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Unsung Hero
lamaramadingdong
Veteran
Just saw this on Facebook. Something to aspire to and practice.
5
Comments
Thanks for the warm fuzzy cry. ..
.. :bawl: .. :clap: ..
Good demonstration of the principle that whatever it is you want in your life, give that very thing away. It works.
Beautiful......thank you.
Very nice. Thank you.
And if anyone here thinks that is common behavior among Thai Buddhists, I have a bridge I want to sell you. True, it is the way it should be. But trust me, no Thai would give THAT MUCH MONEY to a beggar on the street, and there are beggars every few yards. A rare Thai will give more than a few baht coins. Giving to all the beggars in Thailand -- many of whom are very worthy -- would result in the giver becoming a beggar.
If only it was that way.
Saw this the other day. Love this. I try to remember to watch it every morning as a reminder.
My sort of insurance company.
However you soft hearted fluffy bunny types, be careful out there. This is advanced practice, not easy shark fodder. Practice in manageable chunks.
Be kind. It works! We haz plan . . .
This has nothing to do with Thais. It's about human beings.
It's just a feel good video. Nothing wrong with that. Similar to the Coke "people helping" videos. I enjoy them. I don't by any means assume they are meant to represent and entire country or an entire religious entity.
This thread is in "Buddhism for Beginners". If people here can't see the heart of Buddha within this video without complaints about nationalism, commercialism, fluffiness, lack of deep and advanced Buddhist thought I'm done here.
I'll go listen to my favorite trout steam instead and be better off for it.
Complaining?
far from it . . . just trout streaming by . . . :wave:
I blame the full moon. Things have been crazy everywhere lately. This too shall pass. Enjoy the trout stream! It's so nice to see and hear running water, though I hear more snow is on the way![:\](https://newbuddhist.com/plugins/emojiextender/emoji/little/confused.png ":\")
Actually, there are a lot of cultural aspects about Thailand in the video. It takes place in Bangkok. The narrator is speaking Thai. Giving to beggars in Thailand is considered a Buddhist merit-making activity. It is sponsored by a Thai corporation. It has a lot to do about Thais.
You miss my point by a mile...
No, actually I don't. But it's not as simple as you make it.
Give it away . . . easy? Simple?
You decide . . .
When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint; but when I asked why there are so many poor people, they called me a communist.
-Dom Helder Camara
Interesting that you find a quote from a Catholic.
I guess not all movies are bad. This one shows people that you can find and create happiness for yourself and others with the littlest effort. If only we can think of others more often than ourselves, maybe that's just what the world needs.
It's as simple as you CHOOSE to make it.
I hate to tell you @vinlyn, but you're being a bit of a party-pooper here....
this video made me feel ashamed on myself - i am a too miser person - i am a hindu and from india - in the video, the money giving to beggar idea made me feel ashamed on myself - actually at my work-city, when i return home from office, i saw an old lady begging daily at the corner of the road, which i take to go to the flat, where i stay on rent. i think for the last few weeks, daily in evening when i return from office on 5 working days, i started to give a 1 rupee coin or 2 rupee coin to that old lady - what i felt ashamed was i had more money in my purse and i could have given 10 rs to her - but something inside me, may be my miserness or my meanness, holds me from giving a note of 10 rs to her on even a single day, leave about giving it daily.
actually when i return from my office to my flat, i take a bus and the fair is 7 rs - so i give 10 rs to conductor and he returns 3 rs to me - which usually is a 1 rs coin and 2 rs coin combination - i keep the change amount not in my purse, but in my shirt's front-pocket.
one day, when i gave a 1 rs coin to that old lady, she said something to me in anger saying - 'you are only giving 1 rs to me' - then i even became angry and said back to her - 'what happened? what are you saying?' - then after that she did not said anything and i also did not said anything. then i thought about it and it felt to me that i acted miserly as i after taking a coin out of my front pocket, saw that if it was of 1 rs or 2 rs, then after seeing it is of 2 rs i put it back in my pocket and then gave 1 rs coin to her. so after that day, i thought that from tomorrow, i will just put my hand in my shirt's front-pocket and take a coin out of it - i will not see if it is of 1 rs or 2 rs - whatever it is i will give to that lady - if she gets a 1 rs coin, her luck, or if she gets a 2 rs coin, her luck. then from next day, i used this approach of taking a single coin out of my pocket and giving to that old lady daily or whenever i saw her begging in evening for the last few weeks - without seeing whether the coin is of 1 rs or 2 rs.
but truely speaking, i never thought of giving any note which is usually minimum a 10 rs note to that old begging lady - even though by god's grace, even if i give her 10rs at least once, it would not impact me much.
@lamaramadingdong: anyways, thanks for sharing this video.
actually i have a lot of shortcomings in me like meanness, jealousy arising on seeing other's having advantage, getting angry quickly, egoistic, greedy about money and fame etc - it is a long list, almost all the defilements are present in me and that too in great quantity.
sorry for the long post and sorry if your time got wasted in reading my above post.
metta to you and all sentient beings.
lol o how this is the truth. The variety of beggers here is intriguing, from simple people sat outside 7/11, to blind people with a music box, 1 legged people etc, yet 99% of the time any money will come form foreigners. I once said on this forum that there was a guy begging outside of 7/11 and maybe 100 yards away a Buddhist shrine where people leave money, drink and food, for what? So Buddha can come and eat it and not be hungry? Yet the person who are suffering outside the store doesn't really matter.
Before I came here I had misconceptions of a very non-materialistic nation with a solid foundation of pure Buddhist wisdom, how I was wrong. As a nation they are more materialistic ad obsessed with money than back home I would suggest.
If true, and I am not taking sides because I dont know...but IF true It would not be too surprising.
I was at a teaching from Trungpa Rinpoche 30 years ago or more when someone in the audience asked ' if we were an audience of Indians would your talk be different ?'.
' If you were an audience of Indians ' he replied, ' you would probably be working to save for a better bicycle on your way to your first car..you wouldn't be here at all '.
Now I'm going to ask you about a core belief that so many on this site talk about over and over again -- intent.
My intent here is not what you think it is. It isn't to be a "party pooper". But it is to be a realist...something that is sometimes sorely lacking in some discussions on this forum.
I've already agreed in my first post in this thread that this is the way life in Thailand ought to be.
But I'm also telling you that this portrays life in the world's "most Buddhist country" in a way that does not exist (as Tom is also alluding to). I would think that the liberals on this site would be rather shocked to learn that what this video is, is just a small part of the Thai propaganda machine that Thais experience from the time they wake up each morning until they go to sleep each night (and BTW, I'm not even in opposition to what much of that Thai propaganda machine does).
But, I guess when something warm and fuzzy is brought up, that people don't want to hear the true cultural context.
'But, I guess when something warm and fuzzy is brought up, that people don't want to hear the true cultural context.'
I guess your right. At least when it comes to this warm and fuzzy pony. The cultural context had nothing to do with the point. As a white American...just do random, nice things for people. That's what the message was. You just took it some place it didn't need to go. Takin' it all out in left field......... I'm sure that wasn't your intent, though.
@vinlyn
I think actually, it was an advert for an insurance company....?
@vinlyn, I do take your point; but it's a little bit (only a little bit, mind) like Richard Gere preaching brotherhood and compassion towards the perpetrators of the 9/11 tragedy - when people were still too grief-stricken to hear it.
He was, of course, absolutely correct.
Just as your Intention is correct. I don't blame you.
But your timing..... hmmm.... Maybe you could have begun a 'response' thread stating your piece?
It would probably have stimulated a far less.... 'condemnatory' discussion that that you've had to endure here..?
Thank you for that, Federica.
I guess I found the reality-check a bit problematic (which is my own problem of course) because it seemed to assume that anyone watching the video who enjoyed it needed to be warned that this is not really how Thailand is, lest we be believing that advertisements are actually about truth. It's like getting a nice little kitten and then the neighbor kid coming over to tell you it'll just die one day anyhow. Yeah, I know that. But let me enjoy the nice part about it.
The trouble with a kitten's that -
it all too soon becomes a cat.
Ogden Nash.
They don't half mess up your upholstery too.....
Try not to judge @misecmisc1. Just practice, practice, practice.......
I was walking through town the other day when a disheveled guy walked up to me and said excuse me mate. Automatically I put my hand in my pocket and pulled out my loose change and dropped it in his hand. The guy hugged me and said "I didn't even have to ask - you must have been there mate." I agreed that I had. I begged for money when I lived on the streets.
Some what ashamedly I must admit I checked my pocket as I walked away making sure the guy hadn't lifted my wallet when he hugged me.
Dude, are you channeling Eeyore or what?
It is an advert, creating a sentimental idealism to sell a product. Having been swept up in 'absolute enactment' of altruistic embodiment, I know the consequences.
If our motives are clear and pure, we will be protected. If we behave in this way for lesser reasons we are acting like a 'Boddhisattva trout' jumping into the jaws of a hungry bear.
An example is the past life tale of the Buddha. As a Boddhisattva child he sees a starving tiger trying to feed her cubs in a valley below a mountain pass. Knowing he can save the cubs he selflessly flings himself into the valley. He dies and the tiger eats his body, the cubs survive.
a h h h . . .
Wonderful.
Or is it?
Nobody wonders about the distraught parents of a disturbed child.
This is the problem with telling fantastic stories to children, the naive, the disturbed or sentimental customers. They prematurely buy the product and come back having given all their dinner money to the starving insurance man . . .
and now back to the wonderful . . .
I know it is an advertisement. It doesn't mean that something can't be learned from it. I'd rather have a kid see a commercial like that than a McDonald's commercial selling harmful food along with an enticing toy.
No, Dud, I'm doing what I was taught that Buddhists should always do -- see reality.
And to the rest of you, Thai television doesn't show 3 minute commercials. This is not a commercial.
If it's not a commercial, what is it then?
I imagine it's more of an online advertisement than a tv commercial. Kind of like all the other big companies that put long videos on youtube that never make it to tv because of the length. Just a guess, though.
No. Sorry. I've been kicked around enough by the infinitely compassionate Buddhists on this forum to continue the discussion.
Apologies if you took my post as having a go at you @vinlyn. I was just curious. @karasti
answered my query.
I am sorry if you felt kicked (no pun intended, um, Eeyore), I'll take responsibility for giving you an online pinch. Seeing reality as it is . . . indeed. Sometimes reality desperately needs an injection of a street urchin in her school uniform. Once reality is perceived as best we are able, then why not fill oneself with possibilities of a more generous reality, even bunnies and yellow ducklings have a place.
I saw this clip a week or so ago, and got all warm and fuzzy on the inside. I guess I didn't BELIEVE it was happening, or had happened, or was a representation of day to day reality. It was like a bedtime story but even bedtime stories have their place -- as long as it's in the correct place.
As much as I want to rib you sometimes for what sounds gloomy to me (mine mine, all mine) your input often provides me a good reminder or two. We have a ways to go, and it's not wrong to insert a couple of bunnies and warm fuzzies into it mindfully.
Enticing toy, did you say? Would you be kind enough to point me to that ad?
Wow, I am dense. There was a product being sold? What was it?
LOL @betaboy enticing to a preschooler. Though, when I was a teenager they used to give away a little gardening starting kit in the spring, and I loved those things.
@Hamsaka, if you watch the video on youtube, the headline says it is for Thai Life Insurance, or something like that.
I thought about this and this question came to mind. Do you think that the Boddhisattva having done that selfless act, created the necessary causes and conditions leading to Buddhahood?
Middle Way, folks, Middle Way - take from the film the lesson it imparted regarding the Brahma~Viharas, but be aware of the subliminal 'con' message, the rosy idealism.... seek a balance between how it touches your heart, and how it touches your mind.
@federica gave a good answer.
If a child is immature, which of course it is, it might be inappropriately 'generous'. If a mentally handicapped or unstable individual is kind, they may be taken advantage of. It is a question of context.
Very few of us are free enough to do selfless acts of kindness AND the acts of kindness may involve a wrathful face, to protect the innocent. Every parent knows this.
You should be kind because of the emotional rewards, that is what the advert shows. Not selflessness at all. The actions of Bodhisatvas are compassion tempered with wisdom. Skilful means.
Hope that answers your question.
Be kind. Smile. You will have more fun. Promise.