Offer Joy to one person in the morning, and relieve suffering of one person in the afternoon.
-Buddhist Teaching
Does your to-do list or your hourly calendar look like this: 9:15 am: offer joy; 1300h: relieve suffering?
Knowing Why We Are Here
I am quite sure it doesn't but if I were to ask what is your spiritual purpose here; what is it, do you think, God (or a higher power you identify with) wants you to do with this life you have been given... many of us would say things like: be good to others, love them, be kind, help out, etc. Would we not? Most of us believe that we are meant to bring joy and service to others ...to ease the suffering of other humans and beings...do we not? Is that not what we are taught in our religions, families, our schools and social institutions (to a lesser degree)? Do you not have that knowledge somewhere in the core of you? I am sure you do.
The Modern To-Do List
So how many things on your to-do list, your mental plan for this day are allotted to consciously bringing joy to others and relieving suffering?
Hopefully you will have something on that list like, spend time playing with daughter, or serve supper at the local shelter. But really ...is that something you allot enough priority to that it makes it on that list?
How many "other" things do you have on that list that do not bring joy to you or others, that do not relieve suffering...or may in fact...in some indirect way... lead to more suffering for others? Who are you serving with this to-do list?
Man...I am not trying to do the guilt thing. If that were the case, I would probably be more guilty than most. I remember my days of to-do listing and how everything in my daily plans seemed to be about "getting things done", "work", being "productive". If I had time...I would squeeze in something that brought joy to me or others or something that consciously helped to relieve suffering...but that was not my priority. My priority was to do and to accomplish, to keep up with this fast stream of traffic in the busy world. Is this not what the "to-do list" is all about!
Not What We Are About
It may be what the busy world we created is all about, and what the to-do list is all about but is it what we are all about? No, we know that. We know that we are here to offer joy and relieve suffering in order to make the world a better place ...we know that... but somehow it became so easy to put other things ahead of it.
We want these little separate beings we think we are, this little self-serving entity and all we closely identify with to be happy and safe, free from the unpleasantry of the world. And there is nothing wrong with that aspiration. So we commit to working hard to get there...someday. So each thing we scribble down on the piece of paper today is meant to help us get there some other day. Each action we intend to pursue is just a means to an end.
Stepping Over Today To Get To a Future Happiness
"If I get so many things checked off today", we tell ourselves, ..."then I will get that much closer to getting to where I need to be in order to be happy". "Then, maybe", we will rationalize, "I will devote myself more to humanity and the world then. For now I need to get ahead!"
So maybe we are not feeling joy and sharing joy as we do the things on that list but we are doing them so we can feel joy and share joy in the future. Right? Our intentions are probably good.
"I can't play with my five year old daughter now on this Saturday afternoon I was supposed to have off because I have to handle this business call for work to earn what I need to earn, to create the best life for her in the future...so I can have more time to play with her then."
And that is a perfectly acceptable pattern of rationalization in our world today. Perfectly normal. Normal ...yes...but is it getting us closer to what we really want...to be who we truly are which is a being who lives to bring joy and relieve suffering in this moment, which is the only time we have?
Do you think five year old Sally is thinking about the future when you tell her you have to put extra hours of work ahead of her now so you can have more time for her then? And will 25 year old Sally still want to play on the trampoline with you when you finally get and do all the things you need to bring joy to her? Or will she be inclined to tell you about how she suffered then and now because of the absence of your presence during her formative years?
Oh man...that does sound like a guilt trip, doesn't it? All I am saying is what I learned the hard way, that the time to offer joy is today. The time to help to relieve suffering is today. These are the most important things to put on any list and...it isn't about "doing". It is about being.
About Being Not Doing
Your natural state is joy, your natural state is compassion. Tap into that state and you can't help but to offer joy or relieve suffering. It is who you are. And this joy and peace and happiness you seek through all your ceaseless doing, a joy that you assume can be found somewhere up there in the future...can be found now, in this moment, and you don't have to do anything. You just have to be yourSelf.
What you offer Sally then is greater than any future lifestyle or material purchase.You offer her joy and freedom from future suffering. What you offer that homeless person with your smile, your hand reaching out, letting them know they are seen and not alone is what Mother Teresa would refer to as "the greatest gift."
By putting away our tendency to seek and do to find our peace, joy, happiness "out there" in a time that will never come and by turning inward to where that peace, joy, happiness already is, we give the greatest gift.
By being truly present as our Self in this moment, the only time there is, we show others a glimpse of That which made us and That which made them. That which made all.
All is well.
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