om spirit
they might have been too distracted to
stop and help.
The experiment researchers recruited
religious studies students to test three
hypotheses:
n People thinking about religion and
higher principles would be no more inclined
to show helping behaviour than laymen.
n People in a rush would be much less
likely to show helping behaviour.
n People who are religious for personal
gain would be less likely to help than
people who are religious because they
want to gain some spiritual and personal
insights into the meaning of life.
The students were given some religious
teaching and instruction and then were
told to travel from one building to the next.
Between the two buildings was a man lying
injured and appearing to be in desperate
need of assistance.
The results of the experiment were
extremely interesting. The haste of the
subject was the overriding factor: when the
subject was in no hurry, nearly two thirds
of people stopped to lend assistance.
When the subject was in a rush, this
dropped to one in 10.
Most of us in the West seem to be in
a constant hurry. We live in a monetary
system in which everything is seemingly
valued in a financial way, therefore things
that can’t be measured by this system
get squeezed out. When ‘time is money’,
rushing becomes a part of life, and as the
study and our life experience shows, when
we are rushed compassion, patience and
connection get pushed to the side. As
do all the things that make life truly rich:
connecting with a loved one, laughing
freely, walking in a forest, staring up at the
stars, dancing to beautiful music.Buddha nature
In Buddhism there is a belief that we all
have an innate ‘Buddha nature’ – the
inborn qualities of patience, compassion,
truth, playfulness, timelessness and
curiosity. Anyone who has been around a
baby, puppy, kitten, or any newborn living
thing will surely acknowledge this to be
true. No one is born innately ‘bad’, we are
all living different experiences that affect
our behaviour. And our behaviour always
makes sense from our point of view. As the
cultural critic Charles Eisenstein puts forth:“If I were you, I would do as you do.”
In difficult circumstances, such as when
feeling upset with someone, this is very
challenging – yet also truly life changing.
Let us squeeze out the dispositional
psychology and acknowledge a person’s
innate Buddha nature, to acknowledge
we have never lived in their shoes and to
acknowledge that ‘if I were you, my brother
or sister, I would behave just as you are’.
Am I living fully in this way? No I am
not yet, but I am trying every day in all
situations in which I am emotionally
challenged. When I drop any cynicism and
feel with my heart I know this way of living
to be true. This ongoing attempt to live in
this way has already started to improve
all of my relationships. A willingness to
understand a person’s behaviour brings a
more open and deeper connection.
It is easy to keep walking on the same
old path in a forest of judgement and
isolation. But, much as it is harder to walk
on a new path of compassion and patience
through the bushes and weeds, the more
we try, the easier it gets. The more neural
pathways are created in the brain and
loving kindness becomes easier and easier.
I wonder what would happen if we all
started to believe in the power of Namaste?