Many beliefs we hold are taken for granted without investigation. They remain hidden motivators that 
influence our life journey. Yet, as these belief systems stem from reactions to difficulties in life, they are defensive and don’t offer access to a larger world with more options and deeper understanding of each other’s beliefs. We just assume that we are right and write off those who disagree as misguided.
Like fish that don’t recognize the water they swim in, we remain protectively out of touch with the larger context of life. There is some justification for this as much of the life on our planet goes along with unconscious programming that insures its best chance at survival. It may not be helpful, or even necessary, for a lion to have awareness of the suffering of its prey. They are acting out a program for their survival and the survival of their clan. Humans might be different, at least in potential, if not always in action.
We have the possibility to access a larger picture and operate on a greater plane of awareness if we are willing to look beyond our self interest. This leaves us torn between acting out programmed survival instincts and being able to see the larger context of how our actions affect our world. The ability to access the larger context is the result of our evolutionary or spiritual development. Whenever we do this, we are waking up, from the womb of unknowing into the full understanding of our inter-connectedness with all life.
Buddha was a student of life who woke up and became a guide for the beings caught cycles of suffering. Buddha was able to bridge awareness of our sense of self and the interconnectedness of the life around us. Buddha means “awake” and so THE Buddha means the awakened one, although I’m not sure Buddha would have made that designation. One day the prince woke up to the understanding that their life was interconnected to all life around them. They renounced station and status and simplified their journey to the elemental, existential aspects of being. They sat beneath a tree in exhaustion and surrendered the inner wars waging within. Then Buddha simply awakened. When asked what brought about their deep serenity, they simply said, “I am awake.” I am Buddha. And from that vantage, Buddha was able to understand the complexity of human suffering. He despaired of being able to convey that. Buddha’s loneliness became aloneness, as their confidence grew. Buddha was willing to be alone in the company of humans in order to connect to them. This aloneness and deep understanding was shared by great profits. Jesus and St. Francis were guides who lead humans from shadows in a cave to a life of service in the world.
In the Buddhist tradition, we speak of “enlightened beings” or “Bodhisattvas” who dedicated their lives to leading others from the suffering of ignorance to the great understanding of awakenment. And the greater their understanding, the more alone they were. It is interesting that connecting to all life puts us on a plane that we are less accessible to the programmed lives of those around us. If we surrendered our personal greed, we may wake up and see that we are part of everything else. It seems a fair trade off. Yet, that awakening might be another trap if we don’t surrender our personal space and dedicate our understanding to others. This evokes a conundrum. Caring for others is dependent on caring for ourselves. Kindness to others is dependent on kindness to ourselves. So, it becomes integral to our path that we begin to see when we are making ourselves strong in order to care for others, and when we are self centralizing and agranding ourselves. I think of the Buddha eating rice and milk before awakening, or Christ searching his spirit and confronting the antagonist in the desert, as a necessary precursor to helping the world. The great Bodhisattvas of our human age at some point were ready to dedicate themselves to leading others away from the conditioned dungeons of our projected lives into the wakeful sanity that is our potential.
By understanding that much of what we believe -and take for granted us truth- has been programmed by nature and nurture. The basic survival instincts of maintaining our life in a dangerous world, might be seen as a tool that when we become conscious and conscientious we can see as a language we might employ to communicate with others. If we speak Russian, we are more able to understand a Russian person,we might better fall in love with them and feel their pain, but we don’t become Russian and lose ourselves. A guide has one foot on the shore and the other with those being guided to safety.
Helping ourselves we are more able to develop the clarity and strength to help others. Should we fall into self aggrandizing self importance we lose balance and fall into the river. THen if we surrender we can allow someone else to help us along. This seems to be the process. When we awaken into compassionate interconnection to life, we naturally care for the life around us. And that connection supports us as well. Of course we falter and sometimes fall. But we can learn that our ego is the part of ourselves that needs more and compares itself to everything else. We can recognize that ego is a defensive state that has been programmed to hide in the darkness. Try to make ourselves strong in order to best someone else feels good for a moment, but it is never enough and will never last. When we manifest strength by caring for others we gain a confidence that nurtures a part of us that lies deeper than our programming. With kindness to ourselves and others we nurture our basic goodness that has been there always. We have always had everything.
When we give up placing ourselves at the center of life, we are, in turn, gifted with all of that life. When we let go of our self-importance we are part of everything else. But that is a lonely road different from the ways netflix and our society encourages us. Being a Bodhisattva does not exempt us from suffering. Chris Bell was a sad and misunderstood soul who before his death wrote a song with the heartbreaking line “every night I sell myself I am the cosmos, I am the wind. But that don’t get you back again.” The bodhisattva never outruns suffering. They simply learn to not cause more suffering. The Bodhisattva helps others to learn the importance of not causing harm.
Not causing harm is a powerful action. The earth is incredibly regenerative. If we can stop waging war, life will regrow. And if we cannot, we may not survive. But I believe life will still be there. Some other form may arise to take the mantle. So we should be kind to all beings. They are supporting us whether they know it or not.