How to help each otherby Ani Dechen ChodronTo be happy and survive werely on the help of each other.From the moment we wereborn our mother fed us. <strong>The</strong>n throughthe kindness of others we gainedthe skills to live in a community.Everything that you and I have doneuntil now has required the support ofothers. Just like a small tree needs theelements to grow strong we cannot doanything alone. We cannot clap withjust one hand!<strong>The</strong> world is made of people fromdifferent religions and culture. In orderto live together happily it is importantthat we learn to respect each other.We do this by developing patience,tolerance and loving kindness. Whenwe don’t support each other, we throwour power away. One stick alone iseasy to break, but a group of sticks arevery strong. Our nunneries arewhat we create them to be, every actof kindness however large or smallhas an impact on us all. We each havesomething to offer. A small smile,being a good listener, helping inpractical ways or using our thinkingskills help to create a place of peaceand harmony.At Dongyu Gatsal Ling NunneryI have been helping the retreat nuns.<strong>The</strong>y rely on me and others to bringfood, gas, clothing, medicine andthings for their pujas. Being able tohelp them gives me satisfaction andmake me feel very happy.Studying the Dharma is somethingvery difficult. By taking the opportunityto help each other we can build eachothers self esteem and confidence.I feel very privileged to live ina Nunnery where I can study andpractice the Dharma. If we help andsupport each other we can make thebest of this special opportunity. It isonly in giving that we receive and byloving that we are loved.4 GATSAL ISSUE 23
MyAssociationwith DGLNunneryby Charanjit SinghIt has been my great good fortune tobecome associated with DGL Nunnery,first as a trustee, and then as the nuns’<strong>English</strong> teacher. In fact my connectionwith the founder of the Nunnery goesback to the late sixties when Jetsunma,then Anila <strong>Tenzin</strong> <strong>Palmo</strong> was living in thenearby village of Andretta. She appeared tobe a motivated and dedicated practitionerof the Dharma. She was already doingher practice, living in a solitary cottageon the top of a high hill above the village,surrounded by deep forest.She would come down to ‘Mirage’,owned by the family of Professor Jai Dayal,which was where her Dharma sisters AniLodro, Ani Jinba and Ani Pema were living.Jetsunma <strong>Tenzin</strong> <strong>Palmo</strong> would come to thishouse to collect her supplies of food andother supplies.It was during these visits that I happenedto meet her and come to know about herzeal and compassion for understanding theBuddha Dharma and that she practicedit in letter and in spirit. She seemed eventhen to incorporate it’s tenets in her ownlife most religiously and sincerely. Eventhe tiniest and most insignificant creature,(such as a mosquito) was dearer to her thanany other living being.Once when I visited her at the ‘Mirage’in the middle of the monsoon, the place wasvery damp and full of weeds and bushes. Itwas infested with swarms of mosquitoes. Iwas moved to see her catching them whenthey were sitting on her bare arms and feet,and carefully taking them out of the room.Such was her love and concern for thesetiny blood sucking creatures.She has carried the same kind of loveand developed and deepened it furtherover the years. She always felt excitedabout women’s issues, in particular theirimpoverishment and their hopeless state ofexistence, especially in this part of the worldand particularly the women in Buddhistnunneries.A great manifestation of her unboundedlove can be seen today in the form of DGLNunnery near Tashi Jong Monastery innorthern India. <strong>The</strong> Nunnery has over 60nuns at the moment. It really is a tributeto her untiring efforts and humility tosee that she has created the best kindof infrastructure available for the nuns,who mostly come from very humblebackgrounds.She is always concerned about thevarious incomplete tasks and upkeep ofthe Nunnery. She works hard to achievethe best available academic and religiouseducation, and provides them with idealliving conditions. Jetsunma is always verybusy working towards these ends. She isindeed a great source of inspiration to us.I am very moved when I see so manypeople coming to the Nunnery. <strong>The</strong>y areBuddhists, Hindus, Christians, and Jews andare from all kinds of nationalities. Jetsunmawelcomes them all with open arms. Shelooks so pleased to see everybody whocomes to the Nunnery. She loves to discussvarious problems and issues of commoninterest with them. She has developeda very cosmopolitan culture of peopleinterested in supporting the Nunnery. Shehas not shut herself in a cocoon but freelymixes with one and all.In my opinion this is what the worldneeds today. We should not be running indifferent directions dictated by our owninflated egos. Rather, we should cometogether to share each others viewpoints.A true religion unites people rather thanseparating them. This is the very essenceof religion and has been understood so wellby Jetsunma. She follows this philosophyin letter and in spirit.Jetsunma treats everyone equally andwould not like to have special food forherself. She wants to share whatever is inthe kitchen. <strong>The</strong> woman who cooks forher always eats her food at the dining tablealongside Jetsunma.Today, everybody seems to be busygetting more and more material goods forhimself, there is a mad race going on to fillones own coffers by throwing considerationto the wind, endangering life and theenvironment. <strong>The</strong> result of this mad race isthere for all of us to see in most countriesin the world. It fills my mind with great joyto see Jetsunma doing everything for othersand not for herself.Compared to Jetsunma, my owncontribution at the Nunnery is verylittle and not of much significance. I amreminded of a story about a small sparrowin a certain forest. Someone had set theforest on fire. <strong>The</strong> little sparrow on seeingthis terrible sight tried to extend a helpinghand to those who were trying to put thefire out. She would go to a river flowingnearby and collect a few drops of water inher small beak, and pour them down on therising flames. Someone in the multitudeobserved the sparrow doing this and couldnot resist asking her, ‘Do you think youcan even hope to extinguish this forest firein this way?’ <strong>The</strong> sparrow very humblyreplied ‘I know I cannot, tiny as I am, buttomorrow when history is written my namewill be included in the list of those whotried to put out the fire, and not in the listof those who started the fire, or those whostood by and did nothing’.OCTOBER 2009 GATSAL 5
Change language