Give a little bit ...

I think the world needs a little more ACTIVE compassion.

Oh, everyone is a kind person, a compassionate person. Everyone feels bad about the rampant suffering in the world today. Everyone thinks that suffering should be eased, that these people or animals don't deserve their bad fortune, deserve to be helped, we feel sad, and maybe we say a prayer for all the poor animals and people in the world.

Yet how many of us really ACT upon our kind feelings?

Feeling kind and sorrowful is not enough. Prayers alone are not enough. Words alone are not enough. We need more people who are willing to give a little bit of time, of money, of energy to help reduce the misery in the world. Be it of animals, or homeless people, the poor, the sick, the dying. If we feel bad, DO something about it. Give a dollar, give 5, give some time, volunteer in a soup kitchen, a shelter, a home.

When we were children, in our Moral classes, we read stories about Anand, or Ah Chong, or Ali who find a stray cat or dog stuck in a drain, will stop and take the time and effort to rescue it. Regardless if they were going to a ballgame, or going home after a long day, our generically named hero would help a creature in need.
Yet how many of us would do the same? We think we will, but do we? Are we waiting for that perfect opportunity, with a nice clean drain, a lot of time on our hands, a sweet, cute and friendly little cat, not injured, not dirty, not frightened before we actually ACT?

A common enough example for people who drive: How many of us have been driving along and seen a tortoise cross the road? How many of us actually stop and move the tortoise of out harms way? I saw a guy on a motorcycle do it once. I bless him for his compassion.

All religions tell us to be kind, to be loving, to help those in need. Yet so many pious people who go daily to their mosques and temples and churches do no more than pray for the world to be a better place. For the homeless to be fed, for the animals to be saved. They gain their merits in places of worship, and walk with their eyes on the heavens, blind to their brothers and sisters need on earth.

I'm Buddhist, so this is a rant against how some people view 'karma'. Just because Karma exists doesn't make it right to ignore an animal in need. The dog or cat doesn't suffer because it is its karma to suffer. They suffer because their karma put them in an animal form, and WE don't do anything to help them.

A poor dog is lost and hungry in the streets. Is it karma? Should we just walk by believing in divine justice, or can we take a little time to give it some food and comfort, to take it in and hope his owner comes looking for him, or to put him for adoption? I believe Karma MAY create a situation, but OUR FREE WILL gives us the choices of how we want to act.
Why do people believe I should go for meditation and chanting and prayers daily? Do I gain less merits by helping animals? Do their prayers gain more? To be honest, so what? The world is a better place when we try to help each other. Thats why I like Tzu Chi. They pray and help all in the same breath.

We are ordinary people, we aren't superstars to make headlines, we aren't politicians who make rulings. We arent rich to give newspaper worthy donations, and we aren't saints to spend our lives helping the poor. But we can make small changes, small good things in the world, so lets do that. Lets start making changes by starting, to quote the late Michael Jackson, with the Man in the Mirror. Lets start by changing ourselves, and our little piece of the world. If enough of us do that, maybe we won't have to walk by something and think 'poor thing, someone should help him' because we will.