U Nu (Prime Minister of Burma)
Humanity has been led astray by three evils – greed, hatred and ignorance. Whether we are Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Animists, or Atheists, we cannot escape the three inevitables: old age, disease, and death. Nobody can deny that the five sense objects – pretty sight, delightful sound, fragrant smell, savory taste, and nice touch – are only fleeting phenomena. They are neither lasting nor permanent.
Nor can anybody deny that property is transitory: no one can carry away his property after death. Men have been chasing these transitory pleasures with a dogged tenacity mainly because they hold false views regarding property. They forget that this life is not even one millionth part of the whirlpool of Samsara (the cycles of rebirth), and go on amassing wealth even though it never brings them full satisfaction.
This insatiable greed for wealth results in the profit motive which is not directed toward any utilitarian purpose. Once upon a time all commodities were common property, and everybody had a right to use them for his own benefit. But with the advent of the profit motive these commodities became objects of exploitation. They became instruments of wealth and stimulus for greed. This led to the following phenomena:
1. Human society was split into two classes: Haves and Have-nots
2. The Have-nots had to depend on the Haves for their living, and thus the evil system of exploitation of one class by another emerged.
3. With class exploitation, the poor became poorer because they could not get adequate returns for their work. They had to resort to evil ways like stealing, looting, and prostitution.
4. The Lord Buddha has taught us that there are four causes of death: kamma, frame of mind, weather, and food. Under the system of class exploitation, how can the Have-nots enjoy good food and protect themselves from extremes of weather? Can there be any sense of happiness or contentment for them? Can even a good kamma favor one who is cheerless? Thus one who is born into the class of Have-nots is handicapped in all the above four factors, and disease is the inevitable result.
5. How can the Have-nots care for education with their hard struggle for a bare living? Lack of education breeds an ever-increasing band of ignoramuses and Mr. Zeros.
6. How can a country abounding in ignoramuses and Mr. Zeros ever progress?
It is evident that most of the evils in the world can be traced to the advent of the profit motive. Do you remember the legend of the Padaythabin (the tree of fulfillment) we heard as children?
According to the legend, there was once a time when men and women could get whatever they wanted from the Padaythabin tree. There was no problem of food or clothes or housing, and there was no crime. Disease was comparatively unknown. In course of time, however, the people fell victim to greed and spoiled the tree of fulfillment which eventually disappeared. Then a class of people who could not afford to eat well, dress well, or live well appeared, and crime became rampant.
Now I ask you to think of the Padaythabin as the natural wealth of our country, both above and under the ground. If only this natural wealth is used for the common good of mankind it will be inexhaustible, besides satisfying the needs of everybody. But greed comes in the way. The poorest of the poor wants to become rich; the rich want to become richer, and the process goes on ad infinitum. Spurred on by greed, people are apt to “botanize on their mothers’ graves,” so to say, in order to become richer. Thus the distribution of wealth becomes unequal. While some can amass wealth which cannot be spent in ten lives, others have to wallow in extreme poverty with bare rags on their bodies.
Nor can anybody deny that property is transitory: no one can carry away his property after death. Men have been chasing these transitory pleasures with a dogged tenacity mainly because they hold false views regarding property. They forget that this life is not even one millionth part of the whirlpool of Samsara (the cycles of rebirth), and go on amassing wealth even though it never brings them full satisfaction.
This insatiable greed for wealth results in the profit motive which is not directed toward any utilitarian purpose. Once upon a time all commodities were common property, and everybody had a right to use them for his own benefit. But with the advent of the profit motive these commodities became objects of exploitation. They became instruments of wealth and stimulus for greed. This led to the following phenomena:
1. Human society was split into two classes: Haves and Have-nots
2. The Have-nots had to depend on the Haves for their living, and thus the evil system of exploitation of one class by another emerged.
3. With class exploitation, the poor became poorer because they could not get adequate returns for their work. They had to resort to evil ways like stealing, looting, and prostitution.
4. The Lord Buddha has taught us that there are four causes of death: kamma, frame of mind, weather, and food. Under the system of class exploitation, how can the Have-nots enjoy good food and protect themselves from extremes of weather? Can there be any sense of happiness or contentment for them? Can even a good kamma favor one who is cheerless? Thus one who is born into the class of Have-nots is handicapped in all the above four factors, and disease is the inevitable result.
5. How can the Have-nots care for education with their hard struggle for a bare living? Lack of education breeds an ever-increasing band of ignoramuses and Mr. Zeros.
6. How can a country abounding in ignoramuses and Mr. Zeros ever progress?
It is evident that most of the evils in the world can be traced to the advent of the profit motive. Do you remember the legend of the Padaythabin (the tree of fulfillment) we heard as children?
According to the legend, there was once a time when men and women could get whatever they wanted from the Padaythabin tree. There was no problem of food or clothes or housing, and there was no crime. Disease was comparatively unknown. In course of time, however, the people fell victim to greed and spoiled the tree of fulfillment which eventually disappeared. Then a class of people who could not afford to eat well, dress well, or live well appeared, and crime became rampant.
Now I ask you to think of the Padaythabin as the natural wealth of our country, both above and under the ground. If only this natural wealth is used for the common good of mankind it will be inexhaustible, besides satisfying the needs of everybody. But greed comes in the way. The poorest of the poor wants to become rich; the rich want to become richer, and the process goes on ad infinitum. Spurred on by greed, people are apt to “botanize on their mothers’ graves,” so to say, in order to become richer. Thus the distribution of wealth becomes unequal. While some can amass wealth which cannot be spent in ten lives, others have to wallow in extreme poverty with bare rags on their bodies.
Reaction:
Here it shows the struggle for independence during his reign. Showed his obsession in industrializing the country in a short period as he could he's showing violence in his country he decides on a sudden not knowing how will effect people. Why not try to take things slow than killing his people with shock.
Self - Reliance
By Ralph Waldo Emerson
There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried.Not for nothing one face, one character, one fact makes much impression on him, and another none. This sculpture in the memory is not without pre-established harmony. The eye was placed where one ray should fall, that it might testify of that particular ray. We but half express ourselves, and are ashamed of that divine idea which each of us represents. It may be safely trusted as proportionate and of good issues, so it be faithfully imparted, but God will not have his work made manifest by cowards. A man is relived and gay when he has put his heart into his work and done his best but what he has said or and done his best but what he has said or done otherwise shall give him no peace. It is a deliverance which does not deliver. In the attempt, his genius deserts him: no muse befriends; no invention, no hope.
Trust thyself; every heart vibrates to that iron string. Accept the place the divine providence has found for you: the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events. Great men have always done so and confined themselves childlike to the genius of their age, betraying their perception that the absolutely trustworthy was stirring at their heart, working through their hands, predominating in all their being. And we are now men, and must accept in the highest mind, the same transcendent destiny; and not minors and invalids in a protected corner, but guides, redeemers and benefactors, obeying the almighty effort and advancing on Chaos and the Dark...
Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members. Society is a joint-stock company in which the members agree for the better securing of his bread to his shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater. The virtue in most request is conformity. Self reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs.
Who so would be a man must be a nonconformist. He who would gather immoral palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness, but must explore if it be goodness. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of our own mind. Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage of the world.
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency, a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again though it contradicts everything you said today, "Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood?" - is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.
Reaction:
I have had entered 4th year without knowing what truly is self - reliance, until I read this text. It's a state where in you are capable of relying to yourself in doing things instead of having others doing it for you but you see, i do agree with the first line stating that "Every man's education when he arrives at conviction that envy is ignorance; imitation is suicide" because I have had experienced it and I realized, I also do envy others and when I do, I do not make my own choice but depend on what he or she knows without even trying to make choices that are important to me. It also show what you see in yourself what others soon will notice when you try to voice out opinions. This one inspires me not to be lazy and believe in myself because I know I can do things if I do it with my own sweat!
That's Magic
By Father Michael F. La Guardia,SDB
Words have power. They can heal or hurt, build or destroy. They can "make my day," depending on the sense and intonation with which the words are uttered. But a kind word says of another casts a deep spell. It's not magic in it!
There is magic when a husband says of his wife: "This is the darling treasure of my life."There is magic when a parent says of his child: "This is my inspiration in my works. "There is magic when a guy says of his girl: "This is the woman I intended to marry." There is magic when a teacher says of her pupil: "This is the brightest kid i have in my class. There is magic when a friend says of his soulmate: "This is may comfort and strength - my candle on the water."
The fictional character Peter Pan was made to mouth one of life's countless truths so well: "It just takes one happy thought to have a take off and to stay up in the air." A compliment received is one happy thought. It lightens the weary body. It gladdens the dreary soul. It lingers in the mind like a special melody and seas us through the doldrums and difficulties in life.
All the more so if the compliment were to issue not from a mere human tongue, but from the divine, " This is my Son, my Beloved." The voice was that of the Father. The testimony was meant of the Son. The Tabor event of Jesus' transfiguration was a reprise of the Jordan event of his baptism when the same voice exalted him as "My beloved Son with whom I am well pleased."
The divine words are likewise meant for us. We have received our status as God's adopted son and daughters by virtue of our Baptism." We could not have heard the father's voice then. But we know for certain that we have been addressed in the same loving way: "This is my child, my beloved. We have been claimed as God's very own. We are loved by Him. We are dear to Him.
This is our happy thought that sustains our being. This is our special melody that keeps us going. This is the magic that discloses for us the joy of living.
Have we heard a kind word from God lately?
That's magic!
Reaction:
It inspires, it makes a lot of sense and very meaningful. When you look at the title of the text you would think that the content is something like of what magicians do. Very clever, God is really powerful and let's be thankful how foolish God is and created meaningful words and showed how powerful it is that it meant something to people and how it touches our hearts, how funny how it is connected with our emotions it's like there's really magic and at times we find ourselves smiling, crying, or anything that can show our happiness or our feelings in any kind of emotion.
