Lao Voices

I used to live in NYC, so we have had many literatures from different temples in the area, and one story that I came across was from Wat Dhammapadip, Long Island, NY. It’s interesting, and some of you might have heard this before. It’s called, The Wealthy Old Man, Thao Kae Lim

In the city of Betong in Thailand, there was a wealthy old man named ‘Thao Kae Lim’ who was so kind that people thought of him as Pra Wetsan Dorn of Betong. Early every morning Thao Kae Lim would sit in front of his house and give money to the passersby. If the passersby stopped for coffee, he would pay for everyone who was there. He was a very generous man who likes to give.

The rich Thao Kae Lim owned some rubber plantations. Nobody wanted to hurt him or his business because people know that the owner was a very kind man. If we are good, nobody will want to hurt us. If we are bad, we are not only hurting others but we are also hurting ourselves. I don’t know if Thao Kae Lim is still alive or not. It has been so long ago but still he was by nature a generous man.

If we have the chance to speak with Thao Kae Lim, we would sense this. His face glowed with loving kindness. He neither spoke badly of people, nor criticized them. He only talked good things about people. ‘The sheriff was a good man.’ ‘That police chief was a good man.’ Everybody was good. According to Thao Kae Lim, every government official in Betong was good. It did not matter to him what others said, Thao Kae Lim would always say that everybody was good. He looked at the positive side of others. He only talked about the good things that others did. Doing so made him happy.

Every morning he would sit in front of his house and greet the passersby, ‘Where are you going? Are you going to the market? Take this money to buy something.’ He gave them 2 or 3 baht. He always did that. In addition, the more he gave the more he received. He received admiration and happiness. (The End)

A message from the Wat (Temple):

Let us try to live our lives with loving kindness towards our fellow human beings, our religion, our country, our work, and our family.

Let us always live together with metta; loving-kindness and compassionate towards all.

Let us not live our lives with cruelty, anger, hatred, envy, or vengeance. If we live our lives with these disruptive emotions, we are creating problems and bringing suffering to ourselves and to others. It is not right; it will destroy others and us.

We are not born to destroy each other, but to help each other to become happy and successful in whatever we choose to do. According to the teaching of Buddha, we should live to help others. If there is anything we can do to make others happy, we should try to do it because when others are happy we will be happy too. This is the nature of things. Thus, some people like to be helpful to others. They will try to assist their fellow human beings in every way they can.

Original source from: Wat Dhammapadip, Long Island, NY
Original source of photo above by BoazImages, China