29 June 2007

1 to 100

It was a warm day. It was always a warm day when one is feeling lazy. The children were getting restless and the teacher did not like it. The younger teachers were telling him that children are to be nurtured, not disciplined. It benefited the society better if the potential of the youths are cultivated instead of controlled. They called it good pedagogy. He did not care. He was caned constantly by his elders when he was a child and he turned out fine. So why should now be any different.

“Maybe I should just give something for the children to work on. Keep them busy. That way, I get my peace and wait for the sun to set. The heat was getting unbearable.”

Thinking himself rather clever, he called the children over and promise a prize for the first person who can sum up all the numbers from 1 to 100 without error. Most of the excitable children immediately took up their writing pad and begin calculating furious. The teacher then returned to his seat. Just as he was about to get comfortable and fan himself, a skinny boy from the back of the room shouted the answer, “5050!”

“What? Someone did the sums within a couple of heartbeats,” the teacher was in disbelief. Storming angrily to the child, he growled that the boy must have cheated.

The boy then calmly explained, “but sir, I just have to pair the 100 numbers into 2 groups of 50, matching 100 with 1, 99 with 2, 98 with 3 and so forth, I get 50 groups of numbers that add up to 101 each. Therefore, 50 times of 101 will give me the sum of all the 100 hundred numbers which is 5050.”

There was a pause. And then the teacher conceived. The younger teachers were right, the youths have great potential.

21 June 2007

Back to School

The staff meeting today signifies the end of the midyear break. But in truth, it hardly felt like a holiday. I was back to school almost 50% of the time. Despite that, work never seemed to be completed.

I have some work with regards to the Speech Day to prepare, basketball tournaments and remedial lessons for the graduating classes are on-going, coursework marking is yet to be completed and to top it off, there is the NDP which I’m involved in. overall, I foresee a pretty hectic time ahead.

But it is not all bad news. On the Gakkai front, I would say NYPSD had a great MILKRUN campaign. We exceeded our original target of a hundred youths by a mile. It is heartening to see many of the CICs taking responsibilities to make sure that the event will be a success. In particular, I am seeing the Kenji standing up to be counted among the disciples of Sensei. I am truly happy for him.

Zhong Kai was admitted to the hospital for an operation to remove excess fluid in his brain. I am praying that this experience will be a catalyst for him to truly develop himself.

13 June 2007

Hate vs Respect

There are some people I don’t like. No matter how hard I try, I simply get myself to like them. Is this OK? How should I handle this?

The worst case of not liking someone is Hate. And one thing many people fail to realize is that hating someone causes you to be more miserable than the person being hated. Hating someone is a kind of suffering. Being hated is not. Hate is merely an extension of anger. Anger is a selfish, greedy, distorted ego that is determined to best others at all costs and seeing everything as a potential threat to oneself. In this state, we value only ourselves and tend to hold others in contempt. A sense of self-importance and superiority rules to the point that we cannot accept anyone who exceeds us.

SGI President Ikeda says: “Just as there are some foods that you find distasteful, having people in your environment whom you dislike is an unavoidable part of life. While there’s nothing wrong with not particularly liking certain people, it is wrong to put them down or behave in a hostile way towards them. They have the same right to exist as you do and to have their own opinions and ways of doing things…. Also, Buddhism teaches the interrelatedness of all people and things, and how we treat others will affect our own lives – so it is important to be respectful in our behavior both for others’ sake as well as for our own.”

It is OK not to like some. But it is not OK to hate someone. So that key is to prevent our dislike from slipping into the devilish state of hate. We do that by understanding that conflicts are a result of the fundamental inability of people to accept, respect and live with people who are different from us. Hence, the important thing is to cultivate our ability to respect others because every life is equally indefinitely precious.