Sukihotu,
This morning I met-up with my muslim friend, Tawfik (not his real name) whom I've not seen for a while. Tawfik was responsible to do two animation jobs for me. He and I worked very closely for about a year to complete the two projects. But when the projects finishes we parted and have not seen each other for a while.
We spoke about business and then later adorned for a cup of coffee. Apparently his sister, Sophia (again not her real name) who has lived in the UK for the past decade was also in town. Sophia tells me that she is a doctor in England and is happy living there. It looked like the country (Malaysia) has just lost another brain.
Tawfik has been working very hard building his company. He has about 20 staffs now. His studio has also expand to the next door where he has just installed motion capture, a cutting edge technolgy that not many animation studio has. I presumed that this is also something Tawfik is proud of.
In the midst of sipping the coffee, Tawfik released his frustration and anxiety about the stressful life he is in now. He expressed unhappiness over the incompetency of his staffs. He talked about the pressure of meeting date-line to deliver his products to customer in-time. He spoke about being cheated in a business deal by his close friend. It was a huge sum of money, and the pain hit his nerves. He continued ejecting one sorrow after another non-stop.
Then I intervened by saying, "that's what we called the 1st Noble Truth". The conversation went like this.
Bugs : The main teaching of Buddhism is the 4 Noble Truth. And Tawfik, what you've just described is the 1st Noble Truth.
Tawfik : What is that?
Bugs : The 1st Noble Truth is that there is an existence of suffering.
Tawfik : So what's the 2nd truth?
Bugs : The 2nd Noble Truth is that there is a cause to suffering
Tawfik : So what is it Bugs?
Bugs : There are 3 main evil roots that caused suffering. One. There is greed. Which mean you want more. More business. More production from your staffs. More office space. More government grants. More sales. More of everything. More, more, more. You want, you want, you want.
The 2nd evil root is Hatred. Meaning you are always angry with your staffs. You throw temper for little mistakes. It also includes dissatisfaction, jealous and etc. You are not happy with yourself because you are not getting what you want. And you hate it.
And the 3rd evil root is illusion. Meaning, you have this wrong illusion of thinking that you are the best animator in the country. Your company has the best facility in the world. You rule the animation world. And other illusion and egos that you have.
Tawfik : Wait the minute I got to take this down. This is interesting. That's exactly how I felt. It's like a punch on my face.
Bugs : The 3rd Noble Truth is that suffering can be ceased.
Tawfik : So, how do you do that? How to stop suffering?
Bugs : Ah ha! you have asked the right question. The answer lies in the 4th Noble Truth. That is the Middle path.
Tawfik : (Took out his smart phone and started writing) Go slow Bugs, I need to write this down. This stuffs makes sense.
Then I told Tawfik the Noble 8 Fold Path. Which you can also read it here.
I really had a great time sharing the Dhamma with my two Muslim friends today. They knew Buddhism is not a religion but is a way of life. "And it complimented Islam so well" said Tawfik. I'm glad to share my Dhamma especially in situation like this. Where I am able to shed some lights to someone in darkness.
Thanks for reading and I hope you have a happy day too.
Mettacittena
10 June 2011
0 comments:
Post a Comment