Resolution Update

You may recall that one of my New Year's vows was to perform one altruistic act per week and blog about it to inspire the masses. Well, I haven't done anything on a grand scale yet, but I have done a couple of little things. Today I wrote to the adorable 11 year old Brazilian girl we sponsor through Christian Children's Fund. Her full name is Francisca Mayara de Silva Gomes or "Baba" as she told us she likes to be called. We send CCF a modest amount of money each month which goes to education, sanitation, and a library of books and toys for the kids in her town. Also, we send her a little cash for Christmas and her birthday that she gets to spend however she wants. (She buys new clothes and is very grateful.) Alex colored a picture for her and included it with the letter.

Something that has come to my attention about the other New Years Resolutions I wrote are how most of them are tied together. I never realized it before I started working on resolution #6: Become more spiritual by studying different religions. In Buddhist practice, one strives to be selfless or to give up the idea of an isolated self (resolution #1: Not being self-conscious and worrying about what other people think of me. In other words, don't take everything so personally thinking the world is conspiring against me.) Another main feature of Buddhism is abandoning negative actions and emotions (resolution #2: Have a more positive attitude when bad things happen to me, and resolution #5: be honest and fair while controlling my temper). But the real kicker is this: The three-fold essence of the Buddhist path is: the determination to be free (from our confused perception of our problems and their causes), the altruistic intention (recognizing that other people also have problems and that we can help them through love and compassion), and the wisdom realizing reality (understanding the true nature of ourselves and other things so that we can focus on eliminating the real causes of suffering). So altruism (resolution#9) goes hand in hand with Buddhism.

It is interesting that half of my New Years Resolutions relate directly to the principles of Buddhism. (Drinking dark beer and spending money on cars and new suits do not, however.) I am no Buddha yet, but I may have stumbled upon something that merits further investigation. At any rate, finding true happiness while helping the world be happy is the goal of both Buddhism and my blog, so maybe I am on the right path afterall.