benefitting others

I don't remember who I had this conversation with, but we were talking about the kinds of things you often say at Buddhist meditation services, such as "may the merit of my practice benefit all sentient beings." I don't recall the exact wording but at one sangha I go to the prayer before meals includes something along the lines of "I eat this food for the benefit of all sentient beings."

I was pondering with this friend, wondering in what way our practice benefits all sentient beings. I guess I always figured maybe if you are a bodhisattva you benefit all sentient beings in some magical mystical way. But when we say things like the above, everyone says them, not just awakened people, not just bodhisattvas. So how does a regular person "benefit all sentient beings" with their practice?

I think I recall the person I was talking to suggesting there were a couple of reasons. One way of looking at it is that the more we practice the less we inflict more suffering on others and on the world, just because we are kinder, more compassionate, more patient and so on. So where we might have argued and insulted and hurt people a lot before we began practicing, the deeper our practice goes the less we do this sort of thing.

And the related thing is that by inflicting less suffering and having less suffering in our own lives we remove ourselves from the pool of sentient beings who need benefitting, so the bodhisattvas have one less sentient being they have to work on.

Thoughts?

That saying of Rabbi Hillel seems akin to the idea of bodicitta: *If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? If not now, when?" Interesting that it starts with rooting myself in reality, before addressing the needs of others. Like the instructions on the oxygen masks on airplanes-- secure your own mask first.

Oxygen mask analogy may be quite good, actually. Hm.

I've thought about this, too, though perhaps not to the same degree as you (Ona) and your friend.

When thinking about Buddhist practice, I tend to put the focus on what effect the practice (inquiry, incantation, ritual, etc.) has on the mind of the individual performing it. My experience of working with the divine abodes (good will, equanimity, sympathetic joy, and compassion) shows me that they result in qualities of mind that are quite vast. The picture that is usually given is that of the relative effects of putting a spoon full of salt in a glass of water or in the Ganges River, respectively. One will surely taste the salt in the glass of water, but it will go unnoticed when drinking from the great big river.

This vastness of mind is immensely helpful in being non-reactive, and this has innumerable benefits in both our individual practice and in our interactions with others. When we are not contracted (i.e. when our minds are vast), things and events that would normally send us into self-righteous loathing, despair, rage, or pride hardly arise. We are more kind, patient, generous, compassionate, and empathetic to both ourselves, others, and to each and every arising appearance in consciousness.

It's clear to me that ALL sentient beings benefit from such training!

On a more magical or mystical note, I can see how training one's mind could also result in a sort of gravitating force for the minds of others. Like in chaos theory, where a chaotic "attractor" places a sort of upward pull on previous (perhaps "lower") forms of organization, which may pull the system out of stability, into chaos, and than up into a "higher" organization (this is NOT the best explanation of chaotic systems, but it kind of works); so those more developed and mature minds provide a sort of template for other minds to aspire to, both consciously and unconsciously. I think it's possible that consciousness works in this way, and that this is part of the reason why spending time in the presence of mature spiritual practitioners can catalyze one's growth.

So, there are a lot of ways which our practice may benefit each and every sentient being. It starts with an intention, which leads to the development of skillful mental qualities, which leads to transformations of consciousness, which guides others - knowingly and unknowingly - in a beneficial direction.

Any additional thoughts?

Thanks for this topic, Ona. You're really gifted at making me think, and I love it!

-Jackson

@Jackson - <bow>

"may the merit of my practice benefit all sentient beings."

-ona

I see this working in several levels (and I'm open to there being more levels into which I can't really see yet). In no particular order:

1. Including this kind of phrase in my practice is done completely for my own benefit, to remind myself that I'm not the only sentient being that matters around here

2. Further than just 1, this is to remind myself to open up my heart to those other beings and also to myself. So, this is maybe planting an intention in my heart.

3. I've heard a similar phrase used: "may the benefits of our practice ripple outwards and benefit beings seen and unseen" (or something similar). The rippling effect here is the more expanded version of benefiting the people I come in contact with. It expands outwards as the effect I have on people I interact with has an effect on people they interact with and so on. There are actually studies about the dissemination of mind states in social networks showing that your mind state goes further than you may think.

At the moment, when I use this phrase, I mostly focus on 2, slightly less on 1 and let 3 just do its own thing.

http://zenosaurus.blogspot.com/2011/06/albert-saijo-and-long-journey.html

There is a wonderful poem about bodhisattvas at this link...

it is rather irreverent and lighthearted.

That's funny, Kate.