Today, a 7.1 magnitude earthquake hit the already impoverished Tibetan plateau in western China. Early reports estimate that more than 400 people are reported dead, with as many as 10,000 injured. Over 70% of the regions buildings have collapsed. As many of you know, Bobby (my partner) is a dedicated, practicing Mahayana buddhist. Seeing such devastation in the homeland of his gurus and teachers is heartbreaking. All we can do from here, safe and sound in our little house in Arizona, is all we can do:
* Pray, pray, pray and pray some more to relieve the suffering felt by our brothers and sisters on the other side of the world. Surround them in loving, healing Spirit. Know that help is on the way for them and that they are held in the arms of the Divine.
* Give what we can, with our amazing abundance. It's so early, as I write this, that "Donate to Tibet" pages haven't sprung up yet. You can always count on the American Red Cross, though, to be part of the solution in any international emergency. Click here to access the Donations page of the American Red Cross.
* Look to the loving guidance of his holiness, the Dalai Lama:
We humans have existed in our present form for about a hundred thousand years. I believe that if during this time the human mind had been primarily controlled by anger and hatred, our overall population would have decreased. But today, despite all our wars, we find that the human population is greater than ever. This clearly indicates to me that love and compassion predominate in the world. And this is why unpleasant events are "news"; compassionate activities are so much a part of daily life that they are taken for granted and , therefore, largely ignored.
We must recognize that the suffering of one person or one nation is the suffering of humanity. That the happiness of one person or nation is the happiness of humanity.
It is not enough to be compassionate. You must act. There are two aspects to action. One is to overcome the distortions and afflictions of your own mind, that is, in terms of calming and eventually dispelling anger. This is action out of compassion. The other is more social, more public. When something needs to be done in the world to rectify the wrongs, if one is really concerned with benefiting others, one needs to be engaged, involved.Labels: 2010, American Red Cross, April, china, Dalai Lama, disaster, donate, earthquake, eat pray love, Lezli Goodwin, Tibet