Rabbi Tarfon urges us all to act responsibly now. He said, “Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now.” He doesn’t give us a reason to be just, loving and humble. He just asks us to do it Now. What’s the urgency, and more importantly for some of us, what’s the payback? After all, that’s a major commitment to changing the world, through a not so simple act of lovingkindness and justice. Why should we?
Certainly, our gracious generosity of time, energy and spirit is not always appreciated. Why then do so many of us offer our kindness to others? Some of us do good deeds because we have expectations. The problem often is that our expectations and those of the people we help are not always in alignment. Try to have that talk about the dangers of drug use with today’s teens, and you’ll know what I mean. Try having a conversation with someone with deeply embedded beliefs in anything about a different perspective, and you may experience this battle of ideas and expectations. But we continue to care. Why?
On the surface it seems that we are acting to present ourselves as just, fair and loving, whether or not we really believe that we are all those things. Some may even be aware that we want to experience love from the “other” person, so we extend our loving acts in the hope that the others will return the favor. Others may say that we want to matter in some way, so we rescue others from their challenges in the hopes of feeling good about it. And sadly, with all these desires for change, the reality we create for ourselves is awareness of enormous grief.
Perhaps there is an answer: Be open to life, curious about what is in the present moment. Transactional acts – if I do this, you’ll do that – are bound to disappoint, because that cycle never delivers enough of what we are seeking. Desires and expectations are tricks of the mind, unsatisfying ruses that fling us into the future, or drag us kicking and screaming sometimes to the past, so that we then miss the joy of the present, by obscuring it with untrue thoughts.
We are one spirit, expressing as the divine love of the universe, in the present moment. If we are awake to our truth, we are aware that we cannot be anything but love. We expect no thanks because thanks are a future event that may or may not happen, creating suffering.
In the present moment we need no thanks for our acts of compassion and lovingkindness. The true expression of our humility is to ask for nothing, because kindness and love are not transactions, they are just the way it is in the universe. What we do “for others” we do for ourselves, because we are one spirit. Who we are has no requirements, no payback, no expectations. Be still now, be the love you are and expect no applause.