The Buddha Project Reply To: Y2Q13) Simile of the peacock (1)
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Good point, Manita. Starting with small steps as you say. But perhaps even before the small steps: through hearing, contemplation and meditation we first need to become convinced that helping others leads to real happiness and that chasing our own happiness, is not more than temporary pleasure (or actually just relief from an earlier suffering). And then in our small first steps of cherishing others, we should try to assess: did this bring some real happiness or was it just hardship. Remember how Ven Gendun uses the term compassion fatigue: people who help others, but expect something in return (at least to receive gratitude. They don’t see that what Jezus said “love is something on to itself”: it itself is the source of happiness.
And as we are formed by causes and conditions, we cannot suddenly change 100%. Thinking that one can change 100% in one day, that is the ‘self’. Developing the capacity to cherish others is a process, starting with perfuming the alaya.
As Ven Gendun has said, let’s start with the one in front of us.