Conservation, Buddhism and Bhutanese; through my observatory.

Conservation, Buddhism and Bhutanese; through my observatory.

To me and most alike; conservation, Buddhism and being Buddhist and Bhutanese have been an imprint  of synonym. My simple take on this is  “benefiting sentient beings.”  Fair enough to say that the world is not ideal and nothing functions in an ideal way. Sometimes, we don’t see the scene of suffering, at times, we don’t get to the scene of suffering and at times somehow, we are obscured from it.  It has happened to me and I have seen the same with others. God forgive us all.

Conservation here is referred to as conserving nature, environment and wildlife.  Being  a becoming wildlife conservationist,  and functioning at an era of  a non ideal period which is often mistaken and conceived as an ideal one by many and for many, I have failed myself  on quite a number of occasions to deliver my service to serve the needy beings. As mentioned above, some would have been deliberate, some unconditional and some conditional.

 ‘OM AA HUNG BA ZA GURU PAD MA SI DHI HUNG.’

But is this enough…?

Old and young, high and low, poor and rich, no gender bias, we all  with proud and pride chant the triplet magic word GNH (Gross National Happiness) at least once in two days on an average.  Today, Climate change and GNH are really treated like a universal donor (just like blood group AB). They rescue every argument. But every actions of ours does not really fit the Jig saw puzzle, in neither mitigating climate change nor positively contributing  to GNH . Here the chants of Baza guru and Barchoed Lamsel may not  rescue.  Is it Barchoed (an obstacle)…?    How  do we Lamsel (pave a  way) it?. To me, I think we need to change our behavior positively  not to change the climate at least at this rate and to make a positive value to the GNH(Here, Gross National Happiness; happiness  to all sentient beings)

But how?...and are we close to doing it…….

 My personal opinion and belief is that, being a Bhutanese and Buddhist, values life and support living. Alas!.........I am SORRY. The recent LITMUS TEST proved wrong, atleast for we the dwellers of Thimphu.  Thimphu is believed to be the most populated city in Bhutan with approximately over one hundred thousand people. During the recent forest fire, which occurred just at the periphery of the city, only 300 people turned up. 90% of it is all people in uniform (Army, Police and Forest). You all have been saluting to your superiors all the time and now your compassionate deed in saving lives of poor living creatures through an attempt to extinguish the forest fire. For this, I salute to you all.

Rest of the populace turned deaf and blind to the flames and smoke that hazed and gloomed even Thimphu city. Over 800 acres of blue pine (Pinus wallichiana) has been burned. Everything turned into ashes and the only visible legacy is the big black scar. Not only trees, herbs, shrubs and grasses, but thousands of poor creatures starting from ants, grass hoppers, crickets, birds to large mammals have been killed.

 OM MA NI PAD MI HUNG………from the comfort zones of the beautiful and luxurious buildings in the Thimphu city didn’t help at all. By rushing to the fire scene and even pouring a bottle of water on the flames would have at least saved few poor creatures which is worth million chants. 

I don’t mean to say that we shouldn’t be chanting, but let’s chant  to make  a difference by putting our verbal chants to a physical action through pure mind. To me that will make us a Buddhist practitioner, if not true buddhist. And the conservation becomes a by-product of Buddhism and Bhutanese.

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