Incredible Beauty

Beauty is the quality that gives pleasure to the senses. People says there are five senses; vision, auditory, olfactory (smell), taste and touch. There is one more sense; our mind that is responsible for our thoughts and feelings. If something pleases our mind, it can be a beautiful thing. Yet beauty of jasmine flowers gives pleasure to our sense of vision and smell. So to the beauty of charity, it gives pleasure to the mind of the persons who are in need. 

The synonym for charity is brotherly love; one takes the troubles to help the others with border-less love, regardless of race and religion. The act of charity can be in group or individual, public or private, even it can be significant or unnoticeable. 

Who know about the insignificant charity work, but it has incredible beauty, keeps up in the innocent world? Where it is? Who are they? Yet, that is a wonderful country in South East Asia where Buddhism culture has been flourishing. Those people are they who love charity and inner peace, Myanmar people, especially those living in villages.  

There is a lovely culture that they build the stand for water pot. If you travel around, you do not need to bring water along, you can get drinking water from the water-pot stands at every village, usually located at the roadside under the shady tree. Sometimes, they build ordinary rest-house attached together with water-pot stand.

In those days, people were traveling on foot, bull carts or bicycles. When it was raining, they could take shelter from the rest house. When the weather was very hot, they could have a rest and drink water. Sometimes, they even had a snoop, or chit-chatted with others travelers. Then, they became close friends by chance. Those innocent people need not to be cautious on each others, but can be trusted each other. How lovely of that genuine culture!

When we talk about the water pots stand, it is a must to describe about the pot and the drinking cup. Yet the traditional water pots are made from mud with special procedure, which makes the water cool. The drinking cups are made from small coconut shells. The coconut shell is knifed to be tidy, and a small hole is created. After that, approximately 12 inches long wooden or bamboo stick is fixed into the hole. By that way, natural and long lasting drinking cup with handle can be used with no cost.

Imagine the taste of drinking waters from the clay pots, with the cup made from coconut shell. It really is soothing. In materialized world, this tradition can be criticized as unclean and uncivilized. Some people may say that sharing the same drinking cup is not good for health. Yes, I am a nurse. Since my childhood, I love to drink the water from clay pot with the lovely coconut shell cup, which water is being shared by different sorts of people. My blood tests always show no infectious virus or bacteria. The intention of people offering the drinking water is to comfort others, not to give health problems. The loving kindness from their inner heart is amazingly powerful.

Time has passed, and everything is changing. The culture of water-pot stands still remains in rural areas, even though the numbers of water pot stands are decreasing. Deeply from my heart, I am proud of uncovering this incredible beauty.

Jasmine White