The Master may choose to offer help.
He may also choose not to.
One may think an enlightened being would be disposed to run around helping people.
But an enlightened being might see things differently.
What is help anyway?
Industry is necessary to survival.
One may industriously perform those tasks that are necessary to provide food and shelter.
Or one may choose, by inactivity, to be cold and hungry.
Seeing someone who is cold and hungry,
The Master may decide to be charitable.
Or he may see that this coldness and hunger are the inevitable result of laziness and sloth.
Help is only help if it helps.
It is of no help at all, if it results only in dependency.
The Master is not charitable in order to feel good about himself.
He feels neither good, nor bad.
He is the Master.
Such an intelligent post...
ReplyDeleteFor me the difficulty is in the waiting, when I choose to see if they can accomplish it themselves.. but wait I must... it is only fair... some learn quick, some don't, some don't want to learn at all...
See how long it took us old folks to learn anything about life :)
ReplyDeleteYouth often doesn't see it that way.
Faced with an endless succession of days, those days have little value.
When those days become numbered, well it becomes a different story.
Doing good is undoubtedly good. However, with the devotion towards God if we do good is the perfection. Doing good without thinking about good results break the chain. Master knows it well :-)
ReplyDeleteYour comment says it better than the post, itself.
ReplyDeleteOffering help is not the problem:
Irresponsibly "helping" is.
Why would dependency be intrinsically wrong? The vast majority of people like working and supporting themselves. There will always be some who don't. They, too, have their story. I don't feel one bit bad about giving money to beggars on the street. So what if they use it to buy wine and cigs? They'll die all the sooner, which is good if they are suffering.
DeleteWhy would you ask why dependency would be intrinsically wrong?
DeleteDo you think it is? Or not?
Dependency is dependency. No more, no less.
Irresponsible (or responsible) help is a concept of the sciences (including the social science like economics, politics and psychology), whereas spiritual door is ALWAYS open to all ("Once you put down your sword, you can be [note: NOT are] a Buddha", whereas letting go a killer is irresponsible). The Dalai Lama is both a human rights persona and a spiritual leader...
ReplyDeleteI have a person in my life that I work to apply this to. I strive to help her but not support her as this only makes her weaker and prevents the developement of her own strengths. Just as when you constantly carry a child they will never learn to walk, when you constantly rescue a person from their bad choices they will never stop making them.
ReplyDelete