Aggacara story - 11th March 2024

 The Long Life of Wooden Rice Paddle

This morning, the children told me that the whole rice in the big rice cooker was burned to black. The metal coil inside the rice cooker was melted. It became totally unused. The reason was that its power switch always came up, so a person here used the end of the wooden rice paddle to press it permanently down, so it was pressed throughout the night.
The rice was supposed for the next morning breakfast and lunch. Why don’t we cook the rice in the early morning? We wake up at 4 am, and the electricity failure was around that time. So there might not be enough time for the rice to be cooked at all for breakfast at 6am. The electricity sometimes comes only at 9am. So people commonly have to cook the rice late at night.

But the person who used the wooden rice paddle to press down the switch button was very sleepy and busy with other tasks, so she had forgotten to remove it. So the rice cooker was turned up permanently, and its auto switch off was also spoilt. So the bottom was burned and melted by the powerful and continuous electricity at night. Thank goodness it stood on bricks and a metal table. So nothing else was burned.  But the smell of burning felt in the air. But it was already midnight; we were sleeping. I could smell some. But I thought the smell came from the neighborhood.

I say this wooden rice paddle long life since it was made of wood, but it was not burned at all. In here, a wooden rice paddle was used to stir the rice so it cooked evenly and later to scoop up the rice. So it played an important part in our lives.

Previously, we charged the battery overnight with a small inverter. The next day, that inverter was also burned down. The smell filled up the whole Dhamma Hall. Thank goodness, nothing else was burned.

Why all these problems occurred here? Not only here, it occurred in many places due to unstable electricity and the poor quality of electronics, So, those good ones are imported overseas, and they are expensive compared to local products.

In Malaysia, I do not need to see these kinds of problems because the electricity is there almost 24 hours a day. Here, when there is no electricity, the traffic lights are not working, so the cars have to learn to give way or not give way to others.

What kind of Dhamma lesson can I share here? This is a saṅkhāra-condition thing. No matter how much we try to make our lives better, sometimes we have to face serious conditions like the ones above. Whether we buy a new rice cooker or repair that inverter, the life still continues.

 Normally, I tell the people here: Old things must go! New things will come! So, we just have to let go of old things, even the emotions of regret and worry about them, and move on with new things and conditions in our lives.

We cannot always live with worry and regret about such incident! Just try to be more mindful and reduce such accident of overheating electronic and electricity things.

Finally, I am glad that wooden rice paddle still in a workable condition! Something good comes out from bad things!