Giggly Wiggly Riddles

1. What relation would your father's sister's sister-in-law be to you?


2. What word looks the same upside down and backwards?


3. What's white when it's dirty?

Fictitious Facts

1. "Skepticisms" is the longest word that alternates hands when typing.

2. In space, astronauts cannot cry, because there is no gravity, so the tears can't flow.
3. In most advertisements, the time displayed on a watch is 10:10.
4. Moths have no stomach.
5. We forget 80% of what we learn everyday.
6. The biggest dog on record was an Old English Mastiff that weighed 343 pounds. He was 8 feet, 3 inches from nose to tail.
7. most common name in the world is Mohammed.
8. Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing.

Giggly Wiggly Riddles Answers

Answers will be posted next week , you can send your answers via comment text box of giggly wiggly riddles.

video clips

THougHTs

ཆུ་ཕྲན་བརྒལ་བར་མི་ནུས་དེས། །

རྒྱ་མཚོ་རྐྱལ་གྱིས་ག་ལ་ཆོད། །

ཡ་རབས་ལུགས་ཀྱང་མི་ཤེས་ན། །

ཆོས་ཀྱི་དེ་ཉིད་ཇི་ལྟར་རྟོགས། །

Loosely translated as;
Being unable to cross a small river
How can one be able to swim across the ocean?
Having not understood the simple morality,
How can one know the essence of religion?



གཟུར་གནས་རིག་པར་ལྡན་པ་དེས། །

གཞན་གྱི་ཡོན་ཏན་ལེན་པར་བྱེད། །

སྤང་ལྗོངས་གཙང་མའི་དལ་འགྲོ་མ། །

ལྷུང་ལྷུང་ཟེར་ཞིང་མེ་ཏོག་འཐུ། །

"Some people, sweet and attractive, and strong and healthy, happen to die young. They are masters in disguise teaching us about impermanence"
H H The Dalai Lama

ཆོས་དང་འཇིག་རྟེན་ཁག་ཁག་སོ་སོ་རེད། སེམས་དང་ལུས་པོ་རང་རང་སོ་སོ་རེད། སེམས་པས་དཀའ་བ་སྤྱད་ནས་འགྲོ་འདོད་ཀྱང་། ལུས་པ་ཞིམ་པོ་བཟས་ནས་སྡོད་འདོད་ཆེ། ལུས་པོ་སྐྱིད་པོ་སྡོད་པ་ཞག་སུམ་དང་། སེམས་པ་སྡུག་པ་ཕུགས་ནས་ཕུགས་སུ་སྡུག སེམས་སྐྱིད་འདོད་ན་ལུས་ཀྱིས་དཀའ་བ་སྤྱོད། ལུས་པོ་བསམས་ན་སེམས་པ་སྡུག་ལ་སྦྱོར།. ཁ་ཆེ་ཕ་ལུ།

Articles

Donkey Sanctuary

(Shouldn’t we be ashamed of ourselves?)

                                                                                                                                         Wangdu Phuntsok English Teacher

Donkeys, donkeys and more donkeys. Donkeys have now outnumbered stray dogs in streets of Leh town.  They have nowhere to go, nowhere to sleep, nothing to eat, nothing to drink. Where did all these donkeys come from? Did we have a flood of donkeys rather than water?

It was in 2007 when I went to the ATM booth of State Bank of India accompanying a cousin of mine who wanted some money; there we saw a donkey with a poster put around its neck. The poster read: ‘I’m Aba Dorjey’s donkey. He used me till I was too weak to carry loads and kicked out.’  I was thinking to myself at least there was someone who dared to do at least that bit for the helpless donkeys which had been abandoned by their masters.  

These mean masters having acquired cars for travelling, trucks for transport, tractors for ploughing have thrown these poor donkeys on the streets. Have we forgotten that it was we humans who domesticated these creatures for our own benefit?  For thousands of years we used them as beasts of burden and now we throw them in the streets and wished them to be wild animals!

It was just the other day I was struggling to find my way through the local vegetable sellers who have occupied the footpath; some of my friends call it vegepath instead of footpath. When I looked around I saw a red board nailed on a tree trunk. The board read ‘AIR TEL’ in bold capital letters and below it was written ‘SAY NO TO POLYTHENE’, it was clear enough that I could read it from this side of the road without my glasses on. All my attention was on this board, that I was nearly ran over by a car. At first I felt grateful to Airtel Company for their concern about ladakh’s ecology and then in another moment I felt enraged. Why? Needless to ask! The stuff which they used to write this campaign itself was polythene. I was thinking to myself this was how they fool people to promote their business. At this moment two foreigners appeared and they nailed a smaller yellow board on the same trunk. And they were putting up another one next to it. Driven by curiosity I crossed the road to have a look. Over the shoulder of the taller man I saw a cartoon of a donkey. I tip-toed to see what was written below the cartoon but the man was too tall to be a man. I waited until they were done and read ‘Donkey Sanctuary’.

Donkey Sanctuary! Have you ever heard about donkey sanctuaries? Never did I. I heard about tiger sanctuaries, snow leopard conservation, wildlife sanctuaries but never donkey sanctuaries. This could have been the first donkey sanctuary in the country if not in the world. I would not  have been so ashamed of myself had this donkey sanctuary been created by local Buddhist people, but to our shame this sanctuary was created by some foreigners who could not stand the way we mistreat donkeys in this land of Buddha.

We are Buddhist. We talk about world peace, we strive for Nirvana so that we can save other sentient beings from the endless suffering of Samsara but thinking and talking about these grand concepts we have forgotten our poor helpless donkeys.

 With every sight of Gonpas and Chortens we hold our hand to our heart and pray ‘may all sentient beings be free from Samsara’. We make sentient beings suffer first and then pray, may they be free from suffering. What could have been a better example to explain what is ‘irony’ to my literature students?




                                                      DREAM
                                                           By: Tsering Namgyal

Last night I had a beautiful dream. I saw myself becoming a world icon. I was an ordinary man with a vision to bring peace and harmony in the world.  Slowly and gradually I started becoming famous; first among local people, then in the country. News of my work and popularity reached every corner of the country. One day I was invited to Delhi by Dr. Manmohan Singh and Madam Pratiba Patil. We discussed about poverty and illiteracy. I even suggested them some ways of eliminating poverty and illiteracy. They were moved by my suggestions and promised to implement them in the days to come. Needless to say I became more popular after the visit. By this time my popularity had reached even to the remotest corners of the world.

One day to my utter surprise, I was invited by the president of America, Mr. Obama himself, to America. I was invited there to be the chief guest of an international seminar on peace. We were driving in a large limousine. Ten motor bikes were riding in front of us. Commanders were saluting on the either side of the road. There were six black cars behind us with full of well build and handsome security people.

As we got out of the black limousine, a huge crowd of Americans were cheering us; some were holding bouquets, some were clapping hands. I was escorted on the dais to speak to the cheerful audience. I cleared my throat and begin my speech thus, ‘Don’t sleep my friends, get up and do what you can for the good of the world’.

All of a sudden I heard something, I was sure I heard something. I shook my head and opened my eyes. I saw our hostel warden bending over me and shouting. ‘ Get up and get ready for school’.

Happiness in a Single Atom

                                                                                                                      By:   Wangdu Phuntsok

Happiness is a word that we are so familiar with, so much that it doesn’t need a place in dictionary though. Yet will we be able to recognize it, if we encounter it?

Happiness often passes us, rubbing our shoulders, but we often fail to recognize it. So how can we be happy if we are not able to recognize it? More than that what is use of looking for something which we don’t know?    

So what is happiness? Can it be at least achievable even if it is not available at super markets?

Sometimes I wish happiness was cups of tea! I would have one in the morning, one in the afternoon and one in the evening, and live happily till the end. Jokes apart, even if happiness is not a cup of tea it is there in the cups of tea that you share with your friends.

Happiness is like an onion, you won’t find if you search for it. You look for it peeling layer after layer but there ain’t any onion underneath. So is happiness, it is there but when you look for it you won’t find it. So the first and the simplest lesson is; don’t crave for happiness if you wanna be happy.

His Holiness says ‘if you want others to be happy practice compassion, if you want to be happy practice compassion.’ So simple eh? Don’t go to super markets asking for a kilo of compassion! 

It is the compassion that makes the job little bit harder. Obviously His Holiness is a born compassionate. But unfortunately we are human beings! We are not even compassionate as donkeys. Donkeys and humans, that too, on the subject of compassion, not a reasonable comparison, eh?

But I never see donkeys complaining about heavy workload and little pay, I don’t see donkeys go green with envy when others get bunch of green grass, I don’t see donkeys fighting over the little leftover which is given to them. The second lesson even simpler one is; don’t complain, don’t compare, don’t compete and be compassionate as Donkeys.

His Holiness Karmapa says that we have a grant concept of happiness, we always look at happiness as something very big and important and we’ll have to work very hard to achieve it. But in reality it is not so, you could be happy for just being alive. You can feel happiness in smallest things like taking breath.

So simple isn’t it? Happiness is hiding in the smiles of your girlfriend/boyfriend feel it before it fades away.  Happiness is hiding in the warm hugs of your near and dear ones feel it. Happiness is hiding in the vanilla ice cream that you have in the super market enjoy it before it melts away.  Happiness indeed is found along the way not at the end of the journey. So the last lesson the simplest one is to pick every grain of happiness that you find along the way and feel it atom by atom.

JOKES

A man out for a walk came across a little boy pulling his cat's tail.'Hey you!' he shouted, ' don't pull the cat's tail!'I'm not pulling!' replied the little boy. 'I'm only holding on - the cat's pulling!'

A little boy went into a baker's ' 'How much are those cakes? he asked 'Two for 25 cents,' said the baker ' How much does one cost?' asked the boy '13 cents,' said the baker'Then I'll take the other one for 12 cents!' said the boy


A kindergarten teacher was observing her classroom of children while they were drawing. She walked around to look at the artwork. As she got to one little girl who was working diligently, she asked what the drawing was. The girl replied, "I'm drawing God. "The teacher paused and said, "But no one knows what God looks like. Without missing a beat, or looking up from her drawing the girl replied, "They will in a minute. "


A group of young children were siting in a circle with their teacher. She was going around in turn asking them all questions. "Davy, what noise does a cow make? " "It goes moo. " "Alice, what noise does a cat make? " "It goes meow. " "Jamie, what sound does a lamb make? " "It goes baaa. " "Jennifer, what sound does a mouse make? " "Errr.., it goes.. click! "


A little boy had been spanked by his father one morning. When his father came in from the office that evening, the boy called out sulkily, ' Mum! your husband's just come home.'



'Mum,' yelled Johnny from the kitchen, 'you know that dish you were always worried that I would break ?'Yes dear, what about it?'Well your worries are over.'


"What were you before you came to school, boys and girls? " asked the teacher, hoping that someone would say "babies. " She was disappointed when all the children cried out, "Happy! "

Non-believer : I hate you.

Buddhist : why?

Non-believer : because you are a Buddhist.

Buddhist : I love you.

Non-believer : why?

Buddhist : because I am Buddhist.