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Where does the will to help others come from?

There is a terrific book about a woman known as Peace Pilgrim, who walked well over 25,000 miles for peace from 1953 until 1981.  It is called “Peace Pilgrim: Her Life and Work in Her Own Words” and it is available for free either as a tangible, printed book, or an e-book download, from an organization of people Peace herself touched during her journey.

From that book . . . .

“On my pilgrimage a lot of cars stopped and people invited me to ride.  Some thought walking meant hitchhiking.  I told them I did not cheat God – you don’t cheat about counting miles on a pilgrimage.”

“I remember one day as I was walking along the highway a very nice car stopped and the man inside said to me, “How wonderful that you are following you calling!”  I replied, “I certainly think that everyone should be doing what he or she feels is the right thing to do.”"

“He then began telling me what he felt motivated toward, and it was a good thing that needed doing.  I got quite enthusiastic about it and took it for granted that he was doing it.  I said, “That’s wonderful!  How are you getting along with it?”  And he answered, “Oh, I’m not doing it.  That kind of work doesn’t pay anything.”"

“I shall never forget how desperately unhappy that man was.  In this materialistic age we have such a false criteria by which we measure success.  We measure it in terms of dollars, in terms of material things.  But happiness and inner peace do not lie in that direction.  If you know but do not do, you are a very unhappy person indeed.”

And, please consider one last excerpt from this lovely book . . .

“Another time, a truck driver pulled his truck to the side of the road and said, “I heard you say over television something about that endless energy and I just wanted to tell you I had it one time.  I was marooned in a town by a flood.  I got so bored that I finally offered to help and I got interested in getting people out.  I worked without eating, I worked without sleeping, and I wasn’t tired . . . But I don’t have it anymore.”  I said, “Well, what are you working for now?”  “Money,” he said.  I said, “That should be quite incidental.  You have the endless energy only when you are working for the good of the whole – you have to stop working for your selfish little interests.”  That’s the secret of it.  In this world you are given as you give.”

Having read those two passages, please keep them in mind as you consider the following. . .

There are times in a young life when that person feels like they can do anything.  Interestingly, at those times they feel like helping others.

Now, this is always the case  unless recently one has taken drugs – a time when although they feel like they are capable of anything  they aren’t consistently looking for ways to help others out.  To feel truly capable of anything and without being under any influence, whether it is drugs, or even something as distracting as physical pain, the opposite of the physical pleasure which drugs can create – there is no ego, which restricts an absolute, no-holds-barred kindness.   Indeed, especially at those beautiful moments, one understands that most people operate from a state of mind that isn’t aware of helping another.

Most people then, are walking around thinking about everything in relation to oneself. Can one possibly think about oneself and helping another in the same moment?

This is most beautiful . . . please consider . . .

When someone isn’t distracted about oneself not only is there no ego, but no pleasure, no pain – but it is then that one is concerned for others. Being aware of others – of helping others – being aware of the environment – this is one’s natural state of mind. . .  Our nature is to help those distracted with self-interest become one again and able to help others out of this state.
Because, it is not possible to consciously help someone when you are not aware of the world in which they are suffering, while you are lost in your own world.

Watching a news broadcast, or overhearing people talking in the lunchroom at work, it is quite clear that many people are distracted.  In the world, sadly, many are suffering. . .

. . .A person suffering dis-ease lashes out at family members, not because the family member necessarily said or did anything to deserve it, but merely because the disease is painful.

It is sincerely tragic, to think that someone is in pain, but wants to help others because being aware that pain is keeping one from helping others, is enough to will pain away . . .for a lifetime, continuously whenever pain arises.

Where does the will to help others come from?

The “will to help others” comes from nowhere. It does not even exist.  While asking where it comes from nobody is being helped, and the will is some achievement to be attained at a later time.  You cannot hold the will in your hand, as an object, because the will is not material – like the things which the ego desires, that eradicate the will. (pleasure, pain)

The will to help others comes into being the very moment that one truly realizes that in helping others, one helps oneself.

Vice versa, those that spend their lives helping others, and succeed, have realized this.  Yet, it is not always immediately obvious that one is successful.

Thus, true deeds are not done for recognition, or for oneself – in the pursuit of pleasure, or for the end of individual physical pain.

The ego will enjoy fleeting pleasure from time to time. The pleasure feels good for a while and may change in its intensity, and as one is still feeling good one might think one is getting closer to understanding oneself… that one is just around the corner from “everything.” Yet remaining thinking and feeling ambitious one is stuck in a cycle of a mind-state of thought. – One is constantly just around the corner from everything. . . Every moment that this mind feels like it is going to achieve what it desires it is not achieving them, it is stuck in a state of being just around the corner from them. The mind is merely feeling like it is going to, it is imagining it. One truly only desire’s desire itself. This is a mental habit, it is the mind’s conditioning, the tendency of ego alone.

A mind focused on thought views mainly everything through personal judgment. . . .To this mind the world at times can seem unfair, but just like a thought which labels something as unfair, this mindstate never lasts forever. Further, just as this frame of mind is not absolute, so the world is not unfair forever. Now, one thinks the world is unfair because this thought has created an ego who has settled into the tendency to interpret the world in this way.

Buddha/Flower Image (c)Tomo.Yun (www.yunphoto.net/en/)

This thin air makes the night blacker.  The wind is calm and just cold enough to lower your shoulders and raise your neck, to meet your eyes with the stars.  The trees quake quietly enough.  After you pass one tree the sound still resonates along with your steps.  You move through the scenery aware enough of everything to make it worth paying attention to.  The leaf is soft and new and lands quietly because of this.  Unlike in the fall when leaves are dry and scratch the concrete when they land, this summer is here.

There is no reward for taking your time.  The beauty that arises was there all along.  It waits so you two can wait together.

There is no penalty for hurrying.  The chaos that results was there all along.

There are no trees when you rush past them.  There is no wind when you are hot and thinking about a cold shower.  The birds’ day songs and the crickets at night don’t reveal themselves to someone who isn’t listening.   Surely it is delusion to not be able to hear what is there, to not be able to see what is in front of you, to be unable to truly feel the wind that is blowing on you, or the ground that aids your step.

5 Miles

There was a woman on 71-S heading north on the side beam with a gas can, not far from an exit, clearly on her way back from getting gas after running out.  Her face indicated that a million things could have been running through her mind on that walk back to her car.

“I wonder how far this will set me back?”

“I am too late.”

“This is all ridiculous.”

Yet, she could not see 5 miles down the road, where there was bumper to bumper traffic, preceding an accident.

Instantly, two things come to mind. . .

1.  If she hadn’t run out of gas she still would have been late, as she would have got stuck in traffic.

2.  Given where she was at on the freeway it is entirely possible that she avoided a car accident when she ran out of gas.  15 miles ahead a truck pulling a mobile home and a car collided.

Yet, when things happen to us that seem to set us back, the conditioned mind instantly allows it to.  One might become negative and only because one cannot yet see the wider picture, no matter how close the answer really is.

However, it doesn’t matter whether the answer is 5 miles away, or 15, as one walks back to the car not realizing everything can happen for a reason.

What is Meditation Like?

If you remember what the first time you drove a car was like, or can imagine what it will be like, you would be picturing a heightened state of awareness which one eagerly entered.  If you remember the first drive, or can imagine what it will be like, perhaps one is intensely aware of everything?

The awareness of all of the knobs and pedals, shifting, and the instrument cluster is just as vivid as the awareness of road signs, other vehicles; parked and moving – pedestrians, bicyclists, etc.  In addition, one is aware of what they are required to do…

To turn the signal at the stop sign.

To consciously hit the brake upon approaching.

The speed limit.

In addition, one is aware of the feel of the speed of the car.  Indeed it feels faster now than it will after driving for years.  One is aware, now, of the feel of the seat, of the pedal, of the wheel.  One smells the air freshener if there is one, and if not, any smells there are.  All of the senses are heightened.

Meditating is like being aware that you have never done something before, but doing it anyway, no matter what you are doing… be it sitting down, reading, or driving.

Meditation is also the interest that makes doing that possible, when nothing inherently exciting is being done. It is voluntarily clearing the mind in order to pay attention to now as if it was the first time.

Someone who doesn’t feel like they know “who they are” and wants to find oneself – perhaps to fit in easier, make friends, impress others, feel loved or respected – can find it easier to become “someone else,” than to truly observe their own thoughts to unravel their own tendencies, which is a frightening concept indeed.  Rather than do that, one adopts the habits, actions, ideas, appearances, etc, of someone they admire.  Their imitation of who or what they want to be like becomes “who they are” before a deep understanding of oneself takes place.

The very judgment that made someone decide that they don’t know who they are is used to create who they are.

The same person who is not satisfied with him/herself is creating who they are on top of that.  The ego is this thought alone which branches off, forming layers, and becomes increasingly harder to unravel, and thus over time appears to be concrete.  But, the thinker has not changed.

After giving up wanting to find oneself, it becomes possible to. Instead of focusing on copying others, the mind can focus on itself, and become more original than thought could conceptualize.

Thought is Tricky

How to focus?

Perhaps one may even “become” the “type” of person who doesn’t need to feel like becoming someone else.  But that is essentially no different from the ego of the person who has merely picked a way to act.  As even this person who does not act like a person they admire, still does not truly think for him/herself.  Because, they are conditioned, stuck rather, in the habit of thinking like a person that they think, thinks for oneself.  This new mind can’t see things from all perspectives, since it has already chosen “who they are,” or “who they want to be,” – one type of person.

All thoughts branch off and form layers.

Every moment can offer a reason to be dissatisfied with oneself, with someone else, with something – with a circumstance – with an opinion or with a thought.  It is that judgment itself, which is merely an arising thought, that is dissatisfied. It is not you.

Only the ego suffers because only the ego can conceptualize not knowing who one is.

The ego suffers because it does not allow who it is, and /or who it wants to be, to pass away.

The ego is hiding behind any thought that is afraid of nothingness.  Because, that nothingness instantly makes it possible to both observe, and dissolve the ego.

There is no becoming nothing.

Objective

It is important to note that being bound to no single religious ideology, the goal of our company is only to provide an open window for which any person, regardless of affiliation and/or belief may look.

The Flower Metaphor

People plant trees and flowers in dedication to causes and loved ones.

They also plant flowers that belonged to that loved one, flowers that the loved one took good care of over a long period of time indoors; they plant this beautiful flower outside.  To them it is a gift for the world and it is keeping their memory alive.  How would that friend of the loved one feel to see someone carelessly walk atop it?  Not only is that flower truly alive, but it also has deep meaning for this friend.

This flower is like people.  The friend is God.  The trampler is thought.

People are places.  A person is like a place where anything can happen.  Each person is like a mini world.  There are billions of worlds living in our world and in each individual world is suffering – people are a place where suffering can happen.  What is remarkable about that is we cause our own suffering.  When we think negatively and let desires control our direction we become the equivalent of a tornado tearing up the earth.  The earth created the tornado.  The earth is the source of all its natural disasters.  When certain winds form they create a tornado, just like when something shifts beneath the surface of the earth an earthquake results.  Many things cause our suffering, they are like the wind that creates the tornado which destroys the body of the Earth.

Simone Hie

“In 1934, he married Simone Hie, a morphine addict, but the marriage ended as a consequence of infidelities on both sides.”  This is from the Wikipedia page on Albert Camus.  One cannot help but think that perhaps this generalization of Simone Hie’s life is a result of the way the media has evolved to prioritize the racy over the consideration of another persons feelings, having failed to consider the whole picture of her life, as the entire picture of any life can indeed be hard to gather, let alone to summarize.

Even Albert Camus himself probably would not have liked to read this page of his life, widely available to the world, which in three word’s depicts everything about a woman he deemed worthy of marriage.  Wikipedia has chosen either what was to them the most relevant idea about her life, or perhaps the most widely known fact. . . which is a fact in itself that proves the public would rather hear the racy over honestly considering what mark such a revelation could leave on a person’s life.  Clearly there is much more to any person than a drug addiction.  Having succumbed to this addiction, Simone Hie does not deserve any less respect, on the contrary she deserves consideration, thoughtfulness.

When the mind encodes information about Albert Camus from this source, should the name Simone Hie arise in the future the mind will remember only that she was a morphine addict, and perhaps not that she was married to a very influential person, and likely influenced him herself.

Timelessness

The most current events are the ones that seem to transcend thought, regardless of when they happened throughout the course of time, which is of thought itself.

Jiddu Krishnamurti – Immortality

…Even a simple dialogue can reveal that timelessness, and that timelessness, once realized, becomes an event that transcends thought.

Why Meditate?

The further one gets in meditation, the more blissful one becomes.  There is no cap limit to inner peace.  Once one attains enlightenment, peace lasts forever.  Only within the realms of suffering, is peace impermanent.

How to Meditate?

There is no proper way to meditate, because meditation is essentially being oneself.  Therein lies a dilemma, however, because how many people truly know themselves? and in contrast how many people merely think they do?  Meditation is both being aware of one’s own actions and thoughts as one finds out who they are, and of being aware of awareness itself.  It is the process and the NOW.

To find oneself – one’s true self – which is beyond the ego – beyond any wanting – one must very literally be aware of one’s own reactions . . . watch the tendency of the mind to ignore what is currently happening in the environment.  Watch what is happening when the environment leaves, watch what is happening when it returns. . .

The Physical Body

Statue of Buddha at Night

The body must be relaxed and aligned at all times until one masters meditation.  Ramana Maharshi once said, that “only the master can find comfort in any position.”  For the rest of us, our minds are what becomes bothersome, not the posture of meditation.  Not everyone can sit in the lotus position for hours at a time, nor is it necessary.  What is necessary is to understand the logic behind sitting in that position.

When a person thinks about the future often times they will actually lean forward.  As one thinks about the past, their head might tilt back.  As one tries to decide what to order from a menu, his/her head tilts to one side or the other as they are “stuck in the middle.”  Only when the body is completely relaxed but vertically aligned, can one become aware when one is not thinking about the past or future, without creating any additional, unnecessary thought – which is easy to become “lost” in – to realize it.

 

What are we hooked on?

Everything can be attached to.  Not merely sex, drugs and rock and roll, but peace, kindness, abstinence.  Looking at it from this perspective there is no difference between having sex and remaining abstinent. . . doing drugs and remaining sober. . .  being at inner peace or remaining in chaos.  Being attached to peace, needing peace, is chaotic itself. This is where the ego exists, and there is no difference between the ego of the person who does drugs from the ego of the person who doesn’t . . . one who doesn’t do drugs is attached to drugs, because one is attached to the idea that “I am a person who doesn’t mess with drugs.”  The individual who uses drugs is aware that he is the “type” of person who does. . .

The Attachment to Fear

What “type” of person are you?  We can only be one when all “types” have completely vanished, with not even the attachment to not being attached to “types” evident.  And, with nothing to live up to what addiction is there to overcome?  Perhaps addiction is in the thought that one needs to “overcome an addiction!?”  Thus, one stays addicted as they search for ways out of addiction.  Who says you just can’t stop?  If you really want to, regardless the addiction – be it to drugs or alcohol, to not doing drugs or alcohol, promiscuity, abstinence, the mind can observe the personal ego.  And, in that observation of attachment, there is no ego, and so there is no attachment.

If it is not an issue to do drugs or to not do them, why think about it? . . .whether that thought is “I need to find a drug,” or “I am going to stay away from drugs?”  The thought itself is the only problem.  If one can observe that thought arise and pass away without being attached to it, which is without feeling the need to find or avoid a drug, then there is no addiction, immediately, in that seeing alone.