Translation

Translation has been something that I developed an interest in over the past several years, and if I continue with my current plan to study a form of funeral chanting, I will need to work on my Khmer reading and translating skills a lot more. So to practice this, I have been working on translating some of the writings of But Savong, a Khmer lay Buddhist teacher. My Khmer teacher introduced his work to me, and he uses very simple language, usually not specifically Buddhist, to express his wise approach to life. But Savong, well-regarded throughout Cambodia and the countries of the Khmer diaspora, is not a monk, but wears the white robes of an acar, owns no personal possesions, and spends all of time giving lectures on Buddhist teaching to people who request. The following is a translation of a talk of his from his book Words of the Parents. My knowledge of Khmer is pretty limited, so I'm sticking to a fairly literal translation so as not to obsure his meaning.

Translation of “The Virtue of Difficulties” (gun nei sechkdeylumbak)
Written by Teacher But Savong in Words of the Parents

Dear beloved child,

Your parents are just like all the other people, in that they should not give themselves difficulties nor give difficulties to their children. There are no parents who wish that their own children be desperately poor and saddled with difficulties, but even so, sometimes children encounter difficulties because their parents cannot make them happy in all ways.

Considering this point, you should always bear in mind that to have difficulties in life is not really bad at all. To have difficulties is not venomous, cruel or brutal, and nor should we see the suffering of these difficulties in just one way. If we look carefully into what we are studying, seeing the various components of goodness and the usefulness of having difficulties, we can practice accordingly and see how difficulties give us immense strength and resolve, the power to think clearly and the chance to be persons of importance, just as iron that passes through the furnace is made into a stronger and more useful material.

Our difficulties teach us to become adept at helping ourselves, because we sometimes have to struggle intensely in order to conquer them. There are not few among us who are able to react well to difficulties by holding to the idea of “difficult before, easy later,” which is to say that with patience and perseverance, we can tread between difficulty and ease and reach superior happiness and prosperity.

On the other hand, there are not few among us who have only known happiness since they were born, and who have never known and never met any difficulties. When they come across difficulties, they can barely help themselves. They attempt but cannot succeed, grab but cannot hold on, and whether their work is heavy or light, they do not know how to do it, and this continues until they can barely live and hover close to death. There are some who cannot withstand any difficulties, and thus they lose their life.

Therefore, please do not be afraid of difficulties and always bear in mind that our difficulties are our mentor. You should stand up on your own through your difficulties by cultivating patience and should use your difficulties to increase the virtue in your heart. You should use your difficulties as lessons for yourself, lessons which you should study so as not to return to the same difficulties again.