[Engaged] A menu

[Seiko]

I was just trying to think what I could do to provide something useful here. Useful to you seasoned Treeleafers and/or to newcomers. How about a menu of ideas? I am suggesting a list to consult when looking for ideas. Ideas for engagement in service or community or charity (locally to each of you).

Would this menu be useful or used?

What would you propose to add to this list yourself? What are you passionate about?

If we do this, I will start with:

Interfaith work
Youth work
Any activity to support mental health
Animal Welfare
LGBT+ rights
Community gardens

Please let me know what you think to this "menu" idea? Or is there something else you'd like to see me doing here?

Gasshō, Seiko, stlah

[Tairin]

Hi Seiko

I think the menu idea could be helpful. Sometimes people feel the need to lend a hand but are at a loss of what to do? Not every action needs to be epic. Sometimes the small personal actions are best.

Your current list is pretty general though. It might be helpful to be more specific. For example, every year I volunteer to do a Spring cleanup at a Children’s Summer camp. We rake leaves, clean cabins, clean the pool etc. Another example, I regularly volunteer my time with a group that does urban tree planting. Usually planting about 100 trees in an afternoon in a designated area.

One more example, every year I volunteer my time at a local high school mentoring students who are building robots. In fact I am off to do that in about an hour


Tairin
sat today and lah

[Rosui]

Seems like a good idea. I know I’d like to do more and sometimes feel like I don’t have any ideas. Even this list shook up a few ideas for me. It’s not much of an addition but what about adding centers for independent living.

Gassho

Rosui

[Junsho]

Hi Seiko,
That’s a wonderful idea. Helping others is truly a noble and compassionate goal. However, I believe it’s important for us, as followers of the Buddha way, to be mindful of creating unnecessary divisions. For example, I think we should encourage helping those suffering from discrimination overall, since discrimination is wrong and goes against the Dharma, no matter whether it targets gender, orientation, ethnicity, or other factors.

With that in mind, I hesitate to support divisions like this on the menu. From what I understand, the same applies to certain groups on this forum — for instance, creating a group specifically to help LGBT+ seems as absurd as creating a group for non-white individuals like me who face discrimination. Such a division can unintentionally make other groups forgettable, including groups of white people who can also experience discrimination, as well as those with weight issues, disabilities, etc. We are all different, and everyone experiences suffering in their own way. It seems to me that dividing ourselves like this only isolates us and conflicts with the interconnectedness of all beings.

Instead, I’d like to suggest something different, like this:

- Youth Engagement
- Support for Mental Health
- Wildlife and Plant Welfare
- Support for Humanity (Support people regardless of gender, ethnicity, or faith)
- Online Advice Assistance (This is crucial for people like me who are unable to help others locally in various ways, due to language barriers, distance from the city, disabilities, etc.)

Gassho and deep bows.
SatLah

[FlowingPastPatrick]

I’d like to share a gentle perspective on the menu idea, which I personally find very helpful and well-intentioned.

I deeply agree that, ultimately, all beings are interconnected and that suffering is suffering, regardless of labels. At the same time, in our lived, conventional reality, suffering often takes very specific forms depending on social, cultural, and legal conditions.

When certain groups are named on a list like this (for example LGBT+ people), I don’t experience that as creating division, but rather as a way of not overlooking forms of suffering that are still very real and often systemic. Naming is not about ranking or separating beings; it can simply be a practical way to make compassion concrete.

For many people, designated spaces or initiatives are not about exclusion, but about safety, visibility, and being met with understanding. From that angle, I see such categories as skillful means, not as statements about ultimate separation.

To me, Seiko’s menu feels like an open invitation rather than a rigid framework - a way for each of us to connect our own capacities and circumstances with forms of service we feel drawn to. Universal compassion, in practice, often needs specific forms in order to actually reach those who are most vulnerable.

I’m grateful we can have these conversations together, and I offer this simply as one perspective among many.

Gasshō,
Patrick
sat+lah

[Seido_yjk]

Dear Seiko,

Thank you for thinking of us and providing suggestions on how we might practice the gift of giving in our daily lives. I do like the menu of ideas you've proposed as so often others have very creative solutions we wouldn't think of ourselves!

I was pondering the wider question of how we might share with each other our social engagement and engage in charitable actions individually as well. One thought I had was having a charity drive/action/theme that everyone in the sangha could engage with for a discrete period of time and the recipient charity/theme could be determined by vote or by a small group of us. The theme could rotate every month/quarter so no single cause is valued over another. We could invite everyone to participate in it and post either themselves or anonymously the ways in which they've decided to engage with it either online or in their local communities. Sort of like Movember or Veganuary but around a charitable cause with a range of actions people could engage with.

Very banal but we humans are more motivated when there's a time limit, very specific actions and people are doing things together - communal bonds are strong! Please do feel free to disregard if not helpful as this is only a suggestion!

Have a lovely day
Seidō

Sat/Lah