Self-Care is Volunteer Work

There's a term that I've heard thrown around a lot recently: Engaged Buddhism. I'm not sure why this has become such a popular term to discuss lately because, in my opinion, Buddhism has always shown concern for the culture around it.

The term "interdependence" is something that's central to Buddhism in that we are all connected, so what happens to one of us happens to all of us. It's like the pebble that's thrown into a lake and from it ripples flow outwards. However, today this term is growing increasingly popular among people who want to remind us to apply Buddha's teachings to social life in order to bring about change - people who want us to become engaged Buddhists.

For me, this isn't anything "new." I've always been involved with volunteer work so the term "engaged Buddhism" is one that I can readily accept. Long before I left most of my Christian beliefs behind to become a Buddhist, I believed in helping those in need, so when I became a Buddhist I didn't need a reason to continue doing this. (Nor do I need a term to define my actions by.) Nonetheless, here it is.

When I take an even deeper dive into this terminology, I realize that there's another piece to this definition, one which frequently gets overlooked. It has to do with the impermanence of the reality we live in. Here, we're called upon to look upon the culture we live in as a work of "art" to which we're to bring authenticity. When we become awakened we realize that the space we're living in is ripe with our imagination. We can then bring a part of ourselves to this world just as people all throughout history have done. 

In fact, what we have now is the result of the pebble that these people threw into the lake while they were alive. We're merely feeling the ripples from the pebble that was thrown so long ago. Just as they were responsible for their pebbles, we're responsible for the ones we choose to throw. This is "freedom."

As a Buddhist we're called to embrace this freedom while also moving away from self-centered craving. We're encouraged to move towards the creative realization of this world and how it can be a place of grace, value, and pleasantness for others, both now and in the future (as far as our pebbles' ripples can reach).

All of this can seem like such a heavy "burden" to carry, but it doesn't have to be that way at all. None of us are expected to take on the entire world by ourselves nor should we even try to do so. Instead, I believe that Thich Nhat Hahn made a very valuable point in a podcast that I was listening to the other day. He reminded his listeners that we're responsible for ourselves.

What does this responsibility look like? It starts with taking care of ourselves (a.k.a., self-care) and becoming the best version of ourselves we can be. In doing so we can make ripples.

This is a reminder that when we are at our best (or even striving to be at our best) we are doing a type of "volunteer" work. We're volunteering ourselves to be a light unto a darkened world. This is something that Richard Rorty was trying to emphasize when he said that "A talent for speaking differently, rather than for arguing well, is the chief instrument of cultural change."

The truth here is simple: Regardless of whether or not we think we have time to do volunteer work, we're still doing it everyday of our lives. It doesn't matter what you do or how small you think you are, you have a pebble that you're throwing. So, my question for you today is are you engaging in self-care? Regardless of your answer, take a moment to consider the type of ripple your life will make. Like it? Great. Hate it? There's time to get to work on becoming enlightened and changing that ripple.