Challenge 1: Conversation that changed you or was meaningful

29. Tell us about a conversation you’ve had that changed your perspective or was otherwise meaningful to you. (Stanford)

It was around two years ago, in 2009, and like every other summer in Nepal, I complained about the heat and humidity that surrounded me. My paternal grandparents visit every year, and this summer they were on their visit. Like most nights after dinner, I sat down next to my grandmother and my mother in the pergola to listen to their conversation and drop a few comments of my own, when I could. This evening they were talking about the value of life. Coming from a Buddhist family, and having a mother who constantly reminds and talks to me about Buddhist teachings, I knew more or less everything, or I thought I did. Throughout the whole conversation I did not realize how I regarded the human life as most important and forgot that humans too are animals. This realization struck me when I felt a sting on my leg and looked down to see mosquito bites all over my leg. Earlier on I had heard the buzzing of mosquitoes, which I found extremely annoying, but I went about ignoring it. But that sting changed everything, in rage I slammed my palm on my exposed shin and killed a mosquito. My grandmother chuckled and asked me what exactly I had learnt while listening to their conversation, and I realized that I had contradicted everything I had heard and said. She went on to tell me a story about her eldest son, my uncle, the 3rdJamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche (high monk). “He was a very gentle man, filled with compassion and consideration for every living being, even to pests such as mosquitoes,” she said. “One day as we were talking,” she continued, “a mosquito began sucking blood on his arm. As I tried to shoo it away, he stopped me and said, ‘don’t hurt the mosquito as it means no harm to me intentionally. Its sole purpose of sucking blood is for its survival.’ He then let the mosquito suck his blood until it was satisfied.”

I sat in awe thinking about how someone could have the self -control to stop himself from shooing a mosquito that was feeding on his blood. My grandmother went on to say how my uncle was right in saying that wild animals kill to survive, but we humans kill for our benefit. Whenever I see a mosquito, I think of the story I heard on a hot summer night in the pergola. I think twice before I act, I do not have the self control to let that pest suck my blood right in front of my eyes, but that does not mean I have to kill it either; it too has a life.