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Essence of being Human - Ubuntu
I wish to share one of the most beautiful Stories Emailed to me recently:
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An anthropologist studying the habits and customs of an African tribe
found himself surrounded by children most days. So he decided to play
a little game with them. He managed to get candy from the nearest town
and put it all in a decorated basket, at the foot of a tree.
Then he called the children and suggested they play the game. When the
anthropologist said "now", the children had to run to the tree and the
first one to get there could have all the candy to him/herself.
So the children all lined up waiting for the signal. When the
anthropologist said "now", all of the children took each other by the
hand ran together towards the tree. They all arrived at the same time
divided up the candy, sat down and began to happily munch away.
The anthropologist went over to them and asked why they had all run
together when any one of them could have had the candy all to
themselves.
The children responded: "Ubuntu. How could any one of us be happy if
all the others were sad?"
Ubuntu is a philosophy of African tribes that can be summed up as "I
am what I am because of who we all are."
Bishop Desmond Tutu gave this explanation in 2008 :
"One of the sayings in our country is Ubuntu – the essence of being
human. Ubuntu speaks particularly about the fact that you can't exist
as a human being in isolation. It speaks about our interconnectedness.
You can't be human all by yourself, and when you have this quality –
Ubuntu – you are known for your generosity. We think of ourselves far
too frequently as just individuals, separated from one another,
whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole World.
When you do well, it spreads out; it is for the whole of humanity."
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Does this not sound familiar to us. Oh yes, for me, this is what we call as "Dharma"
Regards,
Brahmanyan,
Bangalore.
I wish to share one of the most beautiful Stories Emailed to me recently:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An anthropologist studying the habits and customs of an African tribe
found himself surrounded by children most days. So he decided to play
a little game with them. He managed to get candy from the nearest town
and put it all in a decorated basket, at the foot of a tree.
Then he called the children and suggested they play the game. When the
anthropologist said "now", the children had to run to the tree and the
first one to get there could have all the candy to him/herself.
So the children all lined up waiting for the signal. When the
anthropologist said "now", all of the children took each other by the
hand ran together towards the tree. They all arrived at the same time
divided up the candy, sat down and began to happily munch away.
The anthropologist went over to them and asked why they had all run
together when any one of them could have had the candy all to
themselves.
The children responded: "Ubuntu. How could any one of us be happy if
all the others were sad?"
Ubuntu is a philosophy of African tribes that can be summed up as "I
am what I am because of who we all are."
Bishop Desmond Tutu gave this explanation in 2008 :
"One of the sayings in our country is Ubuntu – the essence of being
human. Ubuntu speaks particularly about the fact that you can't exist
as a human being in isolation. It speaks about our interconnectedness.
You can't be human all by yourself, and when you have this quality –
Ubuntu – you are known for your generosity. We think of ourselves far
too frequently as just individuals, separated from one another,
whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole World.
When you do well, it spreads out; it is for the whole of humanity."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Does this not sound familiar to us. Oh yes, for me, this is what we call as "Dharma"
Regards,
Brahmanyan,
Bangalore.
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