My two daily email messages coincided today, which I thought was pretty neat. I will share them here first, and add comments later. Feel free to comment before me.
On this day of your life,
Jackie, I believe God wants you to know...
...that you cannot help another who will not
help him- or herself.
In the end, all souls must walk their path -- and the
reason they are walking a particular path may not be
clear to us...or even to them at the level of ordinary
human consciousness.
Do what you can to help others, of course. Show
love and caring whenever and wherever you can.
But do not get caught up in someone else's "story"
to the point where you start writing it.
Know what I mean?
Love, Your Friend ...
Neale.
Nobody else knows your reason for being. You do. Your bliss guides you to it. When you follow your bliss, when you follow your path to joy, your conversation is of joy, your feelings are of joy — you're right on the path of that which you intended when you came forth into this physical body
Johannes (Yoshio) replied the topic: Following your path
For me this does bring up that we first and foremost have to walk our own, our individual Paths. That we have to be aware of them and that we need to take care of us and our selves first before we are able to go out and help others.
I know that this idea might sounds strange and might even feel strange to many but it is what I came to understand to be true. If I don't take care for myself, do whatever is needed to feel healthy, happy and good, I'm of little to no help for others as I will constantly have to battle my own problems, my own worries which, obviously, is limiting my ability to be of help and service for others.
Dogan Nar II replied the topic: Following your path
To me, this speaks to my reason for calling myself a Gray Jedi. One of the things I found many Jedi in the past getting wrapped up with was the idea of selflessness--to the point where they would "over-focus" on helping others and ignore themselves. Now, that's not to say that the idea of selflessness is bad and I think a discussion on the concept and on philosophy would be excellent. However, I firmly believe that you must build yourself up before you can build anyone else up--before you can help others.
This concept applies to many areas. The one that comes to mind first is the old cliche that you have to love yourself before you can love others. I remember an analogy that my Master gave me when I was a Padawan many years ago, he asked me "Let's say that you come across someone clinging to the ledge of a building. You wouldn't be able to save them without first having trained your body to have the strength to pull another person's body". So there are so many things this concept applies to. Physical strength, you can't save that person from falling off a building. Mental strength, you can't save someone from committing suicide unless you yourself are of the right mindset to be able to remain positive and help them through their problems.
I was in a situation a few months back with my best friend who I consider a mentor in many ways. We went to visit a friend who's a bit mentally unstable and she was talking about suicide. Something that my friend related to her, such a simple concept but it stuck with me because I found it very deep, is that you can see yourself as a cup. Some people's cups are full, some are empty, some are somewhere in between. Your cup can refill and you can help others by pouring from your cup into theirs. It can be as simple as a smile, or a kind word, financial help when they're in need, whatever it may be. Everything is sharing love, is helping to fill their cup.
In essence, what I take away from that is that one must better themselves in every way possible because it is crucial to their own wellbeing. And in turn, you can fill other's cups freely because yours will be overflowing.
You'll find, if you engage in the training program that we promote responsible selfishness. Using your awareness to know when to act, when to step back, and when to focus on the self instead of others. I don't believe that's a gray concept. It's absolutely a light concept in that it's a requirement of being benevolent in the world. The awareness of what creates more is what allows us to contribute the most to the world.
Thank you for these examples. They are beneficial.
