A c t i o n, c o m p a s s i o n, c r e a t i v i t y
Margot Becker
Photo: Margot Becker
For a long time, I’ve wished to open a discussion with the Shambhala sangha, Buddhist lineage created by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, about compassionate action in the world. A few months ago, I got my chance. I received a fundraising letter from President Reoch, president of Shambhala International. I was disappointed—again—that the request was solely about improving our centers, our curriculum, our infrastructure. While these projects are of the utmost importance, I always feel sad—and perhaps a little angry—that we are not working together, collectively, to bring our compassion, energy, resources and love to those in the world who are suffering. So I wrote to President Reoch, who kindly responded. This short piece is a continuation of that conversation, and I hope many of you will join in on these pages.
To state it baldly, I believe our sangha is not doing enough for others. As I see it, our sangha is, for the most part, fairly comfortable. We do not live in a country of war. Most of us do not experience daily hunger, and we do not have to watch our children go to bed with empty stomachs night after night. Most of us have a place to sleep at night, rather than a homeless shelter or a street. Most of us do not work at jobs that pay just pennies a day. Most of us are not incarcerated in prisons. And of course, we have the great good fortune to hear and practice the Dharma. This is not the case for so many others throughout the world.
In the requests for funding for our sangha, I began to smell a “collective me.” We seek to make our own community safe and strong and secure. And yet, there have been no requests for donations to do good works that benefit others who experience far more danger, fear, want and vulnerability. And right along with donations, we do not work together to make these good works happen.
When I first communicated with President Reoch about this, he told me about all of the wonderful good works our sangha members are doing individually and he directed me to a web page that describes some of these inspiring efforts. Nonetheless, I feel a good Buddhist community can and must make collective efforts to reach out to those who suffer. If I am not wrong, this is the great Mahayana work that none of us can afford to leave out of our practice. I can’t say it strongly enough: our sangha—so based in the transformative power of compassion—needs to take this on.
I believe that with open hearts and some good creative thinking, Buddhist groups can design and carry out gorgeous acts of kindness. We would be challenged to open our eyes to the realities around us, think creatively about addressing problems, open our wallets so that we have the material means to actualize our projects, and offer the energy necessary to make things happen. It would be an opportunity for all of us to see clearly, take on responsibility, and manifest the active compassion of warriors in the world.
A half a dozen projects come to my mind without much work—projects in our own towns and cities… projects in Tibet and India… projects that help kids or older people or just regular folks who face the difficulties of daily life… projects that provide food, clothing, schooling, comfort… projects that provide what we all value most—meditation instruction and Dharma wisdom. But my solo thoughts are probably a lot less interesting than what we can come up with together. Personally, I am very curious—and excited—to experience the outrageous garden that will blossom when we as a sangha plant the seeds of collective love and beauty.
So please, become inspired… and comment below with your thoughts and feelings. Ki ki! So so!
Simple acts of blind faith
Margot Becker
Photo: Douglas Dickel
I met Carlos, Dharma/Arte’s coordinator, about a year ago after he read an online piece I had written about compassionate action in the world. Since then, we have been corresponding from a distance, São Paulo to New York. We’ve had discussions about art, meditation, fundraising, and the creative potential locked inside negative thoughts and feelings.
For many years, I was a fairly obsessed fiction writer. Before that, I was a modern dancer. I haven’t done much of either of these—beloved friends—in a long time. But there is still an act of creativity that I’ve been exploring. I have a lot to say about it and few words.
It’s late at night. I’ve put off writing this text for weeks, possibly months. I’m honored to be asked, to be in the company of the distinguished teachers and artists Carlos has posted in the past. It’s night. For a long time, I’ve been thinking about darkness.
The period when I gave up writing—I told myself I wanted to learn to write from a different place, I wanted to learn to write from the light—coincided with the beginning of my meditation practice and was a direct result of it. While I think there is plenty of space in my life for writing and dancing—space I hope I’ll honor a little better in the future than I am in the present—giving up my creative disciplines caused me to turn my creative energies to a mundane yet still fascinating level, a level that manifested not in novels and dances but in simple acts that are perhaps a mere few seconds, a second, or less. Being aware and maybe, if I can catch the wave just as it curls over the lip, catching a bit of a ride. Eventually, if one practiced enough, one might be able to make a better choice in that small, eternal moment, write it on a more permanent page than paper, and that piece of writing might have an affect on… someone… sometime… somewhere…
Those are my simple acts. And I wish to thank Carlos for asking me to write a bit. And more than that, I wish to tell him how moved I am at his own simple act of blind faith, which was merely to reach out to me, to reach out again and again with patient persistence in the face of my formidable elusiveness, for his sparking and lighthearted brilliance, a bit of São Paulo light in a dark night.
Margot Becker is the first Dharma/Arte’s partner and reader to write for this blog, which is open to everyone. The first part was previously published by the online magazine Shambhala Times, and is re-published here with the author’s authorization.
Share your comments or contact us for collaborating.
Margot R. Becker has had a serious meditation practice since 2000. She has been raising funding for non-profits in New York City, the United States and internationally for many years.
Please: make your comments in the Portuguese version of this page: http://blog.dharma.art.br/2009/09/acao-compaixao-criatividade/#respond
