I read this post by His Eminence Namgay Dawa Rimpoche, one lama I have begun to respect.

I read it again, and again, and again. Thank you, Rimpoche, for sharing this and for the vulnerability. Learning about your health struggles was humbling, and made me grateful for my own health and life, which as you say some people take for granted.

“We all face our own battles, often silently. We don’t always show the world the pain we carry, the struggles we endure.”

This line hit me hard because it is so true. We are all fighting our own battles. And yes! I have been fighting mine too. And finally, I won after 12 years. (check my earlier posts)

Courage. Compassion. Fear.

In my current line of work, I have also dealt with celebrities and hundreds of net-worth individuals – some of whom were billionaires. I must say each one of them is fighting a battle of some sort. Everyone has a demon they are up against – some are unthinkable, some laughable – but suffering is subjective.

To anyone who may be going through, or have gone through, an ordeal of your own, I wish you courage. I wish you courage to come out of it unscathed.

To everyone else I also wish you courage too because fear, I have realised, is the opposite of compassion.

The opposite of compassion is not cruelty. It is fear. We fear being judged, we fear being seen as weak, we fear being labelled for sharing our story – and we fear when we think of practicing compassion on someone. Especially when we are in some position of power where we fear losing the privileges for breaking a rule to save someone.

May the divinities protect Rimpoche’s health, and bestow him the longest a human has ever survived, for the world needs more compassionate beings like him. His humour is a bonus to humanity. His honesty is a national treasure.

This thing called success.

And to the people who feel they are struggling with their career, or life in general, please remember that your “failure” (whatever this means) is not due to someone’s “success” (whatever this means too). Each one of us is running our own race.

You don’t judge them either because one never knows what the other person is going through, have been through, or how much people have endured to get where they got.

More importantly, there is no such thing as success or failure in life. There is just.. life. And you gotta enjoy it while you are alive. Cherish every moment. Laugh while you can, and don’t be mean to anyone- if you cannot do good (my illiterate mother’s advice).

You are already successful if you are alive. For instance, one high-school student whom I have been sponsoring the studies just got diagnosed with leukaemia (blood cancer).

Think how lucky you are that you just completed reading my post in good health. Think again, and then slowly read Rimpoche’s post. Read them three times, at least.

🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻