Joy and Spirituality

Near Tibet there is a Lamasery,

One of the lamas, very young, was sent to the Lamasery to be the teacher of the students, in these monasteries students from all the towns and cities always gather and each Tibetan family gives one of their children to serve Buddha. It is an obligation and whoever wants to, can give 2 or 3 children. But they all bear a child, a boy. So this Lama was young, dynamic and so, he arrived with enthusiasm, with joy, he introduced himself to the Abbot, who is the director of the Lamasery and said:

Can I start now? Whenever you want! And he took all the students and then he started looking at them all one by one and saw that they were serious, sitting down, very disciplined and the young Lama was nice, charismatic and he liked to laugh. And he said to them:

My dear students, I am going to explain to you the principle of our work, as future monks that you will be. Spirituality is not sad. It doesn't have to be boring, it doesn't have to be bitter, it doesn't have to always be without laughing. And it doesn't have to be either guilt or sadness, nothing. On the contrary, spirituality has to be happy, smiling, calm, but above all the principle is to do it with the conscience, with the smile and if you want to laugh, laugh!

But you are here for tomorrow to continue this path that I have come to teach you. The novices looked at him and were very surprised, because all the other lamas were older and made them pray for hours and hours and hours. The first starts at 4, the second at 6 and so on throughout the day. At 5 o'clock, and poor things, they were very young children. So they looked at him a little thinking: Is it true, is it not true? Let's see, it was a very big surprise for them.

Then he began to explain to them the life of Buddha, his example, his wisdom and to teach them what spirituality was. And they started laughing out loud. They were happy, they learned sooo well. And they advanced each day more, each day more. But the people of the city, who are called the faithful, passed by. And when they heard the laughter and that joy, they did not like it and they went to the Abbot and said: Abbot, we do not agree with the Lama, the new one who has come, because there is a lot of noise when we pass. We hear that they laugh, they are singing the prayers, instead of praying in silence, they pray them singing and there is always a child who is laughing and everyone who accompanies him. It is too much joy, it is not good for spirituality.

The Abbot listened serenely and called the Lama. And he said to them: The faithful have come and complained. They have said that you make too much noise, that your students laugh, that they are happy and that there is great joy in this school. And he said to him: But, Lord Abbot, spirituality does not have to be either crying or sadness and he said: Well, try it, to do as the other Lamas did. And the young Lama replied: Oh Abbot, it will be the same thing, the same. what do you mean? You will see, the young Lama replied and the next day he sat his students and put them to pray, to recite mantras, but all in silence, all in silence. Nothing could be heard. Nothing was heard.

The faithful passed by and stopped and said: Have they closed the monastery? Well there is no life, there is no one. What will happen? And they looked out the window and saw that there was a new Lama, a young Lama along with the students praying, but all in silence. All in silence. And they went to see the Abbot, and they said to him: Abad, we come to tell you that we are not happy at all because you cannot hear the children, you cannot hear the prayer, you cannot hear when they recite, you cannot hear anything. And so silent it seems that he is dead, it is horrible, horrible.

Very well, said the Abbot, I am going to tell the new Lama. He called the young Lama and said:

Look, the faithful have complained and said that now it is so quiet that it seems that everything is dead. So what I'm going to tell you, don't forget:

Do not listen to the controversies, do not listen to what one and the other will say. Simply listen to your heart and be guided by your intuition because your heart will never betray or lie to you.

He bowed to him, the young Lama and the next day they began as he had always done. The prayers, the explanations, to laugh, to sing, to play and in the recreation, there was such a great joy that all the children from the other schools came, the children from the villages all came. And they were there with their mouths open and their eyes really big. With great joy. And happy.

And since then he is the happy Lama and the young people found happiness because they understood very well that

To be spiritual is to always have joy in your heart, it is to do what your conscience dictates in goodness, in Light, in generosity, in goodness.

The rest, don't listen, because they will never be happy. But if you have results,

The Universe will agree with you and the Beings of Light will always accompany you.

Because that is what you are, beings of Light.

And since then, whenever we can, we will visit this Lama of joy in that great Lamasery. With all my love,

La Jardinera