Daily Meditation: Monday, August 9, 2010

Helping others - on one condition: that you keep your arms free

08/09/2010

You will often hear it pointed out how many selfish people there are, who remain insensitive to the sufferings of others. Even so, there is no shortage of people who instinctively feel these sufferings and misfortunes and decide to intervene. So, in they go: talking or taking initiatives. The trouble is, they don't know that doing good necessitates a whole science. Someone is drowning, and you dive in to save them. If you don't know that they will immediately try to hold onto your arms, making it impossible for you to move, you will both perish. You may say you do know. Yes, but you have to interpret this example and extend it to many other situations in life. Whatever the circumstances, you must think first and foremost of keeping your limbs free, that is to say, of not letting yourself be paralysed by the demands of those you wish to help, otherwise you go down with them. Any number of people have become victims of the good they wanted to do! Then, they have closed themselves off and even spent the rest of their lives regretting trying to help others. You, however, should continue to want to do good, but only providing you know how to, which is, by keeping your limbs or, more precisely, your arms, free.