Success is Good but Significance is Better - Tenzin Norsang

Picture Courtesy: https://sunshine-parenting.com/halftime-moving-from-success-to-significance/

An unknown author said it so well, “Success is good, but significance is better.” 

People of today’s world have come to think that money is everything to gain happiness in one’s life. 

Well, there is no doubt that you need it to lead a beautiful life, but it provides us bliss only to some extent. It can buy us the most luxurious and fancy things in this world. But still, it cannot buy us internal peace, true love and happiness. 

We seek all these only when we give ourselves to others that we find true merriness. 

A wise man once said, “Selfless service is the rent that one should pay to live on this planet.” Through selfless service, we make others jubilant and content. It also soothes our hearts with pleasure. It fills our minds with positivity and everlasting memories. 

Helping others leads you to the path of finding your purpose in life. It also assists you in discovering inner peace.  Wealth can only define a person's financial status. It cannot express their humility. 

If someone wants to be successful, earning money should be one of his priorities. However, it shouldn't become their highest priority. The highest priority in one’s life should be helping others achieve success. 

As a wise man once said, and I quote, “The one who holds the purse, holds the power”, which is a universal truth. An affluent person is bestowed with two powers and must choose between them. They can either lend a helping hand to the weaker sections of society, alleviating their suffering, or they can exploit them to the fullest, misuse their power, and instil fear in their hearts. 

It is rightly said that a wealthy person’s humility is defined by how they spend their money. Leaving a positive impact on society is achievable by extending a helping hand to those in need.

In summary, money is something that provides temporary satisfaction and happiness. Accumulating wealth can grant power and high status in life, but it will not grant happiness. One can achieve the greatest happiness by giving oneself to others and adding value to their lives. What matters most in life is not just personal success, but also significance.

Tenzin Norsang

Pestalozzi Children's Village. India.

One kind word can warm three winter months - Tenzin Jambey

Picture Courtesy: https://pepperdine-graphic.com/opinion-give-kindness-more-often/

The proverb- 'One kind word can warm three winter months' means that one kind word can make people feel good in their sufferings. In other words, our kind words and works have had a good effect on people for a very long time.

Doing kind work is neither easy nor difficult. It's just a simple act everyone must practice to promote peace among the living beings on earth. All people have their definition of the word - 'kindness', and therefore I have my definition of it too.

According to me, 'Kindness doesn't mean donating and helping poor and needy people'. If this act was to be called an act of kindness, then some people do these things to win the vote during the election. And after being elected, their words, kind work and promises to vanish into the air like the air itself. 

I also want to bring up the act of some rich people who donate money to charity unwillingly to reduce the tax from the government. Therefore, I believe that the act of kindness must come, and it must come from deep within your heart by forgetting about your wealth and asset.

I remember a line in the poem, 'The Heart Of Tree', where it tells that a kind man plants a tree to serve future generations. He knows that he won't be able to enjoy the fruits of that tree, but still, he will have the satisfaction - that someday this tree will be helping people improve fresh air to breathe.

Many people speak about peace and kindness, but a few follow it. And I agree that only speaking is not enough. We must act upon our saying as we all know that - 'Action speaks louder than words'.

Some people don't understand the words of love to whom we refer as 'Rod is the only logic of fools'. If all the people were to follow the saying, there would have been no jail or prison. It indicates that saying alone is not stable enough to bring up a change. 

It's the truth, which I will highlight since now we remember the people who speak well about us and praise us only for a few days. But the people who show their kindness and help us to make our life better and more peaceful are remembered for years and years. It's so true that the praise and lovely, heartful words vanish into the air like changing seasons, but the kind act shows its effect for a very long time, like the climate.

Most people forget kind words, but kind work can last for years. And people remember you for your contribution like we remember Mahatma Gandhi for his act of promoting peace. We Pestalozzians remember Sir Johan Henrich Pestalozzi every year for his kindness and loving act that he practised till his last breath.

'A kind word can warm three winter months, but an act of kindness can give warmth for centuries'.

Tenzin Jambey

Pestalozzi Children's Village, India.

Pain Is Compulsory But Suffering Is An Option - Rishona Chopra

Pain is compulsory, it is a part of life and can't be changed, but do we let that pain affect our mind and turn it into suffering? Pain is the truth of life. It is something we can't change. There is a term that is used in Buddhism that is - 

Dukkha: Life is painful and causes suffering. Many people might say that Buddhism is pessimistic or negative.

The challenge is dealing with the pain. We let the pain get to our minds and convert into suffering. Suppose a person regularly has negative life experiences from a series of body illnesses. In that case, that means she has negative energy inside her due to some adverse action of her immediate or far-off past. This negative energy is at the present moment coming back to her in the form of negative scenes in her life. 

                             "We are healed of suffering only by experiencing it fully."

Rishona Chopra
Grade VI
Gyanshree School