To Save All Sentient Beings...

[Kotei]

Thank you Kokuu,

of course you got me with the okesa metaphor - yes - stitch by stitch, step by step.
I am rendering this vow in such a way for myself, too.
Not looking at the overwhelming lot of everything in the universe - but here, now, in front of me doing the best I can - not excluding those I personally don't like.

Gassho,
Kotei sat/lah today.

[Tairin]

Thank you Kokuu


Tairin
Sat today and lah

[DanM]

Thanks for this Kokuu, very well explained!

Gassho,
Dan
ST/LAH

[AndyLogan]

Thank you Kokuu for providing this insight.

[aprapti]

aprapti

sat

[Myosho]

[Chikyou]

Thank you for this teaching.

Gassho,
SatLah
Kelly

[Ankai]

I think of it like homelessness or addiction. I will never see the end of these pro problems that plague humanity. But, I have to approach my work as if that were my goal.

Sat today.

[Jishin]

Vowing to save all sentient beings is like vowing to win every soccer match. Just as winning every match is an impossible task for even the best soccer team, saving all sentient beings is an impossible task for any individual. However, just as trying your best and winning as many matches as possible is the goal of a soccer team, trying your best to save as many sentient beings as possible is the goal of someone who makes the vow. In the end, winning means trying your best, not necessarily achieving the impossible task of winning every match or saving all sentient beings.

My 2 shekels.

Gassho, Jishin, ST, LAH

[Meian]

I am rendering this vow in such a way for myself, too.
Not looking at the overwhelming lot of everything in the universe - but here, now, in front of me doing the best I can - not excluding those I personally don't like.

[emoji120][emoji120][emoji120]
meian stlh

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

[Jundo]

Vowing to save all sentient beings is like vowing to win every soccer match. Just as winning every match is an impossible task for even the best soccer team, saving all sentient beings is an impossible task for any individual. However, just as trying your best and winning as many matches as possible is the goal of a soccer team, trying your best to save as many sentient beings as possible is the goal of someone who makes the vow. In the end, winning means trying your best, not necessarily achieving the impossible task of winning every match or saving all sentient beings.

My 2 shekels.

Gassho, Jishin, ST, LAH

Yet the field always holds all the seemingly separate players, and was never in need of rescue at all.

No points to score, no match to lose ... the Buddha Ball already in the net.

And yet, and yet ... let's keep playing during the allotted time, doing our best.



Gassho, J

stlah

[Seiko]

I am reminded of this: Talmud (Sanhedrin 37a): “Whoever saves a single life is considered by scripture to have saved the whole world."

Gasshō
Seiko
stlah

[Mokuseki]

Thank you, Kokuu for starting this thread and all the following comments- it is full of such great insight and I have personally found it so helpful. It shines a light very brightly on some of the seemingly insurmountable global issues that assail us all every time we see a news report - climate change, war, famine, poverty, inequality - the list goes on and on. I had a conversation with a close friend of mine this weekend and he was being very pessimistic and fatalistic about the future and I tried, very poorly to explain to him, the philosophy that has been so well discussed in this thread. I rather feebly end up by saying that we must do "what we can, with what we have, where we are" (to paraphrase Teddy Roosevelt). This thread has put things into much sharper relief. I have not read "Living By Vow", but it has jumped to the top of my reading list. Thank you for your teaching, this has been an excellent start to a Wednesday.
Gassho

Mokuseki
(sat today in the Euro Kiwi SSR)

[Heisoku]

‘… it’s good to remember it’s not all about us..’
Thank you Kokuu for this reminder.
It helps to reflect whether our rushing about is helpful at all or are we being swept along in our own delusion. Sometimes saving all sentient beings starts with us.
Gassho
Heisoku
SAT