I haven’t displayed my feelings about religion yet, mostly because I don’t want to completely alienate and drive away some of my family and friends. Not yet at least. Upon all of the religions that exist, I agree with Buddhism the most. Not entirely agree, but they have some pretty good points. I won’t go into detail just yet, but there is one quote by the Dalai Lama that just made a whole lot of sense… LOGICAL sense. Mr. Lama said “If you can, help others; if you cannot do that, at least do not harm them”. I find it is hard to actually knowingly harm someone, but it’s quite simple to do nothing at all. It’s even simple to help over harm. The Buddhist religion practices compassion. Compassion, one may find, is not necessarily a selfless act. Once one is compassionate, they too benefit from the act of kindness, simply by knowing they had a positive impact on another’s life. In a world where there seems to be more harm than kindness, the feeling is ten-fold, because now it is a rarity.
Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of acts of kindness in the world. One friend helps another on a daily basis. What bothers me is that there is not a big enough presence of altruism. How often do you see someone carrying groceries out for a sweet old lady anymore? What about someone whose car breaks down – do you see many people stop to help? My car recently broke down in the middle of the street, without enough power to run my hazard lights. It was rush hour, on a two lane, one way road. People were so frustrated with me, having to slowly drive around me in this stop and go rush hour traffic. Not one person cared enough to roll down their window to make sure I was OK. I believe it is our duty as a species to help others when they really need it. This should be as natural to us as breathing or eating. If you don’t agree with this, I understand, but consider the following cases.
There are five types of animals that are altruistically caring in nature. I will discuss two. The first is a species of ants in the Amazon Jungle. Their home threatened by a flood, the ants built a bridge using their bodies, to carry their young and Queen to safety. Some died, but most survived. If this wasn’t done, most assuredly all would have perished. Now this may only show compassion in a time when it’s a decision between everyone dying or just some, and we may display the same trait in say, a flood of our own. But it is compassion nonetheless.
The second case is that of the Dolphin. The dolphin is perhaps the most caring animal in the world. When threatened by a predator, dolphins will band together and fight together for the safety of all. Apart from helping their own species, dolphins have been known to recognize the distress calls of other marine life and come to their aid. A single dolphin was observed heading the distress call of two beached whales and guided them to safety. Another instance included a group of dolphins began circling around some swimmers. It wasn’t until they were out of the water that they learned there was a shark nearby, and the dolphins were forming a ring of protection for the humans.
Now this may be a moot point – just because a couple of dolphins and an army of ants banded together for the greater good, doesn’t mean they all do it. My point is, these animals are in it for the survival of not only themselves but for other non threatening species. We have the mental capacity of a million ants, and believe it or not, should be smarter than dolphins. However, it seems we would rather use this capacity to be greedy and look out for our own good, even though it pales in comparison to the needs of others.
TL;DR: I understand that you shouldn’t be expected to help others, but I don’t understand why you wouldn’t want to. This rant has a bigger point, which I will carry on in my next post, which will be soon.
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