Those Who Help
These Are the Special Ones
I always thought that I was special Now I see: those who helped were special
For much of this life, I have harbored and nursed the unexpressed conviction that I am special. As in good special. As in outstandingly good special. As in way beyond the run of the human mill special. Some call this a swollen ego.
I believe that we all harbor similar certainties about ourselves, though, at times, this special is sometimes a bad special. As in non-deserving special. As in worthless special. As in nowhere near the human mill special. Some call this an inferiority complex.
It’s one of those things that one rarely sits down and confronts squarely, as it were. It’s just a sort of ground-zero certainty that inflates (or deflates) the ego as we live our lives.
I’ve lived a pretty inflated li(f)e.
Then I came to learn about Lao Tzu, the Buddha, Shankara, Ramana Maharshi, Jesus of Nazareth, Dogen, and the host of current Dharma writers.
Such as Keren Arbel who has devoted years of her life to investigating and clarifying fine (though very important) points of doctrine. Such as Sue Hamilton who also spent years probing and clarifying for herself — and for us in the process — what the Buddha said and what he intended; and I believe that she has deduced His aim correctly.
Such as Bhikkhu Bodhi who has spent decades dedicated to rendering the Pali Sutta Pitaka in modern, understandable English; ditto about Bhikkhu Analayo.
Such as Guy Armstrong, Joseph Goldstein, Larry Rosenberg, Richard Shankman, Dan Leighton, Kazuaki Tanahashi, Red Pine, Shohaku Okumura, Alan Wallace, and the Dalai Lama all of whom are still dedicating their lives to shining a light upon the teachings to make them accessible, applicable (and, yes, appliable — as in able to be applied; I know, no such word) to us run of the human mill searchers.
For the last fifteen years, I have focused my life on enlightenment, reading, contemplating, and practicing what the Buddha and some of his descendants shared. I have been treading the path, ever upward — even if at a clip not much faster than a dallying ant.
My intent has always been — and continues to be — that, once I reach enlightenment (or find myself close enough to it that I know how I arrived here) I will do my best to share my path with others that they too may wake and see. I’m not there yet; though at this point I could say that I have reached enlighterment, i.e., not-quite-as-dark-as-before-ment.
But here’s the point: I don’t know whether Armstrong, Goldstein et al. have arrived yet or not, but I do know that they — from wherever on the path they find themselves — also do what they can to help.
And that, I have come to realize, is a true measure of greatness, of very, very good special.
© Wolfstuff
