For the Mahayana Buddhist,
Helping a single person,
Even in a small way,
And any tiny good act of care,
Contains all the compassion in the world,
In all time and space.
And then some.
Befriending one lonely person,
Even for a moment,
Comforting one crying child,
Lending a shoulder to a loved one or a stranger to lean on,
Picking up just one rusty bottle top or fallen bird by the side of the road,
Is nothing less than canon.
Compassion's bodhisattva of a thousand hands,
Befriending,
Comforting,
Lending,
Picking up,
Helping with your and my hands.
It is an act both small and passing,
And timeless and infinite at once.
Help those close by,
The thing that is right in front of you.
As well,
To seek to feed millions,
To hope to have an impact on the entire world,
To clean the oceans,
To comfort and aid those on the other side of the planet,
Also embodies all the compassion in the world,
In all time and space,
And then some.
I heard someone profess that seeking to have a big impact is foolish,
For there is little that one person can do.
However,
Such opinion is just plain wrong,
For the mere reason that one person plus one person plus a hundred persons and on and on together become a thousand,
Thousand helping persons,
A growing charity,
A voting block,
A town or city changing,
A movement.
Feeding and housing even a single hungry or homeless person is an act of unlimited merit.
But so is our working in unison to feed and house those without refuge in all places.
Think big,
Outside the box,
Creatively,
For medicines and methods that have not been tried before.
What is there to lose,
With so much to gain?
In the future there will be abilities and knowledge never imagined a thousand years ago,
Or even today.
Don't let small thinking,
Traditional and selfish voices dissuade you,
Not even those well-meaning.
Also,
Don't forget that even one voice,
Your voice,
Dear listener,
Can become a source of ideas and inspiration to countless others.
United,
One handful by one handful,
Great mountains can be moved with time.
Plus maybe mountain-moving robots tomorrow.
Help those both near and far.
Use means new and old,
Big and small.
Of course,
Our bodhisattva vow reminds us streamers that we are unlikely to succeed in helping everyone,
Not everywhere and not forever.
Not so long as this world in which we live in is always changing,
Cruel and hard,
So vast and tangled,
Sometimes beautiful but sometimes so very ugly.
However,
Our vow equally reminds us to keep on trying,
To save all sentient beings,
Though beings are numberless,
Delusions inexhaustible,
Reality boundless.
If we save one thousand but fail to reach ten thousand more,
Our heart breaks for those missed.
Yet,
We have succeeded in helping the one thousand.
We can feel sadness,
Gladness and satisfaction at once,
Even as we then turn to resume the mission,
Never abandoning the ten thousand who remain still untouched.
It is also good,
Healthy and wise to feel and offer compassion to oneself.
Our metta chant of loving-kindness always begins with ourself before turning to others.
May I be free of suffering,
Grateful,
Safe and still,
Healthy,
At ease,
Accepting.
Like the nurse or loving parent who must sometimes rest,
Consider his or her health and well-being,
Before returning to the front lines of care for others,
We sometimes need to recuperate,
Put down the task,
Get some sleep,
Stop for a time,
Do something joyful to the heart,
Have some plain old fun.
Even the Buddha,
Master Dogen and countless old venerables are depicted in tales as taking a little me-time,
Self-nurturing between their talks on no-self,
Making a small trip,
A visit to a confidant or a friend,
Retiring to the forest,
Composing poems and composing their own hearts in mountain huts.
We read of their brilliant teachings and many inspiring happenings,
But we hear little of the quiet times and hanging out between.
Did Shakyamuni take a day off,
A Buddha break?
Vimalakirti a long weekend vacation?
Did Huineng have a hobby?
Perhaps Dogen owned a dog that we don't know about?
I'd like to think so.
Our Siddhāngsāsana is a giving too,
To self and others.
We as warriors must watch out for burnout before returning to the battles.
Gratitude gas tanks need replenishing.
A drop of self-love equally contains all the compassion of the cosmos.
Yes,
We want to act wisely.
Nonetheless,
We sometimes try to do too much,
To meddle in what does not need meddling,
To stick our nose where it is unwanted.
I think that there is no clear formula to mark off dump compassion from the truly helpful kind.
All we can do is keep our eyes open,
Be sincere,
Try our best to be discerning and to think of the right way to respond,
Or not,
In a pressing situation.
For this reason,
Buddhism usually cherishes intent and sincerity,
Not success or failure,
For acts done with good motives,
And it excuses damage done with neither neglect nor by intention.
As well,
We need to accept that sometimes our offers of aid will be refused,
Will be met with ambivalence or even anger and disdain,
May backfire,
Might help someone for a time,
Who then returns to their self-harming ways.
We must accept this,
The best laid plans which go awry.
Our mistakes and failures are no less than canon's thousand mistakes and failures.
A bodhisattva can also bumble.
A tathagata can only try.
Even the Buddha knew that he could not fix the whole world,
Because if he could have,
I'm sure that he would have.
All Gautama could ultimately do is what he did day by day,
While pointing us to the ultimate beyond all doing.
For finally,
The Zen Mahayana Buddhist offers the ultimate compassion to suffering sentient beings,
Namely,
The seeing through,
Beyond self and other,
That we are more than these separate sentient beings,
That there is not anyone to suffer.
We comfort the grieving,
Yet with hearts free of birth and death.
We aid those who are lost and homeless while knowing the true home,
Which is everywhere.
We give water to the thirsty,
Though not a drop is ever missing from the river.
We encourage the sick and scared while standing fearlessly upon groundless ground.
This is our unique and greatest gift to the world as bodhisattvas.
We must offer material things,
Food and medicine,
Psychological comfort,
Love and cold cash,
But also the vision which sees beyond this broken world too.
We are the flowing,
The flowing,
Boundless wholeness,
Free of all desire.
All of these are compassion in its many facets,
The manifold faces of canon,
Each and all together,
All the compassion in all the world,
All time and space,
And then some.
