Things are as they are, there are many different energies that make up the whole, from parasitic organisms to bio-degrading organisms. We do not need to be complacent, placid, we can however remain soft. Allowing and softly adjusting for things to pass by.

The hollow shouting of our body and mind is itself the path.
At first our path is narrow and separate, because that is who we think we are.
When we become one with all of life, then our path widens and becomes more inclusive. If we persist with our training, eventually every moment and everything that is, is our path.
Even if we have had patience with our own hollow shouting, now we have to deal with the whole world. What will we do?

Discipline is the wisdom gained from years of experience of knowing what is helpful to beings, by trying, and often, failing. Failure is often a better teacher than success.
And, when we truly don’t know, discipline is trusting the deep stillness within.

That deep stillness knows, because it is part of - everything.

Discipline is getting out of clinging to the way of “my” ideas, and allowing “deep stillness” to lead the way..

Both of these approaches are helpful to me. I use a mozzie net to keep mosquitos at bay, rather than poisoning them… and if I can do the same with viruses, why not? So, I take echinacea and vitamin C and so on. I do what I can to protect my own well-being.

But at the end of the day, when the battle is sometimes lost, it helps to see things in the light John mentions. All things have their place, and their time, it seems…

I am very pleased that the ‘Robert matters’ have finally been resolved. From what we have been experiencing here at Nan Hua Temple in recent months I am also very glad that Emoyeni is at least practicing some of that generosity, and caring and kindness that Buddhism always alludes to.

Hopefully Robert will from here on make every effort to maintain a clean slate. Having also just recently assisted somebody who has been using crack, among other things, for a lengthy period, and who was also engaged on a more self-destructive escapade than by necessarily harming others, I know how frustrating it is when they become consumed by their habit.

But then again, having been a substance abuser myself, I know how difficult it is to “stay away” from the “easy way out”. In this particular instance the person was also in an extremely abusive (physically, mentally, psychologically, emotionally) relationship, where they were basically being ‘kept’ by a Nigerian, and consequently there is also that ‘attachment’ that needs to be broken. But so far, second time round, they are now almost four weeks ‘clean’, and more importantly alive and safe.

Keep up the good work that Emoyeni is doing, and may you have many more generous sponsors supporting a very worthy retreat centre.

Okay, that’s not going anywhere useful, so let’s approach this differently. Is a virus a living being? According to biological and/or medical acceptance, a virus is generally accepted as being a living organism.

But let’s leave all of that aside as well. (Trust me, it is not going to go anywhere useful.) Far more relevant, I believe, is that you have a choice with everything in life, except, death. Death is a certainty, for us all, and everything else is pretty much uncertain. So you get to choose! Simple.

It is your choice whether you want to kill the virus or bacteria, or whatever, or not. If you do not have the compassion to let it breed in or on you, then kill it. If you believe you have to demonstrate THAT level of compassion, then let it feed on you. Nobody can tell you which is right and which is wrong. You decide, and as long as you are willing and happy to live with the consequences, because there will be consequences, then that is fine. One way or another.

If you believe that that living beings’ consciousness or existence is more relevant (important) than yours, please do everything to make its habitat as ideal as possible. No antibiotics, not too hot or too cold, don’t exceed the moisture levels, or deprive it of sufficient moisture. Maintain a good pH level in your body. Do not stress out the poor creature, or … oh what the heck. Who am I kidding?

Stuff the virus, I have a life to live, and many more other living beings to benefit, and I will gladly inherit the Karma from doing everything in my power to let myself feel a bit better among the misery of having a cold, or flu, or a sore throat, or cough. Life is hard enough, and for once I will accept survival of the fittest, because believe me, given half a chance the virus won’t bat an eyelid, or whatever it is that they bat, to do me in.

But hey … that is JUST me.

Perhaps a fruitful issue to explore is the contention of so many teachers that ultimately the Dharma is a set of concepts (and that includes the concept of Buddha Nature) which point to something beyond conception.

I also agree that half the time, those situations which really rouse our compassion tend to be those which we can do nothing about, in practical terms. Like the war in the Middle East, or the father whose children burnt to death recently because he had installed security doors in his house, and when the fire broke out they couldn’t get the security doors open. He watched them die, with their pleas for help ringing in his ears. This is the kind of thing that makes one feel completely helpless - and yet as you say, there are always prayers and visualisations… and perhaps these are more important than we realise.

The best definition of compassion (I reckon) is still the one Rob Nairn uses, but which I seem to recall having initially come across in a book or teaching by a Lama (but I have not been able to find the source or original reading again) and that says it is “the discerning ability to help in an appropriate manner”. So it is not sentimental syrupy nonsense, nor is it about making yourself feel better.

And far too often one of two things happens. Either the giver has a guilty conscience and now wants to make him/herself feel better, so they are only ‘giving’ grudgingly, or it becomes a top-down ‘giving’. And then ultimately I usually also see the entire ego aspect coming into play. The giver wants to be seen to be giving. (Incidentally the giving can also consist purely of voicing your feeling about someone or a situation. So merely telling others how sad you are about the situation in Rwanda or wherever, that alone can be a case of wanting others to ‘know’ that you care or worry.) If you truly feel compassion for a situation (or being) then just get on with doing whatever you are able to do, and if there is nothing that you can do (for whatever reason) just quietly say a prayer or blessing for the situation.

The power of thought (or visualisation, and sending energy) is enormous. So realise that even people like Bill or George need all the compassion and assistance you can muster, not necessarily for their own benefit, but for the sake of the rest of all living beings. And even though there are those who commit unbelievably atrocious acts against other living beings (on a daily, and minute by minute basis, even as I am wring this) that does not mean that I should not ‘feel’ for the recipients/victims, nor for the perpetrator.

And even though I know that my feeling for the victim is not going to make much of a difference, nor is it going to necessarily change the perpetrator, I ensure that I am being mindful, and even more significantly that I do not loose my ability to recognise wrong when it is done. And finally most importantly I remind myself that regardless, I should never loose hope that the wrongdoer can be rehabilitated.

There are far more situations I encounter where there is nothing that I can do for either the victim nor the wrongdoer, than there are situations where I am able to be of benefit or change. But that does not mean that I stop seeing/recognising these situations or acts of wrongdoing. And always, the very least I can do is visualise how it should ideally be (as far as my or society’s ideal goes) and chant a mantra or prayer for change.

But I always feel compassion for the perpetrator, because I know that they are acting in accordance with what the Buddha said was human beings’ greatest shortcoming: ignorance and delusion. Ignorance is not having had access to the information or details (of importance), and delusion is having had access to the relevant detail, but not having understood it correctly.

The most important aspect for me, though, comes in in accepting that I will not be able to necessarily do anything much about anything. Accepting, and letting go. But I never loose hope, never.

Oh, and as for Karma, the ‘equation’ is very simple: action plus cause equals result. And action is anything we think, speak, or do, and cause is the intention or emotion with which we do the action, and result obviously then is the outcome. So no airy fairy nonsense about ‘luck’, fate, kismet or predetermination — you ’cause’ your own luck!

In terms of science and quantum physics they are slowly also coming to realise more and more just how interconnected, and sometimes codependent, everything (all phenomena) is. Everything will ultimately balance itself out. Whether you want to believe that or not, whether you like it or not, it just is (like that)!

Bill Gates? Well - does he really need my compassion? I suppose so, in the same way that all sentient beings - including myself - do. Certainly I find it easier to feel compassion towards a Bill Gates than I do towards a neo-Nazi type. I suppose I need to work on that. Not that I will ever condone Nazi-style behaviour. But there is still a way of feeling true compassion for them, as long as you believe in karma! (as in my opening quote on this thread). If you don’t believe in karma, the good old-fashioned-Eastern (ie. not New Age) way, then there hardly seems to be any point in practising or feeling compassion towards sociopaths and so on in the first place.

(I do believe in old-fashioned karma…