Sunday, March 4, 2012
Rat

A group of kids were giggling at the center of the field. Out of curiosity, I marched forward.

It was a rat. One of the children brought a cage that’s trapped a rat. The kid was calling his friends along for some ritual to kill it. They were about to spilled gasoline on the rat, lit it up, opened up the cage and let it run like a fireball.

I said “How cruel it is to torture it like that! Try imagining yourself as that rat, and how would you feel?”

Without expecting any strangers to pop out of nowhere, babbling about their action, my words actually froze the moment.

The kid who caught the rat replied “But, it’s a pest! It came to steal food from my house.”

Then, I explained “If it has to be that way, then all the thieves must have been burnt to death don’t they? Good or bad, they’re people who had parents. They’re the lovely children of their parents. Have you thought about that rat’s parents then?”

The other kid spoken up “If we don’t eliminate these pests, they could increase and someday they’ll take everything we have.”

After that I further explained to the kids, saying that “There are lots of people eliminating those mosquitoes and cockroaches with pesticide. But their number didn’t seem to have decreased. On the other hand, there are lots of people who’ve tried their best in protecting endangered animals. However, their number didn’t seem to increase either. After all, what kind of animal should really be classified as ‘pest’? Back in the olden days, the people see animals in the forest as pest either. Eagles, lions, tigers, leopards, wolves, foxes, they’re all pest!

Nonetheless, no matter if it’s a good or a bad animal, they too have the right to live on this Earth. Every one of them have their own parents and children, hence we must not take their lives as we like.”

The kids got silent as I explained.

The kid who caught the rat asked “Well then, let’s not burn it. How about throwing it to that mountain of garbage?”

“Hurray” The kids got cheered up again.


Adapted from ‘Lin Qingxuan’s collection of articles’



Postscript:

There is life in all living organism as we know. However, how much do we know about cherishing these valuable lives?

Living under the era of technology, our children would easily obtain any information from the internet. Unknowingly, they learn from movies, animes and cartoons nowadays. If they have parents who’ve neglected them, these children couldn’t possibly distinguish whether the information they’ve learned is positive or negative.

However, when we find ourselves facing a situation as what we’ve read on the above, we’d usually put the blame on the kids, saying that they’ve been very naughty. If we put it this way, we could have forgotten that they’re still kids, and that there’s still plenty for them to learn. Kids wouldn’t know the consequences on situations like this.

This is the very moment when they need a proper person to guide them. It isn’t easy guiding the children back to the positive path, but it couldn’t be that hard either. Things like this happen when there isn’t any proper guidance towards their little hearts of curiosity. Hence, it is crucial that we walk together with them towards the right path, to enlighten them. This is the true way for a child to learn.

Ikeda Sensei would often have activities with the leaders and the children as well. Sensei would not think that he shouldn’t join them just because he’s an elder person. Sensei’s action ignites from beneath his caring and loving heart. Sensei had always hoped for everyone around him to grow. Even when he fell sick, Sensei would put the happiness of the people around him at the first place.

The future of our society lies on the hands of these Future Divisions. In order to create a peaceful future, we must nurture them in the right way. Hence, we’re all very important as it comes to the big aim of achieving world peace. This is one of the reasons why Ikeda Sensei’s always valued our Future Division. We must give our best to nurture our children to be the capable person who could contribute to the society!

Ikeda Sensei once said “The greatest thing we could do for the future, is to nurture the next generations, to foster capable person, to let them create an era.” This shows that our mission is not just to prepare each JD meet, but to nurture the next generations who could exceed what we are today. The coming era would be their golden era!

Let’s strive together for the sake of our children’s growth and happiness!


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Written at 10:21 PM by Paper Pilot.