Kindness Is A Strategy For A Happy Life

All our thoughts and feelings as we go through our day are recorded for us by the universe and then played back to us as an experience on the screen of time-space.

Because we have long since forgotten what we thought or felt about anything, when the playback unrolls it takes us by surprise, and since we are more prone to negative views on things, as our urge to fix things is usually stronger than our urge to heal them, the playback usually sets us off on another cycle of gloom and doom.

Of course in our more sunny moods and times of awareness, we determine to set things up right the next time, but as our mind speeds up with the roll of urgent events, we fall back into unawareness and create more mishap.

In general, then, the better strategy is to assume an attitude of helpfulness, both to ourselves and others, a kindness and tolerance in our view, a forgiving and giving in our actions, and a sense of poise and ease in our delivery of any dialogue.

When Albert Schweitzer wanted people to understand this value of cooperation and harmony he would tell this story:

"A flock of wild geese had settled to rest on a pond. One of the flock had been captured by a gardener, who had clipped its wings before releasing it. When the geese started to resume their flight, this one tried frantically, but vainly, to lift itself into the air.

"The others, observing his struggles, flew about in obvious efforts to encourage him; but it was no use.
Thereupon, the entire flock settled back on the pond and waited, even though the urge to go on was strong within them. For several days they waited until the damaged feathers had grown sufficiently to permit the goose to fly.

"Meanwhile, the unethical gardener, having been converted by the ethical geese, gladly watched them as they finally rose together and all resumed their long flight."

We can learn much from this story, for it is not only about the ethics of kindness amongst the geese, but also how they were in relationship with the universe itself even when misfortune struck. The lesson was not for the geese but for the gardener.

Through our conduct, we can establish the same rapport with the universe that the geese enjoyed and that made them whole despite an unexpected adversity.

Our most important relationship, then, is with the universe for it gives us our reality, the unfolding movie of our lives. But this relationship is an indirect one for we are dealing with an invisible current that shapes our destiny from day to day by how we think and feel.

While at certain peak states of awareness we may be able to control our thoughts and feelings about things, the general tone of life is not conducive to such heightened perception, and a better general strategy for staying on good terms with the universe is by exercising the view held by the geese, a sense of love and tolerance, acceptance and patience.

Life is short but it is also a long flight and we enjoy it most when we are in the company of a universe that buoys our every effort with benediction, heals our wounds when we should fall, and leads us to higher and higher comprehension of the mystery of sentience; but to get to this place, we need to be the embodiment of benediction ourselves.

The purpose of all virtue is not to win accolades or fulfill some creed taught in some group—it is, more than anything else, a way for us to find rhythm, harmony, and peace as we walk towards the twilight of our days, preparing for journeys beyond the body; for everything, even life itself, is always a preparation for something greater.

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