Title: Appreciating the Moon, Denying the Sun

“You wouldn’t realize how great the person is especially when that person cared so much for you. As they say, in the afternoon, it is bright enough. What is the use of the sun then?”

This is based on a Jewish old folk’s tale. One day, a person asked an old man.

Between the sun and the moon, which do you think is more important?
The old man thought about it for quite sometime and answered : “I think suppose is the moon, which is more important than the sun.”

Why?

“Because the moon will shine brightly at night, which is when we need light the most. Since it is already that bright in the day, what is the use of the sun anyway?”

You might think that this man’s answer is foolish.

But don’t you think everyone thinks that way too?
There's a person who took care of you day and night. But you never seemed to appreciate him/her.

If it is your friend who treat you that nice, you will obviously feel that he/she is grateful.

Your parents, wife or husband who sacrificed so much for you; however, you’ll never seem to appreciate it. Thinking that it is a must to do that for you, and without even realizing, you might even complain about it!

If a random person treats you well, you’ll simply be just so amazed, and feel so grateful towards them. Don’t you think it is the same as the title that foolish? (Appreciating the Moon, Denying the Sun)

There was once a teenage girl who fought with her mother. She decided to run away from home as a solution and never coming back to her family!
After spending the whole day loitering around, she felt so hungry. Unfortunately, she did not bring her money along.

When it was night time, she saw a food stall. All of a sudden, she smelled a strong aroma of tasty food. She really wanted to eat a bowl of noodle.
However, she knew she was penniless.
Out of the blue, the boss came up to her and asked: “Miss, do you care for a bowl?”
She shrugged: “Erm… but I didn’t bring any money…”
The boss looked at her and laughed: “Ha-ha, never mind, it’s my treat!”
The girl simply just couldn’t believe her ears! So she quickly sat down.

Once the noodle is served, she felt that it was the tastiest bowl of noodles she has ever eaten.
She said: “Boss, you are just so nice and kind hearted!”
The boss said: “Huh? Why would you say so?”
She quickly replied: “Yes! We didn’t even know each other, but you treated me so well. Not like my mother. She doesn’t even understand my desires. It’s so frustrating!”
The boss laughed: “Ha-ha! Miss, I only gave you a bowl of noodles! And you are so grateful towards me just because of that? How about your mother who has been preparing your meals for more than 20 years? Shouldn’t you pay more gratitude to her?”

The girl was awakened by the words.
Her tears started flowing! Without even finishing her food, she instantly decided to run back home.When she was about to arrive, she saw her mom in a far distance with a worried expression in the face. She felt that there is more than a million words of sorry to apologize to her mother.

When she tried to open her mouth, her mom ran to her first and said: “Aiya! Where have you been? You’ve got me so worried. Come, come, quickly get your hands washed and come and have your dinner.”

She was only aware of her mother's love after that night.

The sun is always there, however, people tend to forget about it. When your closest person is around you, you tend to forget about them too;

You wouldn’t realize how great the person is especially when that person cared so much for you. As they say, in the afternoon, it is bright enough. What is the use of the sun then?


Impression:

When I read this article in the first place, the person I remembered is my mom. I felt that I’m very fortunate because my mother owns a car. So, I need not to trouble anyone to fetch me for school or even Gakkai activities. Sometimes, when we really need to trouble other people, we tend to feel guilty inside us.

And we might also say the word 'thank you' a lot of times. In the opposite way, shouldn’t we do that for our parents too? I wonder what I will feel if I'm their parents? Actually there are a lot of times when parents didn’t know the right way to express their feelings to their children. And because of that, they tend to use to wrong method by scolding and beating. Sometimes, they tend to worry too much about us. That's the reason they used harsh words when they're scolding us without even knowing it.

However, this is just like the sun. When the sun shone too bright, we hoped for rain. When it’s a cloudy day, we hope for sunlight. Maybe sometimes when the sun shined too bright it might cause skin disease. However, have we asked ourselves did we ever feel grateful to our sun? Without the sun, how can we dry our clothes? Without the sun, how can the plants survive? Without the sun, the whole world will just be in darkness.

Try and think about it when the sun shines bright, couldn't we get ourselves some protection?Examples; sunscreen, wearing long sleeved shirt, or using an umbrella is also a good idea. Therefore, when our parents are mad at us, we should realize that sometimes arguments take both sides to start. Sometimes we start to feel that our family is breaking up, however, that is a very wrong thinking! Happiness is what we built from where we are now. There’s no other way than this. When our parents see us being cheerful and outgoing, they will feel happy too. Because they felt our growth and know our level of understanding on different things.

Maybe sometimes there is a generation gap between us and our parents. But later on, we’ll realize that it is all for our own good. I hope all of us will get to understand this point. Think about it. Pay gratitude to our sun too. Besides that, this point is already proven in the law of Buddhism. Without the sun, the moon will not shine all. Nichiren Daishonin once said that, the law of the Ichinen that works the same as the law of the sun. That’s why; we should strengthen even more our faith in our life. In the Gosho studies, we learned that if you keep on pursuing that law and put that as the first place in your heart, you will defiantly become the Great.”

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