For Us

Since We Are One, it's totally ok to take turns and let a friend (or anyone else!) carry the load for us sometimes — and likewise, it's fine for us to pick up the check for others, without any thought of compensation or reward. We're all in this together!

... and as Sylvia Boorstein notes in It's Easier Than You Think:

... I used to think that if I began seeing all beings as my kin, it would be a big burden. The opposite is true. When someone I know is doing something admirable I don't feel I need to be doing it. She is doing it on my behalf, or as me, relieving me of that particular task. Mary and Chodron are being nuns for me, Alex is teaching for me in remote places, Itzhak Perlman is me playing the violin, and Joe Montana is me, too. So is his mother.

... and as the protagonist realizes in the finale of the film Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, when he discovers the Power of Self-Respect, if we're all one then with the right attitude there's neither self-sacrifice nor selfishness. There's simply another chance for Unselfing ... for Letting Go ... for realizing that Clinging Is Optional ... for Discovering Freedom ... for Centering ... for Erasing Boundaries ... and for just being with Nothing and Everything and all the changes between ...

^z - 2015-11-28