Facebook Conversation with Nima Wangchuk.

 

    Tshewang Dorji

We feel very compassionate when we see on the TV, tigers eating other animals. What would we do if we were tigers?

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Nima Wangchuk This is what I Understand to be the LAW OF KARMA!!!

Yesterday at 11:00am · LikeUnlike

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Tshewang Dorji I guess we should be compassionate to both a tiger and the victim of tiger, not only to the victim. What do you say?

Yesterday at 11:02am · LikeUnlike

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Nima Wangchuk I am Pure vegetarian, their is a butcher selling the meat, what if my son is not a vegetarian? am I not responsible too???

Yesterday at 11:12am · LikeUnlike

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Tshewang Dorji You would be responsible for making your son. More than that, if your son chooses to be non-vegetarian even after your advice, i dont think you are responsible. He can choose his own way, but good advice is must. Beyong that, what can we do?

Yesterday at 11:17am · LikeUnlike

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Nima Wangchuk Just like butcher killing the life of an animal, in a same way he/she can stab his/her EGO and son too can adopt the same!! rite???

Yesterday at 11:48am · LikeUnlike

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Tshewang Dorji He can do it for himself if he wants to, but you cannot do own his behalf.

Yesterday at 11:50am · LikeUnlike

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Nima Wangchuk Every word carries power in their own way and same is with our mental process... at the least or at the highest we can pray for his/her purifications.. (MOEN-LAM) there will be EFFECT for every CAUSE!!! Shall we do that?

Yesterday at 11:56am · LikeUnlike

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Tshewang Dorji That could be done, but i dont know how powerful and genuine my prayers would be.

Yesterday at 11:57am · LikeUnlike

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Tshewang Dorji The deeper I go inside my system of thinking, I see something fishy going on inside me- something selfish is going on in the name of doing good. This is my experience with my thoughts till now.

Yesterday at 12:02pm · LikeUnlike

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Nima Wangchuk The best thing we can practice is, Don't be tempted to do good coz it looks good or try to avoid doing bad coz it seems harmful or sinful... The funny thing at the end or very BASE is their is no GOOD or BAD!! its mental game! its my experience.. if u think then have a try over it...

Yesterday at 12:07pm · LikeUnlike

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Tshewang Dorji The greatest difficulty for me is to go beyond " good and bad". This my problem at present.

Yesterday at 12:10pm · LikeUnlike

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Nima Wangchuk let me give you one example, Stool might seem awesome smelly to a fashion and model lady and she might reject it by saying "oh! what a smell, i really hate it".. BUT to a creature like pigs and even beautiful rose it is delicious for them or it is necessary!!! Do you think that a lady is rite to claim that it sound awesome????

Yesterday at 12:22pm · LikeUnlike

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Tshewang Dorji I can sometimes get the feeling that there is nothing as good or bad, but to prolong experience is something that I am unable to do.

Yesterday at 12:22pm · LikeUnlike

Tshewang Dorji We might say that "shit" is neither good nor bad, but in reality do we have the courage and guts to eat shit with the same feeling as we eat chocolate?

Yesterday at 12:29pm · LikeUnlike

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Nima Wangchuk i am not the rite person to answer your profound and genuine inquiries, u can alys approach lama.... He is near to you.... its time u clarify it...

Yesterday at 12:31pm · LikeUnlike

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Tshewang Dorji This is my problem. Though I get a tiny glimpse of "nothing is good or bad" I am not able to free myself from choosing what is seemingly good from what is seemingly bad.

Yesterday at 12:31pm · LikeUnlike

Nima Wangchuk i am not the rite person.... U can ask to lama, these doubts are genuine, i think so... please get clarification from lama...

WHAT EXACTLY IS GNH?

Whenever I read papers on GNH, I often get bogged down with so many versions of GNH. The only common thing about GNH by different people is the four pillars of GNH, but that is also understood and interpreted in different styles by different people: the pillars are the same but the ingredients with which these pillars are built seem to be different to different people. In a same way, not surprisingly, I also have my own miniature version of GNH based own my own little understanding and contemplation.

GNH is not a dogma as some people tend to interpret: it is not a dictate about how to live our life. The concept of GNH goes beyond its four pillars. GNH is all about living well, in harmony with economy, our natural environment and with our community. And yes, GNH is about elevating our spiritual, political and social consciousness so that we create our own happiness and the people around us. Thus, to uplift our basic consciousness, the role of the state has been considered to be very important in facilitating the creation of environment in uplifting these consciousnesses. Therefore, the target of any government at anytime, while doing anything, should be to bring about positive changes in our society so that the people become happier than they were before. Thus, the happiness is the GOAL of GNH.

Now, having said that happiness is the ultimate goal of GNH philosophy, we need to understand what is meant by happiness. Happiness is a very subjective topic. It would mean different to different people, in description and in experience. For example, Buddhist concept of happiness would be different from other major religions of the world. In fact, Buddhism teaches about transcending both happiness and sadness. Therefore, Bhutanese people’s idea of happiness is very much shaped by Buddhist teachings and the environment in which we are brought up.

Some of the questions that have been nagging me about GNH are: In GNH, are we looking for ultimate happiness as from the Buddhist point of view (I mean nirvana), or is it some kind of physical pleasure accompanied with some mental contentment? Are we talking about happiness in Bhutan only or beyond Bhutan? Is it acceptable to try to achieve GNH through means that are not in consonance with GNH principles? Who has the authority to interpret whether the actions of citizens of our country are aligned with GNH principles are not?

Corruption: Destroying the soul of Bhutan.

What is corruption?  The definition of corruption to me is very simple: It is doing what we are not supposed to be doing. By the same logic, it would also mean not doing what we are supposed to be doing, be it as a public servant, a private entrepreneur, a religious leader or as anyone in any capacity. To me corruption simply goes beyond the world Banks definition of "the abuse of public office for private gain." Corruption pervades abuse of anything by anyone, not just the public office only.

    Corruption in Bhutan takes various forms; the most prevalent form of corruption in Bhutan are: embezzlement, abuse of authority, nepotism and favoritism, etc. The very recent and one of the most heinous of corruption in our country took place in the Ministry of Health. The officials concerned for procurement of hospital equipments had been siphoning off millions of ngultrum from the public, which is branded to be bigger scam than commonwealth game scandal in India. For an instance, a plastic bucket worth Nu.600 only, was brought for Nu. 7500. This means the official had pocketed Nu. 6900 for their personal consumption. Could any patriot person, who respects his country and the king, have this kind of nerve to carry out this inestimable and astonishing crime? Such people should be brought to justice, and sooner the better. This is one example of corruption of mass scale, and I bet there are hundreds of such crimes committed in the country every now and then.

One of the rampant forms of corruption taking place in our country is that of government officials falsely claiming TA/DA. They either claim the amount for tours that they have never taken, or for number of days more than actual days of their tour. And, sadly, this practice does not look like to get any better in the coming days for I have come across some civil servant aspirants opting for post that has opportunity for most number of tours, not the job that they feel that they can do effectively and efficiently, and, contribute the maximum for the betterment  of our nation. Yes, this is also corruption.

Other form of corruption is a "passive corruption." In this form of corruption, almost all Bhutanese, me included, are involved, except for few people like His Majesty and Aum Neten Zam. This happens when so called uncorrupted people do not raise their voice against corruption. Let alone fighting corruption themselves, I have often come across many  senior citizens, highly educated and with no education, dissuading enthusiastic youths, from joining Anti Corruption Commission. They fear backlash from the society. They say joining ACC will lead to creation of so many enemies in one’s life, and will have to hurt the sentiment of so many people. Yes, this is also corruption. In fact, more dangerous than the actual corruption.

As for creating enemies while joining ACC, I remembered Gandhiji's words of wisdom from his autobiography "The Story of my experiment with truth." In the autobiography , Gandhiji  have said, only the people of Ravana’s thinking could become enemies of Rama. Thus, only corrupted people would become the enemies of people who are fighting against corruption in the country. As for the concern of hurting people's sentiment while fighting against corruption, I remembered Trungpa Rinpoche's word “an idiotic compassion." This kind of compassion toward corruption is not only cowardly; it is also "idiotic compassion" as said by Trungpa Rinpoche. Thus, it is very imperative that we do away with these kinds of harmful idiosyncrasies’, and rally for the big fight against corruption before corruption annihilate our country's peace and prosperity which we have long cherished and secured under the benevolent rule of our Bodhisattva kings.

     Corrupted people are to our country, Bhutan, what terrorist are to the west and the Middle East countries. Corrupted people are terrorist without weapons. They destroy our country, not with weapons like AK 47 and bomb, but with brain (cunning brain of course) and pen. They destroy the country inside out. There might not be terrorist groups like Al Qaeda, Lashkar E-taiba, Taliban, Hamas, etc.  in Bhutan that poses imminent threat to the security of our nation's geographical boundaries, but there are very cold-blooded assassins lurking openly for ambush in every corner of our country, to extinguish the system of freedom and fairness in the country: they are called "CORRUPTED PEOPLE" Corrupted people are traitors who do not respect the three roots of our country, namely, king, country and the people.

The corrupted people have the least gratitude to the government and their fellow citizens. Or else, how could they betray the government after having had invested a huge fortune for their upbringing and education? How could they siphon off millions of money meant for welfare of fellow Bhutanese?! How can they have such obnoxious guts to be so selfish? Most importantly, how can we hate corruption so much and not speak a word against it? Is this not connivance?

      Therefore, it is my invincible belief that to extinguish the flames of corruption, we all need to ostracize corruption in our society. To do this, we need to educate our people as of why corruption is destructive to our nation-politically, economically, and from social point of view. The awareness on corruption needs to go beyond educating people only about penalties and punishment of corruption from legal point of view. In short, we need to educate people as of why corruption is a threat to the freedom and prosperity of individual person living in the country. This much we must do, and the responsibilities lie in the hands of every Bhutanese, not only with the ACC.

     So, let us all cultivate an intelligent hatred to hate corruption in our country. Let us all, with our souls united, have no tolerance towards corruption. Let us all not be compassionate towards few corrupted people for the sake of more than six hundred thousand fellow Bhutanese. May Corruption live short in Bhutan.