First Reading:
“I often had to recognize that the need "to do something special" was born of a restless spirit. Such persons wanted to dedicate themselves to larger tasks because those that lay nearest did not satisfy them. Often, too, it was evident that they had been brought to their decisions by quite secondary considerations. Only a person who can find a value in every sort of activity and devote himself to each one with full consciousness of duty, has the inward right to take as his object some extraordinary activity instead of that which falls naturally to his lot. Only a person who feels his preference to be a matter of course, not something out of ordinary, and who has no thought of heroism, but just recognizes a duty undertaken with sober enthusiasm, is capable of becoming a spiritual adventurer such as the world needs. There are no heroes of action: only heroes of renunciation and suffering. Of such there are plenty. But few of them are known, but even these not to the crowd, but to the few.”
--Albert Schweitzer, Out of my Life and Thought
“Transforming Oneself to Transform Others”
~ Tenzin Priyadarshi Shukla, MIT Buddhist Chaplain and Director, Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values
When Bob Randolph asked me to speak on “If I could change one thing about…”, I was reminded of an old story, in which a king of a certain kingdom is disgusted by the fact that every day, he returns from the streets of his kingdom with dirt on his feet. He soon pronounces that the entire ground should be covered in leather. People begin to work on it, and quickly they begin to run out of leather and need to import it from far-off lands. It becomes an expensive and futile project. As it often happens in such stories, a wise man appears in the court and tells the king to try covering his feet in leather, easily solving the king’s problem. Thus shoes are introduced to civilization!
Often times we are overtly focused on changing external things to find satisfaction and happiness. It is easy to do. Change a small TV for a big one, a small house for another one, a car for a preferred updated version, and we don’t even shy away from changing life partners after a time. Three houses, three cars, and two spouses later we still find ourselves dissatisfied and unhappy. The only constant factor in this entire process has been our own delusional mind that we fail to reflect upon. One should begin with a simple query: “When was the last time I upgraded myself?” This is more than acquiring new skill sets. It is about becoming a better version of ourselves than we were in previous days, month and years. In this manner we should upgrade our mind daily by eliminating negativities such as anger, hatred and greed, and by strengthening positive attributes such as kindness, clarity, fearlessness and compassion. Soon the world around us will change because our attitude and perspective on things have evolved courtesy of this new “upgraded” mind.
Our mind informs our thoughts and action including speech, the way in which we communicate. All of this is highly contagious. If you are sad and miserable then people around you will be sad and miserable. If you are genuinely happy then people around will be inspired by that sense of happiness. In this way we quietly inspire and change the people and situations around us. One should often bear in mind that whether one likes it or not, he or she is a role model for someone. You don’t have to be a famous personality to be a role model. You already are a role model to members of your family, people at work and friends. So observe your mind and your behavior, because someone will be observing and learning from you.
In one of the oldest cross cultural exchanges of ideas (around 326 BCE), Alexander the Great met with an Indian monk at the banks of the River Indus. Curious with the appearance of this monk, Alexander asked him who he was and what was he doing. The monk asked him the same. Alexander replied, “I am Alexander the Great, and I am out to conquer the world”. The monk responded in amusement because for him conquering the world was a far lesser goal than conquering one’s own negative mental states (fear, anger, jealousy, etc.) and conquering life and death. This left Alexander perplexed as he was presented with an alternate definition of “heroism” than he had previously understood. This is the notion of “heroism” we encounter in our readings from today (a passage from Albert Schweitzer and a verse from Shantideva).
So if we really wish to change the world we must begin with the smallest manageable unit, i.e. our self.
Second Reading:
Prayer of Aspiration
May I be a protector for those without protection,
A guide for travelers – a boat, a bridge, and a ship for those who wish to cross over!
May I be a lamp for those who seek light, a bed for those who seek rest,
May I be a servant for all beings who desire a servant.
To all sentient beings may I be a wish-fulfilling gem, a vase of good fortune,
an efficacious mantra, a great medication, a wish-fulfilling tree, and a wish-granting cow.
Just as earth and other elements are useful in various ways to innumerable sentient
beings dwelling throughout infinite space,
So may I be in various ways a source of life for the sentient beings present throughout
space until they are liberated.
A guide for travelers – a boat, a bridge, and a ship for those who wish to cross over!
May I be a lamp for those who seek light, a bed for those who seek rest,
May I be a servant for all beings who desire a servant.
To all sentient beings may I be a wish-fulfilling gem, a vase of good fortune,
an efficacious mantra, a great medication, a wish-fulfilling tree, and a wish-granting cow.
Just as earth and other elements are useful in various ways to innumerable sentient
beings dwelling throughout infinite space,
So may I be in various ways a source of life for the sentient beings present throughout
space until they are liberated.
-Shantideva, 7th Century Indian Buddhist Pandita
“I often had to recognize that the need "to do something special" was born of a restless spirit. Such persons wanted to dedicate themselves to larger tasks because those that lay nearest did not satisfy them. Often, too, it was evident that they had been brought to their decisions by quite secondary considerations. Only a person who can find a value in every sort of activity and devote himself to each one with full consciousness of duty, has the inward right to take as his object some extraordinary activity instead of that which falls naturally to his lot. Only a person who feels his preference to be a matter of course, not something out of ordinary, and who has no thought of heroism, but just recognizes a duty undertaken with sober enthusiasm, is capable of becoming a spiritual adventurer such as the world needs. There are no heroes of action: only heroes of renunciation and suffering. Of such there are plenty. But few of them are known, but even these not to the crowd, but to the few.”
--Albert Schweitzer, Out of my Life and Thought
“Transforming Oneself to Transform Others”
~ Tenzin Priyadarshi Shukla, MIT Buddhist Chaplain and Director, Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values
When Bob Randolph asked me to speak on “If I could change one thing about…”, I was reminded of an old story, in which a king of a certain kingdom is disgusted by the fact that every day, he returns from the streets of his kingdom with dirt on his feet. He soon pronounces that the entire ground should be covered in leather. People begin to work on it, and quickly they begin to run out of leather and need to import it from far-off lands. It becomes an expensive and futile project. As it often happens in such stories, a wise man appears in the court and tells the king to try covering his feet in leather, easily solving the king’s problem. Thus shoes are introduced to civilization!
Often times we are overtly focused on changing external things to find satisfaction and happiness. It is easy to do. Change a small TV for a big one, a small house for another one, a car for a preferred updated version, and we don’t even shy away from changing life partners after a time. Three houses, three cars, and two spouses later we still find ourselves dissatisfied and unhappy. The only constant factor in this entire process has been our own delusional mind that we fail to reflect upon. One should begin with a simple query: “When was the last time I upgraded myself?” This is more than acquiring new skill sets. It is about becoming a better version of ourselves than we were in previous days, month and years. In this manner we should upgrade our mind daily by eliminating negativities such as anger, hatred and greed, and by strengthening positive attributes such as kindness, clarity, fearlessness and compassion. Soon the world around us will change because our attitude and perspective on things have evolved courtesy of this new “upgraded” mind.
Our mind informs our thoughts and action including speech, the way in which we communicate. All of this is highly contagious. If you are sad and miserable then people around you will be sad and miserable. If you are genuinely happy then people around will be inspired by that sense of happiness. In this way we quietly inspire and change the people and situations around us. One should often bear in mind that whether one likes it or not, he or she is a role model for someone. You don’t have to be a famous personality to be a role model. You already are a role model to members of your family, people at work and friends. So observe your mind and your behavior, because someone will be observing and learning from you.
In one of the oldest cross cultural exchanges of ideas (around 326 BCE), Alexander the Great met with an Indian monk at the banks of the River Indus. Curious with the appearance of this monk, Alexander asked him who he was and what was he doing. The monk asked him the same. Alexander replied, “I am Alexander the Great, and I am out to conquer the world”. The monk responded in amusement because for him conquering the world was a far lesser goal than conquering one’s own negative mental states (fear, anger, jealousy, etc.) and conquering life and death. This left Alexander perplexed as he was presented with an alternate definition of “heroism” than he had previously understood. This is the notion of “heroism” we encounter in our readings from today (a passage from Albert Schweitzer and a verse from Shantideva).
So if we really wish to change the world we must begin with the smallest manageable unit, i.e. our self.
Second Reading:
Prayer of Aspiration
May I be a protector for those without protection,
A guide for travelers – a boat, a bridge, and a ship for those who wish to cross over!
May I be a lamp for those who seek light, a bed for those who seek rest,
May I be a servant for all beings who desire a servant.
To all sentient beings may I be a wish-fulfilling gem, a vase of good fortune,
an efficacious mantra, a great medication, a wish-fulfilling tree, and a wish-granting cow.
Just as earth and other elements are useful in various ways to innumerable sentient
beings dwelling throughout infinite space,
So may I be in various ways a source of life for the sentient beings present throughout
space until they are liberated.
A guide for travelers – a boat, a bridge, and a ship for those who wish to cross over!
May I be a lamp for those who seek light, a bed for those who seek rest,
May I be a servant for all beings who desire a servant.
To all sentient beings may I be a wish-fulfilling gem, a vase of good fortune,
an efficacious mantra, a great medication, a wish-fulfilling tree, and a wish-granting cow.
Just as earth and other elements are useful in various ways to innumerable sentient
beings dwelling throughout infinite space,
So may I be in various ways a source of life for the sentient beings present throughout
space until they are liberated.
-Shantideva, 7th Century Indian Buddhist Pandita
