Pure Mind, Compassionate Heart — Dharma Lecture 7

A Karmic Parable

Once upon a long, long time ago, there lived a man who had a big heart, one brimming with humility and the overwhelming wish to help others. Alas, while his heart was expansive, his purse was very small. Undeterred by his meager resources, the man happily helped others any way he could. After a downpour one day, he repaired an elderly neighbor’s leaking roof. Coming across a widow’s missing goat, he patiently led the animal back to its grateful owner. When some children wanted to play in an empty lot in the town, he stepped up to help clear away the wild-growing brush. 

As word spread of his kind heart and willing hands, his reputation for generosity and fairness became more widely known. Appreciating his civil spirit, the townspeople asked him to be their mayor. Always wishing to serve others, the man agreed. Upon finding that he could now help many more people, he felt grateful for his new position and humbled in the face of his growing influence.  

In time, his name became known far and wide to such a degree that the people he helped asked him to be the governor. And eventually the country’s ruler. Now, controlling the ample wealth in the nation’s coffers, he happily used it to help even more people. Everywhere he went, he saw the changes brought about from his carefully crafted policies. Citizens became better educated and thus were able to better provide for their families. Strangers to the country were welcomed. Crime and violence reduced naturally. Those who were unable to care for themselves due to illness or age were cared for.  

Thanks to the man’s selflessness and dedication to improving everyone’s welfare, the country thrived to such a degree that uncountable people lived in prosperity. Their hearts were filled with gratitude and enduring loyalty to this compassionate man who had so positively reshaped their very existence. 

Uncountable lifetimes later, as these things are want to happen, the man and the citizens found themselves reborn in the same country. But this time, the man was very different. His power was immense, and the financial resources he oversaw seemed unlimited. His heart? Tragically, his heart was so small that some questioned its very existence. Arrogance replaced his previous humility, selfishness his earlier generosity. All he cared about was himself. And so, unlike in the past, the citizens were no longer educated or cared for, strangers no longer welcomed. Poverty and disease increased, as did violence, crime, and intolerance. 

What of those citizens? How did they react in the face of all the suffering in their country? Due to all those seeds of gratitude and the enduring loyalty planted in the distant past, their fealty never wavered. And so, they championed and even idolized the man.  

How did this tale end? Again, as karmic tales so often do, dear reader, it is still unfolding . . .

Pure Mind, Compassionate Heart — Dharma Lecture 6

We don’t wake up in the morning thinking that 

we’re going to be selfish and inconsiderate today. 

And yet throughout the day, we act selfishly in many ways. We don’t answer a co-worker’s email, although we know he’s waiting for our response. We postpone a trip to the library to return a best seller, a popular book with readers. We go shopping with one friend forgetting that we had told another we’d go with her.

Here’s another thought we don’t wake up with: I’m going to make someone suffer today.

And yet, that’s what we do. We turn up the air conditioning to stay comfortable. But cooling ourselves this way contributes to global warming. This causes soil erosion on the other side of the world. Worried farmers are told that global warming is the culprit, but they have no means to stop it.

We tend busily to our affairs and forget our friend in the nursing home who enjoys such visits. We get trapped by our habits, our personal inertia, our wish for personal comfort.

We don’t mean to be selfish or unkind. But too often, we end up being so.