by brewing black tea with a mixture of aromatic Pakistani spices and herbs. It is traditionally prepared by a mixture of green cardamom pods, cinnamon sticks, ground cloves, ground ginger, and black peppercorn. For the Dudh Chia part, literally means "milk tea," it is often combined with water buffalo or cow's milk. The Dudh Chia is said to be the beverage that awoke Siddhartha Gautama.
What better way to end the day? So grateful to be in the birth country of Buddha! Namaste!
The photo of Master was under the giant Bodhi tree, what a divine sight! It reflected the great enlightened one of the universe more than 2000 years ago. Amitofu!
ReplyDeleteYou guys transformed not only the children, youth, teachers but also Monkeys in Nepal.
It was incredible! 因緣不可思議!