Many of us feel the increasing tender heart, the heart-felt call to be of service to others and to the world we live in. Wonderful organizations, religions, spiritual communities, and the like are solidly planted in the world to help with the human need that is presented to us daily. Because there are endless opportunities to join in and help, it eventually becomes crucial for each of us to contemplate and answer the question "What is it that I am called to do? How can I help?"
In our community meditation evening this week, we contemplated two perspectives on the question of authentic personal service. Our first contemplative meditation was on a reading from the book A Testament of Devotion by Thomas Kelly, a Quaker and our second contemplation was a Buddhist perspective, a reading from the book The Places that Scare You, by Pema Chodron, the first American ordained Buddhist Nun. What follows is the essence of each of these readings.
A Testament of Devotion, Thomas Kelly
"The experience of Divine Presence wholly satisfies, and there are a few who, like those on the Mount of Transfiguration, want to linger there forever and never return to the valleys of men....But there is more to the experience of God than that of being plucked out of the world. The fuller experience, I am sure, is of a Love which sends us out into the world...For the experience of an in-flooding, all-enfolding Love, which is at the center of Divine Presence, is of a Love which embraces all creation, not just our little, petty selves...I wish I might emphasize how a life becomes simplified when dominated by faithfulness to a few concerns. Too many of us have too man irons in the fire. We get distracted by the intellectual claim to our interest in a thousand and one good things, and before we know it we are pulled and hauled breathlessly along by an over-burdened program of good committees and good undertakings...The concern oriented life is ordered and organized from within. And we learn to say No as well as Yes by attending to the guidance of inner responsibility...A concern is God-initiated, often surprising, always holy, for the Life of God is breaking through into the world. Its execution is in peace and power and astounding faith and joy, for in unhurried serenity the Eternal is a work in the midst of time, triumphantly bringing all things up unto Himself."
The Places that Scare You, Pema Chodron
"Few of us are satisfied with retreating from the world and just working on ourselves. We want our training to manifest and to be of benefit. The bodhisattva-warrior, therefore, makes a vow to wake up not just for himself but for the welfare of all beings. There are six traditional activities in which the bodhisattva trains, six ways of compassionate living: generosity, discipline, patience, enthusiasm, meditation, and prajna - an unconditional wisdom. Traditionally these are called the six paramitas, a Sanskrit word meaning "gone to the other shore". Each one is an activity we can use to take us beyond aversion and attachment, beyond being all caught up in ourselves, beyond the illusion of separateness. Each paramita has the ability to take us beyond our fear of letting go...
So, these are the six activities of the warrior:
Generosity - Giving as a path of learning to let go.
Discipline - Training in not causing harm in a way that is daring and flexible.
Patience - Training in abiding with the restlessness of our energy and letting things evolve at their own speed. If waking up takes forever, still we go moment by moment, giving up all hope of fruition and enjoying the process.
Joyful enthusiasm - Letting go of our perfectionism and connecting with the living quality of every moment.
Meditation - Training in coming back to being right here with gentleness and precision.
Prajna - cultivating an open, inquiring mind.
With these six activities of the bodhisattva, we learn how to travel to the other shore, and we do our best to take everyone we can find along with us. "
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