I have been very slowly working my way through the OSA preliminary exercises, and I've arrived at Part 3 of Step 1 of Lesson 2, involving asking the divine for forgiveness for each item on the list, and vowing to do something to make somebody else's life easier.
It is a really wonderful instruction, and reveals to me depths of self-absorption that, ironically, are themselves deeply shameful. But anyway, my question is: I'm trying to figure out whether I should keep track of these vows to do something that makes others lives easier, and if so, how?
I feel it would be disingenuous and ineffective to proceed in the work with these vows open-ended and incomplete. But it also seems like there is infinite latitude in how big or small of an act can "make someone's life easier." Does passing the salt at the dinner table count, or letting someone go ahead in traffic? Or, since I occasionally volunteer at a nonprofit organization, do I count separately helping the members of the public we serve, and helping my fellow volunteers in the course of their work?
I know this is a very open-ended question, whose answer may be different for every person, but I'm just looking for a little guidance. In general, when working through these lists in the OSA work, I've been limiting myself to three items on the list per day, more than that and I feel like they don't have time to "set" in my mind.
In the course of writing this, I realize that one criteria could be: "count as fulfilling your vow something you wouldn't normally have done, i.e. going beyond your habitual patterns to do things for others with this vow in mind."
I'm also interested in any and all suggestions for ways to make others lives better. It's not something I've devoted a lot of thought to, frankly.
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branchandroot
OSA & vows to help others
Date: 2023-04-10 04:08 pm (UTC)I have been very slowly working my way through the OSA preliminary exercises, and I've arrived at Part 3 of Step 1 of Lesson 2, involving asking the divine for forgiveness for each item on the list, and vowing to do something to make somebody else's life easier.
It is a really wonderful instruction, and reveals to me depths of self-absorption that, ironically, are themselves deeply shameful. But anyway, my question is: I'm trying to figure out whether I should keep track of these vows to do something that makes others lives easier, and if so, how?
I feel it would be disingenuous and ineffective to proceed in the work with these vows open-ended and incomplete. But it also seems like there is infinite latitude in how big or small of an act can "make someone's life easier." Does passing the salt at the dinner table count, or letting someone go ahead in traffic? Or, since I occasionally volunteer at a nonprofit organization, do I count separately helping the members of the public we serve, and helping my fellow volunteers in the course of their work?
I know this is a very open-ended question, whose answer may be different for every person, but I'm just looking for a little guidance. In general, when working through these lists in the OSA work, I've been limiting myself to three items on the list per day, more than that and I feel like they don't have time to "set" in my mind.
In the course of writing this, I realize that one criteria could be: "count as fulfilling your vow something you wouldn't normally have done, i.e. going beyond your habitual patterns to do things for others with this vow in mind."
I'm also interested in any and all suggestions for ways to make others lives better. It's not something I've devoted a lot of thought to, frankly.
Thanks,
Rusty