Caring for others, by Ringu Tulku

I don’t know what the word ‘suffering’ means to you. Of course, a word is
just a symbol, a sound symbol, so you can put any meaning to it. The
meanings of words change all the time.

When a Buddhist says ‘suffering’, it is usually the translation of Duhkha in

Sanskrit (Dukkha in Pali). Duhkha means anything ‘not nice’, anything from
a little bit of dissatisfaction through to really big mental and physical pain.
All of this is included in the term, from the smallest to the biggest lack of
comfort, dissatisfaction, problems and pain. It is what we do not want.
Nobody wants that. We want the opposite: we want complete happiness,
complete satisfaction, complete joy, complete well being for ourselves.

However, if we look a little bit deeper, we find that if I have no problem for
myself, it is not enough. Because there are people that I love and, if they
have a problem, then I have a problem too. There is nobody who does not
have some connection or relationship or love or friendship.

So therefore, wanting to be free from suffering, myself only, is not the

solution; it is not the end of the problem. I need to think about others also,
not only myself. And how extended that feeling goes is different for
different people. If you are very selfish, then it does not go far. If you are
less selfish, then it goes a bit further.

Then, your loved ones have their loved ones too. It is all very
interdependent. Somebody was saying to me that there was a calculation
showing that any two people on this earth, however far or distant they are
from each other, would have a mutual friend or acquaintance within seven
people. Nobody is so far away from each other, in a way.

Also, things affect each other. So it is illogical to only be concerned for

oneself. It is not because you ‘have to be compassionate’, or that it is ‘the
Buddhist way’, or even that it is ‘a good thing go do’…
It is simply logical; if others are not free from suffering, I cannot be either.

Whether we like it or not, we are connected. We are not connected with a

chain, but interdependently and dependently other people’s state of being
affects my well being. So, there is a no way I can avoid having to do
something for the good of some other people, at least. And the more people
included, the better it is.

- Ringu Tulku