Small Acts of Compassion in Action
Lancaster, PA – Folks enjoying a seasonally warm and mostly sunny day in the nation’s oldest inland city cheerfully accepted the small flyer being handed out along Prince Street, on Gallery Row, by members and associates of the Contemplative Order of Compassion. The small leaflet simply said, “Compassion Works! Please consider doing something today to help relieve the suffering of just one person… no matter how small your effort, you’ll help create a better world. Pass it on” and then it listed the website address for the Charter for Compassion (http://charterforcompassion.com) and the web address for Contemplative Order of Compassion (http://orderofcompassion.com)
In all, we distributed 250 flyers in less than an hour, but the ripple effect, upon this sometimes conservative and less socially-active community, can already be seen on the streets, as we witnessed folks speeding up a few steps to get the door for someone, and saw several folks reaching out to one of the local homeless people.
It was a small effort, and a small act on our parts… but one which can still make a big difference.
Life doesn’t ask any more than for us to make measurable progress in reasonable time… After all, that is why they make the desks for third graders so small!
Namaste,
Dharmacharya Gurudas Sunyatananda
The Contemplative Order of Compassion
http://orderofcompassion.com
Copyright ©2008, His Eminence Dharmacharya Gurudas Sunyatananda. All rights reserved. This material may be reproduced, blogged, quoted or distributed, provided the entire copyright including contact information remain intact. It may NOT be altered in any way, without express written permission. Photo published under Creative Commons License on travelpod.com.
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You would be surprised that it takes around two minutes to solve life’s daily problems… the way we bitch! It quite seems we have come to rely on others so much (restaurants, maid service, prepared everything)that we get upset, and stew, for hours, what could have been fixed with the elementary schooling that we forgot how to practice, once the corporate hands gets to the shallow weak, easily trained, have to be better than the Jones, to do their bidding so the CEO’s get the bonuses and the tellers get the threats off the street .
I digress…
The thing is, “misery loves company.” So, handing out those fliers… I’m sure 30% landed in the trash, or gutter (which shows no compassion at all!)… it all comes to this; a group of happy people gave a little of there happy time to a group of not-so-happy people, and asked them to forward the kindness…and so on, and so on, and so there was that much more positive energy in our world for the day!
YOU CAN TRY TO DO SOMETHING GOOD FOR SOMEONE, EVEN A STRANGER…SEE HOW YOU FEEL!
Brought to you by “Shem Maheya”
Comment by Craig Daube — Monday, 16th November 2009 @ 2:02 am
True that! Love ya, Shem!
Comment by Dharmacharya Gurudas Sunyatananda — Monday, 16th November 2009 @ 8:38 am