The Party That Changed How I See Life
Driving home from a cousin's birthday party at eight or nine years old I looked out the window and saw that it was over, that everything is created, exists for a while and then goes away, and I wanted to know what the constant is.
Dandapani traces his path back to a Sri Lankan monk who visited his family home in Malaysia when he was four, and to the drive home from a birthday party a few years later. He explains that the goal was never to be a monk but to reach enlightenment, and why he does not think a child seeking it is rare.
What this talk covers
- At four, a Sri Lankan monk visited their home in Malaysia and he recognized the robes, the markings and the beads and said to himself, that's me.
- He does not think it was the monk's peacefulness that drew him; he believes it triggered a memory of a past life.
- By eight or nine he realized it was not about being a monk but about enlightenment, and that monastic life was the quickest and most efficient path to it.
- Driving home from a cousin's birthday party at eight or nine, he looked out the window and saw it was over, and that everything is created, exists for a while and then goes away.
- That turned into his question, what is the constant in life, what does not change, which became the quest of his spiritual path.
Everything is created, everything exists for a while, and then everything goes away.Dandapani
Questions
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A Sri Lankan monk visited his family home and everything about him resonated, the way another child recognizes a fireman. He believes it triggered a memory of a past life rather than being a considered choice.
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He says it is only rare if you believe there is one life. If a soul evolves over many lives, one person has simply gone further down a particular path than another, which does not make them special.
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Realizing at eight or nine that everything is transitory. The birthday party he was excited about was created, existed for a few hours and ended, and he saw that the whole world runs on that cycle.
Transcript
858 words · 4:19
Now, go back to four years old. How do you know at four that you want to become a monk? Because it's not really the monk cartoon, the monk action movie. So how did you know?
There was Kung Fu with David Carradine. Yeah, true. Did you watch that when you were a kid? I did watch that when I was a kid, but I was a bit older then.
But no, actually, we lived in Malaysia, and Sri Lankan monk had visited our home. And my mom invited him in. Traditionally, in our culture, we
would give a monk some clothes and some money and some food. And then, you know, we should go on his way. As soon as I saw him, I said to myself, that's me. I really recognized the robes he was wearing,
the markings on his head, the beads. Everything about him just resonated with me, and he was my fireman. You know, like kids go up and say,
like, I want to be a fireman, I want to be this. That's recognized, you know, everything about him just stood out to me, and I said, that's me. What do you think attracted you to him?
Was it a peacefulness about him, or the fact that he wasn't chasing after certain goals? I don't think any of that, I think it was just more his dress. And I think what it did was it triggered a memory of a past life.
I believe in reincarnation and I believe I must have been a monk in a past life, either once or twice or many times before. And that's why it was so easy for me to want to become a monk at such a young age. But it wasn't until I was actually a little bit older, I think I was eight or nine years
old that I realized it wasn't really about being a monk, it was about enlightenment. That was what I was seeking. The monk was the quickest or most efficient pathway to enlightenment. So the initial trigger was reminding me of the path that I was dedicated to or am dedicated to.
But the goal really wasn't to be a monk. The goal was enlightenment. And that came about because I realized at an early age of, you know, maybe eight, nine years old that everything in life is transitory. You know, everything goes through a process of being created,
exists for a while and then it goes away. That's the Enlightenment alarm. I love it. It goes off in about five or ten seconds.
No worries. Enlightenment alarm. That's right. We are enlightened officially now.
I love that. This is a sign, is all I've got to say. And also the point that I think, you know, it wasn't really about being a monk,
but at the end of the day it was Enlightenment I was looking for because one of the things I realized in the early age that everything in life is transitory in nature. So things are created, things exist for a while and then things go away.
And I remember when I was about eight or nine, my parents were taking me to my cousin's house for the birthday party. Very excited about it. I get to see my cousins and balloons and cakes and play.
Get in the car, driving over there, super excited, played for four or five hours. Get in the car, driving home. I remember looking out the window and going, it's over. And this is life.
Everything goes through this cycle. I remember I was about eight or nine looking out the window very clearly one night, and the cars my dad was driving was home and going, like, this is it. Everything is created, everything exists for a while, and then everything goes away.
What's the constant in life? It's the way you just see on this planet to go through that cycle, and I go, like, that's a waste of time. It really is.
So what's the constant in life? What is it in life that doesn't change? And I wanted to find out, and that was really the quest of my spiritual power. Do you think it's rare for young men like yourself to be seeking enlightenment?
Or are people seeking it in all sorts of ways they don't even know that they are sometimes? I don't think it's rare. It's rare if you believe there's only one life. Because then who's calling the shots?
Why is one kid searching enlightenment and another kid searching something else? But if you believe in the process of reincarnation that we're a soul living in a physical body, evolving over a long period of time, then one soul has just pursued a particular path
and gone down it further than another person has. So for me, it's just the natural next step. It doesn't make me any more special than the next person. This is what I decided to focus on.
So I just picked up where I left off from my previous life and just kept going.