Articles

Ep6- Dedication

The value of life of man is expressed in a fraction: numerator is his Dedication, denominator is one’s ego. Those who have more Dedications have higher life fraction. Vice versa, those who are self-conceit will lower this life fraction. That’s reason why we should be modest.

Value of a man’s life is not only Dedication but also sacrifice and contribution to the advancement of society. This paper discusses only about Dedication.

1 – What is Dedication?

Dedication is a big contribution to community, or to a work that helps to develop society toward a more advanced one which no one can do at that existing moment. Community here can be understood as mankind society, country, village, an organisation or family etc,. Dedication is different to Devotion as well as Contribution. Devotion and Contribution can be done by many people but Dedication can be done only by a few.

Criteria to be considered as Dedication: there are 3 criteria for a successful person to be called Dedicator: a valuable contribution to community + help to advance of society + no other can do to that date.

In the war time in Vietnam against French and American colonialism, there are thousands of young men devoted their youth, sacrificed their life for the cause of liberating nation. Those are significant contributions worth being honoured and recognised. There were those entrepreneurs who donated thousands of gold sticks, most of their asset, to revolutionary power. Those were significant contribution to the revolution. In the time of American war, there was an old woman dismantled her house doors to pave the way for the VN army trucks carrying supply weapons to the front line. That is also a contribution to the revolution. 

But all of those significant sacrifices are only called contribution, not Dedication, because in such time there were many others who can also do the same.

Now we can look at some Dedications:

-      In the Dien Bien Phu battle in Vietnam, there was a hero Phan Dinh Giot who used his body to stop the gun point loop hole so to cover the bullets for his teammates to move forward, and the hero Be Van Dan used his body as a base for the gun are those who devoted their life for the revolution and contributed significantly to the victory of battle. Those sacrifices are called Dedication to the battle victory because they were the only ones who can do like that at that moment.

-      Van Cao created the Vietnam National Anthem. This is a Dedication to his country and nation because only him can do this work. Many other song composers have good songs, loved by the public, recognised with valuable awards from the State but are contribution only, because there are many others who can do the same. However, looked at certain details, there may be songs of them can be considered as Dedication, e.g, a song that dedicated to the Western North battle or song that dedicated to children etc,

-      The poem “Nui doi” (Twin Mountains) of Vu Cao is a Dedication to Vietnamese literature because it lives forever in people’s mind regarding pure, lofty and beautiful love of the youth in such war time against invasion. All writers like Nguyen Cong Hoan, Nguyen Tuan, To Hoai, Vu Trong Phung, Nam Cao etc, had works that are Dedications to the literature of Vietnam because of their uniqueness.

-      Literature work such as “The Miserables” of French writer Victor Hugo, “The Gadfly” of English writer Ethel Lilan Voynich, “War and Peace” of Lev Tolstoy, “How the Steel was tempered” of Nikolai Alexeevich Ostrovsky (Russia) etc, are those memorable works of Dedication to the world literature.

-      Architecture Ngo Viet Thu who designed the Independence Palace has dedicated to the Vietnamese architecture a memorable work, with features of modern and green architecture, recognised by the world. And to date, he is the only one who has this type of construction in Vietnam.

                       Independence Palace /Internet/

-      Those works like Eiffel Tower of Gustav Eiffel (France) (1), Sydney Opera House of Danish architecture Jorn Utzon (2), the Statue of Liberty in New York of French sculptor Bar Tholdi (3) etc, are famous, memorable works. Those are works of Dedication to mankind.

 From Internet   (1)                      (2)                                             (3)                

-      Until 2015, there are more than 900 Nobel Laurates (among which American occupies almost 40%). Those are people who made great Dedications to advancement of mankind society. They are unique people in the world. Among them, Professor Ngo Bao Chau who won Fields medal for his research in “fundamental lemma” is a Dedication to the mathematic study of the world, as it’s like a bridge has been made across the river for the mathematicians all over the world to move forward, which only him can do at this moment.

-      All soft wares of Microsoft, Google and Facebook have contributed significantly to the advancement of mankind society. The authors of such soft wares are considered to have made big Dedication as only them can do such works.

All examples of Dedication mentioned above have shown that people who make a Dedication can be those who sacrificed their life for a cause, or those who have specific work of literature, science research, a specific technology or a specific material or equipment etc,. And all of those works must be new, outstanding and help mankind society move forwards. All of their works are called Dedication and they are called Dedicators. Imagining that if everybody in this world can make a Dedication, how fast our mankind society can advance? Each of us should try thinking of making a Dedication. So can you see that how young people who bury themselves with vulgar leisure like coffee, drinking, gambling or lottery etc, wasted their life? Young people should stay away from such things. Think about starting up a business to dedicate to society. As such, the value of man can be increased.

The question for each of us is “What have you done to dedicate to society?”, it’s a noble question, but not question like “What have you done for society?”. Any person can do for society. The difference is how helpful such work is for society? Or just do harmful to society? Each of us should try increasing the numerator value if life fraction and decreasing the denominator.

2 – Morale of Dedicator

To be able to dedicate one must have the willingness to sacrifice and passion for the work one does. Absence of any of these one cannot make a Dedication. Those are people who forget themselves for the sake of community and advancement of society. Their passion makes them be able to overcome every difficulty and obstacle to achieve what they pursuit. This strength is obtained by the law of Universe: Will – Khi - Power. It means that Will comes – Khi comes – Power comes. Once we concentrate whole heartedly for a work our mind can attract Universe energy to create power to overcome difficulties. You can test this law: when we concentrate on certain thing, always thinking about it, when awake or sleeping, it’s certainly that someday we can find way to achieve what we want to pursuit. Success comes with will, no success comes with negligence.

3 – What is value of Dedication?

Firstly, that helps for the advancement of society. Then, it increases the dignity value to the Dedicator. They are the successful people in all aspects of life: material, spirit and personal reputation. Poeple, having Dedication, by living whole heartedly for the sake of community makes their spirit become purified and light that helps them escalate to higher level in Universe. Once completed their life in this incarnation they certainly can go to higher level in Universe, quite different from other normal people. In other words, Dedication is a way to practise mind and body to escalate to higher level in Universe effectively. Even though the Dedicators do not think for themselves but they can achieve results that other normal people cannot achieve. It’s just like their Dedication can be done by themselves only.

4 – Don’t think of Dedication as something too big

Dedication can be ranged from very big, big, to small, from sophisticated to simple. Don’t just think of Dedication as something very big, very high that we cannot reach. It’s being everywhere around us and happening daily in our life. Whether one can make a Dedication or not depends on himself. Everyone can make at least one Dedication in their life time. Everyone should try to have Dedication.

Today, grandmother is on a trip abroad, invited by her former organisation for retired employees. As she got on the bus, her 4 years old granddaughter busted out crying, begging to follow her. The bus went away and all members of the family felt something absent in their heart. Everyone became quiet. Nobody talked to each other. The dinner was not as joyful as every day because grandmother was away. The youngest grandchild suddenly cried “Grand mom, please come home with me!”. She woke up everyone’s thought about grandmother.

Grandmother has devoted her whole life for this little family, making it emptiness on mind every one, when she is away. Only she can do like that in this family. This is her Dedication for this family. So Dedication is not just to win a Nobel Laurate, isn’t it?

Prof Dich