By Aishanee Acharyya
This was my second young adult retreat, and I had a really good time. From climbing trees and doing cartwheels in the park to doing karma yoga sweeping the chapel, it was a lot of fun. The topic of compassion felt really relevant and important. I will be trying my best to implement some of the main things I took away from the past few readings and lectures. Of course, there were the lessons relating to compassion, but I also learned other good habits during my stay. I wanted to gain discipline regarding sleep and prayer in my life, and this weekend I did manage to do that with strict bedtimes and 5:45 a.m. wake-ups. I also built my stamina for focused meditation, which is a habit I want to continue practicing at home.
As for compassion, I feel that I got a good grasp of not only what it means but also how I can change my understanding of the world to be a more compassionate person. Compassion comes from a sense of unity and oneness amongst all beings. The biggest obstacle to compassion and acquiring knowledge is having an ego. Even thinking that “I am trying to help or save the world” shows ego, because it implies that we feel we are mightier than God and are criticizing God’s creation of the world.
Doing good work or helping people is not something we are doing for others or doing for the world but rather, something we are doing for ourselves. If we help someone or show them compassion. we should not stroke our ego but be thankful to the person letting us help, because they provided us an opportunity for moral exercise. Building this moral muscle will only benefit us. To build this mahakaruna or true compassion, we have to remove cravings, which will also allow us to remove suffering. Seeing everything in the world as ‘I’ is the right way to see the world, because it eliminates desires. Just as your limbs don’t get jealous of each other as they are all connected to your entity, you should not have desires in the world, because you should feel like one with everything around you. Getting rid of these desires takes away bondage which is necessary for happiness.
I will try to work on this idea of removing the ‘me and mine’ understanding and see everyone as an extension of the ‘I’ and atman to become more compassionate. I learned a lot and know that now is the best time to start implementing all this in my life, since as a young adult, I have the combination of intelligence and enthusiasm, which we discussed on the first evening. I am so thankful to Swamiji, all the people who made the retreat possible by cooking and helping out in all kinds of ways, and all my fellow retreat participants for making this such a fulfilling experience. I’ve made so many friends and good memories (I still have the scratches from the tree climb as souvenirs) that I am incredibly grateful for. I hope to come back and see everyone soon!
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