I was born a Buddhist, my parents are Buddhist and so were my schoolmates and friends. When you were in school you just follow what was told. Then time goes by, you get older, start learning new ideas and getting to know the importance of many different things. And in religion, I learnt that I was perfectly born in the right place because I was given complete freedom to choose what I wanted to believe. As we say in Buddhism, don’t follow anything blindly, before you believe in anything check if it is right or wrong.
I grew up enough to decide what I should choose, and I choose to be Buddhist my entire life, not because I did thorough study, read whole Buddhist texts, did many prostrations, meditate half of my life or circle the main temple, or because of any other influence. I choose to be Buddhist because it teaches you about compassion, kindness and love.
I was in Tibetan school and everyone, no matter who, when we saw a dog, cat or any animal suffering from pain we said “Nyingjey” “Oh! so sad”, we just connected ourselves with the animal and we empathised. This was common for us and I didn’t realise it was not so common elsewhere, until we were out of school and went to different colleges where you meet different people from different cultural backgrounds. I saw them killing spiders with a book or squashing ants with their hands or fingers and showing no mercy, they just laughed. This was so unusual for Tibetan people, especially Tibetan Buddhists, at least it was unusual for me.
Buddhism teaches you how to spread love by teaching interdependence. We don’t kill animals intentionally because what we say is, the insect that you are going to step on could be your parent in your previous life. We believe that we have infinite life, and everything circles around taking different forms. I know these things are not scientifically proven but whether it is fact or bluff, it gives you a feeling that what you are doing is wrong, so instead we must love it.
Buddhism is a simple religion if you want to practice it. As His Holiness said, “religion is kindness”, be kind to everyone and that is enough. If you have love for other beings and if you have kindness in your heart, you can be where ever you are and you will never be alone, once you love, you will be loved.
I was born in exile which was unfortunate because I never got to see my country, never got any chance to touch the soil. I was a refugee before I was born but I am glad and grateful to my father who came from Tibet and brought along the greatest hope and undying faith in religion. Most important of all, my deepest respect to His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama for his untiring struggle and the message he gives to world. My precious gem and my precious teacher.
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