Happiness
The very purpose of our life is happiness, the very motion of our lives is toward happiness.
-His Holiness the Dalai Lama
With that in mind, I’m drawn to a time sitting in the airport on my way back from the East. I believe I was in China at the time. As I was waiting for the next flight, I looked across the way and saw two monks sitting together. They didn’t speak English, which isn’t necessarily a problem but I wasn’t familiar with whatever dialect they were speaking. I refrained from speaking to them, I simply waved at one point. Of the two, the one on my right was obviously ill, and possibly a bit older than the monk on the left. I watched the ill monk attempt to open a mangosteen, and fail. He didn’t say anything, he simply made the attempt again from another angle.
Meanwhile the monk upon the left opened the mangosteen he possessed and unseated the fruit within. He then placed the pieces back inside and offered it to the monk who still had not managed to open his fruit. There were no words spoken at all, the ill monk simply took the fruit and offered over the unopened mangosteen. After the exchange, both mangosteens were opened and they ate in silence. The ill monk must not have had much of an appetite, but his companion made him finish it all. There was no bickering, only a simple second offering of the fruit that was left. The ill monk refused the first and accepted the second.
Interestingly, they were allowed on the plane first and taken off the plane first. The workers in the airport and even security toting mp5s behaved in strong deference to the monks. The stewardesses bowed especially low to them, and one young lady fed them during the flight. I suppose that’s only interesting to me because of the countries in question, but it made me feel good on the inside. I couldn’t articulate why exactly.
