selfless service

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    Haiku About An Assignment

    ByElizabeth

    I’m attending via the Internet a year-long series of lectures through the Upaya Zen Center about Socially Engaged Buddhism. On the honor system (the program consists only of watching zoom or YouTube lectures and a Facebook forum with no interaction with any leading the program other than group emails), as part of the year, we are supposed to have a “social engagement” project informed by Buddhist principles of right living.

    Social engagement as an intrinsic element of spiritual practice/observation seems completely consistent with the principle of Quaker practice I was raised with —that of putting one’s faith and recognition that there is good in every being—into how one lives and works. It also resonates with my understanding of the yoga practice of seva (“selfless” service), which I have tried to make a consistent part of my personal yoga sadhana.

    After much intentional and spaciously open contemplation of this exhortation to have a project, and in response to my listening to the lectures and the questions and observations of others listening to the the program, I came to the conclusion that, actually, I could not take on another thing without it being toxic to myself.

    In fact, after 30 committed years, I’ve given notice of my intent to retire from the Federal civil service at the end of the year. I am also doing less volunteer work than I had been prior to the pandemic. For the rest of the year, I am continuing my concerted efforts to share my experience and knowledge to make sure my co-workers are prepared to take on the responsibilities for the complex project that has been largely my responsibility to lead and coordinate for over a decade. That, along with what it is taking for a mindful emergence from pre-vaccine pandemic living, is taking all the energy I can give and still be healthy.

    I continue to budget to make reparations, to speak out, and make other consistent offerings, but am at last releasing the need for measurable accomplishments, rather than feeling compelled to find or produce more.

    As saying that I am doing what I have already been doing has not seemed sufficiently responsive, and after these months of trying to articulate what I mean in a way that would not sound dismissive of the task, I wrote this haiku:

    This is my project:

    Be kinder to myself and

    Also to others.

    PS It is, I am sure, just a coincidence that it is Bastille Day.

    PPS Get out the vote!

  • Minding My Own Business–Sort Of (and Seva)

    ByElizabeth

    When I was walking to work this morning, I saw this man stretched out on the grass in Stanton Park. It was drizzling, but pleasant. I did not feel any need for an umbrella. The man was definitely breathing, and he had put some cardboard on the ground before lying down. Had it been sunny and had he been lying on a bench or a spread out blanket instead of on wet grass, I would not have wondered at all whether he might need help.

    Would he want “help” that would include waking him up? Would it serve to call emergency services when his lying out in the rain did not seem like an immediate matter of life or death, though did raise questions about whether the man was ok? If all calling did was trigger police waking him and telling him to move actually have made things better for him? Because I could not answer these questions and because he had made himself the pallet of cardboard–leading me to think he had chosen the spot rather than fell, I decided to leave him be. I cannot know whether that was the right thing to have done.

    This debate in my head did raise questions about the conundrums of offering charity and service and whether and when we can ever serve selflessly, unclouded by our own preconceived notions of what is right and good.

    Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

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    A Correspondence on Charitable Contribution to Aids Walk DC

    ByElizabeth
    I print the correspondence below not so much to ask you to give, nor to let you know that I made a donation, but to initiate a discussion on what motivates you to make a donation of money?  What about of time?  They have different practical calculations, depending on whether time or money is of more relative importance or shortage  (real or apparent) at the time of the giving?  Does it make you more likely to give if you have a personal connection to the cause?  Does getting personal satisfaction from giving make it somehow not a fully spiritual act? [I’ll try and blog on the last in future posts].
    Dear Friends,
    On Friday, Sept. 17, 2010 I thought I sent 30 targeted e-mails from my AIDSWALK webpage to former and potential donors to this annual fundraising event. Unfortunately, I did something wrong and the messages were never sent. With time very short, I’m sending this “broadcast” message to the listserve in the hope that some of you who have not already sent a donation from my initial appeal will do so now. For those of you who have already donated now is the time to delete this message.
    IF YOU WANT TO MAKE A DONATION DIRECTLY TO MY AIDSWALK WEBPAGE, PLEASE OPEN THE ATTACHED APPEAL LETTER AND FIND “FOLLOW THIS LINK” WHICH WILL TAKE YOU DIRECTLY TO THE SITE SO YOU CAN MAKE A DONATION.
    This year’s walk is benefiting about 15 different organizations that assist people with HIV/AIDS, in addition to Whitman-Walker Clinic.
    Thanks for all the support you’ve given in the past,
    Joe Izzo
    Help us fight the epidemic! REGISTER for AIDS Walk TODAY! We look forward to seeing you on October 2nd! www.aidswalkwashington.org

    Joseph

    In response to this plea, I clicked on the link to make a donation to the AIDs Walk.  Joe graciously sent me a thank you note, and I responded as follows:
    E to Joe

    Thank you Joe.  I have been giving to WWC since the late 1980s.  When I was in my 20s and 30s I had close friends die of AIDs or go through the tribulations of the early drug trials for HIV.  I like that I can now give in a more personal way.

    Peace and light,
    Elizabeth