Due to the Kindness of Others

 from Open-Hearted Life

In our everyday lives, we are often unaware of how much we depend on others just to stay alive, and as a result we often take their kindness and efforts on our behalf for granted. When we pause and consider that we are all dependent on one another, we realize that everything we have, everything we know and everything we are able to do has come about due to the kindness of others. We are not the independent pick-yourself-up-by-your-own-bootstraps individuals that we sometimes pride ourselves in being.

Think of the food you ate for lunch. Where did it come from? Some people grew it, others harvested it, another person transported it and some others packaged it. Then there are the people who put it on the shelves in the stores, the person at the checkout counter and whoever cooked it. Without the efforts of all these people you wouldn't have even a mouthful of food to eat.

Look around you and pick an item -- a chair, a book, a spoon, whatever. Then think about all the people involved in your having it. This includes not only the people directly involved in producing it, but also the people who designed and made the machinery used to produce it. Then consider the miners who got the raw materials and the people in the factories who processed it so that it could be made into the machinery that then produced the item in the room. When we consider all the things we use each day that make our lives possible, the number of people and animals involved in our having them become uncountable.

Especially with the global economy, we are indebted to numberless people in other countries, some working in dangerous or dreadful conditions to produce the goods we use. Do we think about them when we put on our shoes or use our computer? We can, and doing so will transform our minds. We should try to use the things in our environment with more care and awareness of what others have gone through to make them. To repay their kindness, we must practice compassion towards as many people and animals as we can.

We only have the skills we have because others developed the knowledge and then cared enough to teach us.

When we think about it, the web of interdependent relationships connecting us to all living beings is huge, and we are able to live precisely because of their efforts and kindness. When we contemplate this deeply, we will never feel estranged from others. Contemplating this over time will lead us to recognize that we have been the recipient of tremendous kindness from the day we were born until now.  Opening ourselves to this fact, our gratitude and feeling of closeness with others will increase and remain constant, instead of jumping from love to hatred whenever we think that they are doing something "wrong." This establishes a firm foundation for generating love and compassion.