© 2009 Lynsey

060 – Solace


…when we finally know we are dying, and all other sentient beings are dying with us, we start to have a burning, almost heartbreaking sense of the fragility and preciousness of each moment and each being, and from this can grow a deep, clear, limitless compassion for all beings.
— Sogyal Rinpoche

Solace always makes me feel good. I’m not sure whether I feel empathy for him in his need for solace or whether I gain emotional strength from him. Does he need solace, or is he here to offer it? One day we were fooling around on the waterfront by the sculpture and I took his hands and leaned back for a goofy photo – ‘Don’t jump!’ I was instead really surprised by the very human touch of the hands – they are larger than mine – and rather than me ‘rescuing’ Solace it somehow felt the other way around.

I frequently wrestle with the concept of ‘I want to make a difference’. Inevitably I park the concept because it gets too hard – how many people really make a difference – and what is ‘difference’ in the first instance? The results of countless millions who’ve got us to this point have merged into a mass – there are only very few whose contributions have extended down the years. I believe the difference is to genuinely reach out to someone and make a change in their lives in a positive way. Lift them a little, carry them a little on the road. Everyone gets tired on the way.

Do not depend on the hope of results. You may have to face the fact that your work will be apparently worthless and even achieve no result at all, if not perhaps results opposite to what you expect. As you get used to this idea, you start more and more to concentrate not on the results, but on the value, the rightness, the truth of the work itself. You gradually struggle less and less for an idea and more and more for specific people. In the end, it is the reality of personal relationship that saves everything. — Thomas Merton

Manifesto
08. Every day choose to bring about change.
15. Every day make a difference to yourself and others.
18. Every day express love. Some people need to hear it. Most people need to see it. Don’t take it for granted.

2 Comments