It's Inside Us All

“All major religious traditions carry basically the same message; that is love, compassion and forgiveness. The important thing is they should be part of our daily lives.

Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.  

Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive.”

~Dalai Lama~

           My mother-in-law was born in Laos. She explained to me that sometimes babies and young children are left by their parents on the side of dirt roads. Their parents leave them because they can no longer feed them, with the hope that someone will accept them. Many times families she knew would take a child and raise them as their own, regardless of their nationality or gender. They only saw a child in need, and reached out to save them.

One person who acts in such unselfish ways is Lillian Gordon from the story Jasmine, by Bharati Mukherjee. After Jasmine killed her rapist and self inflicted a cut on her tongue, she wandered on a dirt road in Fowlers Key, Florida. Jasmine came upon a man who was teaching two others to drive. She asked them for water as best she could. They responded with, “No work! This Kanjobal crew. Vamoose! F off! Get Lost!” (129). This is when Lillian stepped in. Jasmine hadn’t eaten for two days. Lillian brought Jasmine food, and sincerely wanted to help her. “It was the first hot, prepared food I’d had in over a month” (130).   

Lillian asked a limited amount of questions and took Jasmine straight into her home. Lillian cared not of how Jasmine arrived at her current destination; her only desire was to help this troubled girl. “She had a low tolerance for reminiscence, bitterness or nostalgia” (131). Because of this Jasmine felt no obligation to tell Lillian about the rape and murder. Lillian is the type of person who doesn’t care about your past, only your future and what she can do to help you now.  

Lillian taught Jasmine how to be “American.” This way Jasmine would reduce her chances of being caught by the INS. “If you walk and talk American, they’ll think you were born here” (134-135). Lillian gave Jasmine the skills she needed to get work, but Lillian saw something special in Jasmine. “You’re different from these others” (134). Jasmine wanted to go to New York, so Lillian made sure she would make it there.

Lillian showed Jasmine, whose first days in America were filled with horror, that there are good people out there. She gave Jasmine back the hope and strength she needed to achieve what she had set out to do. She turned life around for this girl by having a loving and caring heart. Her intentions to help were never secretly to benefit herself, but were pure and kindhearted.

I once worked at a restaurant. We had a lot of elderly customers and I loved chatting with them. One day, I spotted an elderly man having a hard time getting the food on his plate (buffet). His hands shook violently, which I knew was a condition of his age, so I marched over and offered him a hand. I carried his plate around and put whatever he wanted on it. He smiled, patted my shoulder and thanked me. That was enough to make me feel really great, even now! If everyone could take a little of their time to help others in need, the world could see the difference.  

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.

~Dalai Lama~