For the past two weeks, I have been mostly confined to my home in Thimphu. Reason: a second-degree burn on my right foot. A boiling cup of coffee fell on my feet. 

It was right as I was prepping for the signing of the MoU on 19th June for a big power deal which I had initiated. I made it to the event with sandals though (I apologise to all high officials that I had to break protocol, whoever noticed).

The burn was bad and was debilitating. A pilgrimage plan had to be canceled. Stranded at home with my doctor-friend advising me not to go out. It seemed impermanence just dropped by to say, hello!

However, two things kept me going. 

First, there is a lesson that life is subjective. You think you are in bad shape? With a little empathy, you will see many around you in worse situations. Compared to what others may be going through, the three weeks of prognosis I got for my burn is a little karmic joke.

Moral: If you think only of your misery, you will be more miserable. Look around. Talk to people. Many would wish they were in your shoes. 

Second, I completed reading the translation of the two most important sutras in Mahayana Buddhism – the Diamond Sutra, and the Heart Sutra. I bought this book. I don’t know when, and I could only read it this time. Had this minor accident not happened, the book would still continue to gather dust. 

I also had the time to think about ordering the Heart Sutra scriptures written in gold ink. The full title of the Heart Sutra is The Heart of the Blessed Perfection of Wisdom (བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་མ་ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་). What a blessing to be able to do that! (Will do a separate article on this).

Good karma or bad karma?

Was the burn on my foot bad karma or good karma? I would like to think that it was the latter. Because I got it done, there was not a single moment in the last two weeks that I complained about it. In fact, my spirits were high, and I was still dishing out memes and one-liners on taxation and other current issues. And, yes, it gave me the opportunity to read the Heart Sutra. 

Moral: When life takes you to a different place, find something more worthwhile to do there. 

Good karma is a choice – not just providential.

😎😎😎