Birthday presents from a Birthday boy Edward!
While most 12-year-old boys celebrate their birthday in hopes of getting lots of presents and to playing with their friends, Edward Ooi chose to do it a little differently…
Instead of getting a whole bunch of toys for his presents, he encouraged people to give him ang paus instead. Ang paus are traditional to the Chinese culture. They are red packets which are filled with any amount of money. They are usually given during Chinese New Year, but can be given on any other auspicious or special days… e.g. birthdays, graduation, weddings etc.
Edward celebrated his birthday at Kechara Care Lounge, and with the money collected from his ang paus, he decided to split it in 4 ways: donating the money to Kechara Care, Kechara Soup Kitchen, Kechara Animal Sanctuary and to give an ang pau to me. How so very generous and sweet of him.
It is important to teach kids from a young age to give, to share and to think of others on their special days such as birthdays. It will help them as adults. Life is not about acquisitions…
Altogether, he got a total of RM625 for his birthday money. He gave me a RM200 ang pau, and donated RM141 to the other 3 departments…
Any other kid would have used his/her birthday money to buy a toy or perhaps save it. For him to donate his birthday money to the 3 Kechara departments, this clearly shows how much he realizes how their work benefits others. He may just be a kid, but he sees things and experiences things for himself. He knows that his money will be put to good use. And for that, he could willingly donate his birthday money.
During his birthday, he had delicious vegetarian food catered. Along with a bouquet of flowers and a khata, he also offered me the first servings of every dish!
He also wrote a very sweet card and gave me everything together with a 4-arm Chenrezig statue, Dharma text and stupa! This is to represent the Buddha’s body, speech and mind. I guess his offering to me on his birthday is to not only have fun, but connect with spirituality… I am not a good representative of spirituality, but I am the only he has… so I thank him for his gift.
What a remarkable 12-year-old boy. To be able to think about giving so many presents on the one day most 12-year-old believe that they themselves deserve presents… On the day which is usually me-me-me, he thought about everyone but himself. He is a funny kid that clowns around with a super soft and gentle heart. He loves animals also. He cries seeing or hearing about animals being hurt.
Thank you, Edward. I have offered all the items to the Buddhas and will leave it in front of my personal altar for a few days.
Tsem Rinpoche
Edward (front, left) with his friends from Manjushri Kid’s Class.
A bouquet of flowers, card, scriptural text, 4-arm Chenrezig statue, stupa, angpau, food (in the background) and khata (on the far right).
The delicious food that was catered from Kechara Oasis and his mother’s cooking.
The ang pau which was 1/4 of his total birthday money collected.
4-arm Chenrezig, stupa and scriptural text he presented to me…thank you!
The envelope and front of the card.
His sweet and touching message…
… from a 12-year-old boy who can clearly do more than just… get hit by girls! hehe…aren’t these kids very cute and funny…I think they are…Good little actors..hehehehe
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Edward is so nice and thoughtful to do thing like this, i know him personally and he is a very good friend/dharma brother. I hope he can live long and have a happy life with the dharma.
Thank you everyone including Rinpoche for supporting me. But the truth is that I have been mean to my enemies, friends and even to my parents. They love me so much and I didn’t just not appreciate it I even hurt mostly my mother by wanting higher expectation and argue with her because she scold me when I did something wrong and I didn’t want to admit that I am wrong. But from now on, I will stop hurting anyone and love my mother the way that she loved me.
Dear Rinpoche,
It is really nice for a 12 year boy to have such a kind heart for Rinpoche.
Instead of thinking of his pleasure, toys, games and fun first like most 12 year old kids he thought/put Rinpoche in front by raising money for Rinpoche as well as donating some of his money to Rinpoche’s Departments so that they can grow and expand to help and benefit, bring more people to the Dharma.
How nice of him to offer the first portion of his food to Rinpoche and not the leftovers and also to have a catering from a vegetarian restaurant like Kechara Oasis and not a catering that involves the suffering of animals for a party.
I believe that we should always repay our Guru’s kindness in this case Rinpoche… always because what our Guru tells us to do is definitively good for us and not bad although sometimes it may seem bad.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing about Edward’s Kindness!
Love
Jutika
It is indeed extremely wonderful to see my best buddy, Edward to place other people in front of him. It is very cool for kids to treat Rinpoche as a priority from a young age. It is a sign of growth of Guru Samaya. I little bit of advice though, for one’s Samaya to continually grow, one must continually practice the Dharma and improve oneself, placing the Guru and the Dharma as a priority. When people can do this from a young age, they will grow up to become more responsible and inspirational adults.
Edward is a very cute and loving brother. He might hurt people sometimes but i know that it wasn’t his intention of doing that. For an example he loves to tease people, but when he knows that he goes a bit too far, he will hug you, kiss you and beg for your forgiveness.He doesn’t like people praising him.. Edward Ooi is shy ? isn’t that cute? haha
I love him more than anything else and im very fortunate to have this retarded monster as my lil brother.
Love Ya !
A young boy having the Dharma since birth! Great merits! Keep it up Edward! You’ll grow up to be a good man.
I rejoice for Edward. He is a very fortunate boy, to have met Dharma at this young age. His mother Angel often tells me how caring Edward is and how she as a mother has learned so much from her young son. I was told he always gives away his money to to the needy and not thinking about himself.
It is very clear that Dharma can definitely bring positive attitude to a person and thus make this world a better place.
Don’t judge a book by its cover. Edward may look playful and naughty, but he is actually a very generous, kind, compassionate, polite and sensible little boy. The reason he organized the birthday party was to raise fund! How many kids can actually have this motivation when they hold a birthday party? Edward boy has really set a very good example for other kids: to have a meaningful and fun party is not hard, u just have to add a little bit of spirituality.
What a beautiful example of devotion. Thank you for sharing. It really moves me.
with love, rita
Edward boy is truly a sincere, generous and fun boy.
His action is the reflection of the parents.
I’m very proud of him and definitely having the kid to be in dharma at young age will educate him to be more compassionate and dharmic.
Is fun seeing the kids in KH learning dharma and these are the kids for the next generation to continue the legacy.
Edward boy action will be the great example for other kids especially mine to remember the kindness of the Lama, share & support other dept. How wonderful such a young boy could start practicing this.
Edward boy really has a big heart.
Edward boy is soooo cuteeee! He is definitely different from other kids. When kids give sulking face when not receiving his favoutite toys, Edward not only generously threw a party for his friends and adults from dharma centre and he raised funds to support the good deeds that each department do! How wonderful to see a young kid so generous, thoughtful and mature.
He sets a good example to other kids as well. When i look at these dharma kids, it made me want to bring my nephews, nieces, young cousins to be around them. And I wish very much the younger generation to be able to practice dharma at a very young age…
They will grow up to be a responsible, compassionate and wonderful adult. Such inspiration for others!
對於小Edward，我可說又爱又恨。，因為他實在太討喜，恨，因為他實在太淘氣了。哈哈！與Edward相處最多的時候，是我在制作宗喀巴大師舞台剧《雪螺傳奇》的時段。那時，差不多每次排練完畢，我都負責載送这小冬瓜回家。當時，我可是對他呵護有加，因為他是剧裡扮演兒童時期的宗喀巴大師，長相端正的小Edward似乎是該角色的不二人選；只要一上台，他那天生的表演天份自然散發出來，把兒時的宗喀巴大師詮釋得入木三分。
其實，以他小小的年紀，他可說是一位听話的孩子，佻皮難免，畢竟是小男生。小Edward在未出世時，由於母親李淑芳認識了仁波切，便在媽媽的肚裡接觸了最善美的佛法，間接讓這小冬瓜比同齡小孩更聰明伶俐及有慧根。他媽媽說，小Edward從不說謊，而且很爱幫助人。佛法，果然可以讓一個小孩的童年变得很不一樣：)
I totally agree with Frederick about Edward applying dharma at such a young age. I also hope that one day, my kids will be able to truly learn and apply the dharma in their lives. It would help them cope with any confusing/painful experiences that comes along with growing. As parents, we will not be able to there for them every second of the day, but DHARMA can!
How wonderful to see a 12 year old boy like Edward put others before himself, and very nice to see how he treat Rinpoche at this young age. it is true that if the children are expose to Dharma in their young tender age, they will grow up to be better person as they learn and practice selfless giving to other. im happy for Henry and Angel for having brought up Edward in Kechara family. wonderful.