The Magic Shirt of Happiness

I’ve recently found myself giving free English lessons to local doctors every Tuesday and Thursday. I say I found myself giving them because one day they just showed up at my house expecting English lessons. I wasn’t too happy about it at first, but after spending some time with them, we ended up having a lot of fun. After that we set days for English lessons and, for the most part, have been meeting twice a week ever since. As a teacher, I like teaching the doctors because they are committed students with a strong base of English. They come over because they want to learn and they very enthusiastic about anything I try to teach. More than making it easy for me to teach, it makes it enjoyable and our time goes by quickly.

I’ve taught them songs in the past, not necessarily so they can sing them but because songs are an excellent topic of conversation to explain common words and parts of speech. To change it up, one day they taught me a song in Thai. Though I was the one racking my brain to read the song in Thai script, they explained it to me mostly in English so it was good for all of us.

The sheet of lyrics written in Thai was daunting at first but as I began translating the song, I got really into it. At first I had no idea what the song was about so when they told me the song was about a “shirt of happiness” I thought it was a pop song singing about their favorite shirt our outfit. I had no idea really. Instead, it was something like a fable.

Translating the story I became interested in the outcome so as it went on I was curious how it would end. I realize that this might not be all that interesting when quickly translated into English, but for me reading it in another language I found it fascinating. When I later showed the lyrics to another teacher at the school she was impressed. This is exactly what our Lord Buddha teaches she said.

Here is my rough translation:

Born a King, he was given every thing and any thing he ever wanted. Though he had all material things he wanted, his real wish was only to be happy, to live without sorrow.

The King went to a fortuneteller and asked him for some help. The fortuneteller told the King to search for the shirt of a magical man whose heart feels no sorrow. When he finds the shirt, he will find true happiness.

The King sent out his soldiers out across his lands to find this shirt, worn by the man whose heart knew only happiness, without sorrow. The soldiers turned the kingdom upside down looking for this magical man, but still could not find him. They did not meet the man nor did they meet someone who had ever heard of such a man. They searched for over a year asking everyone where this man lived.

Not even the Prince or the Princess had known absolute happiness. Everybody the soldiers met had some sorrow in their heart.

Then one day, as the sun was setting over a vast landscape of rice fields, a soldier heard a voice in the distance. It was a man talking to himself and this is what he said:

“Thank you for my life, that has been incredibly happy. When I’m hungry I have food to eat, when I’m tired I rest and have sweet dreams. Today I am happy, to day I can live without any bit of sorrow.”

The soldier had searched over the entire Kingdom, but only then had he heard, only then did he find, the man without sadness. So the soldier ran to the house, and broke down the door. He walked into the house and there he met only a poor man sitting alone. The man was so poor he didn’t even own a single shirt to give.

No matter where the soldiers searched in the Kingdom, they were not able to find a magical shirt to give to the King. This secret of happiness cannot be found in any possession, but only in the heart.