Engaging With the World to Help People

“It is important here to understand that developing bodhicitta is not merely a grand ideal for taking beings to some extraordinary enlightenment. It can be translated into precise and definitive activity, engaging with the world to help people in a very concrete way, such as feeding the hungry. It may be on large scale, such as saving lives during a disaster, or as Shantideva said in his well-known text, “The Way of the Bodhisattva”, as simple as looking at others with honesty and loving-kindness. This could be as simple as smiling at strangers. Though smiling is not a heroic act that deserves a gold medal or the Noble Peace Prize, it is a simple action that can be part of an authentic aspiration to help others all the time. The point is not so much that we need to smile constantly when we encounter someone, which can become insincere and pretentious, but rather it means to genuinely practice loving-kindness as much as possible for everyone without exception.”

Excerpt From
Into the Haunted Ground
Anam Thubten