Today a squirrel helped teach me about compassion.

Driving near home this morning, my friend Heena and I witnessed a squirrel running into the road, and being crushed under the wheel of the car in the opposite lane.  It lay there on the road, motionless.

I was shocked, and didn’t know what to do.  Heena’s deep well of compassion led her to turn the car round, drive up and stop at the middle of the road where the squirrel lay with blood on the ground, put her hazard lights on, and she stepped out of the car.

She then got a couple of carrier bags from out of the boot, walked over to the squirrel who was most certainly dead from the blow it would have received, and picked it up with the carrier bag.  We certainly couldn’t have left it to continue getting crushed in the road.

I took the bag off her to find a place to dispose of this squirrel’s body, then got into the car and we went on our way.

You should have seen this poor squirrel, it’s body still warm, wrapped up in the carrier bag in my right hand, blood seeping out of it’s head.  This is one squirrel who won’t make it home tonight.  This is one squirrel who may have been out collecting food for it’s dependants.  This is the last Easter that the squirrel would have spent with it’s family.

My biggest lesson learnt was from Heena, and her solid determination to do the right thing at the right time.  It would have been easy to drive off and let someone else handle it (as if anyone really would have), or let the squirrel continue to be crushed in the road.  But no, she decided to stop, and it appeared to me that if she witnessed it, then she’s responsible for it.  She did what was most important in that moment.

So do you believe that?  Do you believe that if you witness something, that suddenly it’s your responsibility?  Do you believe that you are creating the world that’s around you, and that if you see a problem, you must accept ownership of it?  What are the problems and difficulties you’re witnessing in the world around you, and truly ask yourself - how many of those are you creating?  Or is it just easier to put the blame on someone else, and let them fix it?  Is it just easier to have let that other careless driver take responsibility and come back and move the carcass from the middle of the road?

As Christmas approaches us this year, I look forward to attending Crisis Over Christmas - an opportunity to serve London’s homeless this festive period. Here is an account written at the tail end of 2003 of my first and only experience of serving at a Crisis homeless shelter on 26th December 2003, alongside the Young Jains team…

photo credit: Clive Power

Wide-awake at 3am, I knew it was to be a deeply heart-warming day. One thing I can say about a morning shift with a 7:45am start on Boxing Day is that it’s an easy drive down the A5 - never seen Edgware Road so traffic-free!

On arrival at the warehouse in South East London, we headed to the registration desk, were given our name badges and directed over to the volunteers’ area. An entertaining briefing session was concluded with the volunteers dispersing into groups. A shout for 8 people to help out in the kitchen led me to my calling for the morning.

What did kitchen duty consist of for me? Topping, tailing and shredding parsnips for soup, peeling and chopping onions, washing and shredding lettuce, and waste disposal. If you’re reading this and you know my mum, don’t blab it - you KNOW I’ll be expected to do more in the kitchen at home. What was great about kitchen duty for me? We got trained by an ex-professional chef, were offered hot or cold drinks throughout, and had awesome conversations with some students, a physiotherapist from Edinburgh, and a London based paediatrician. As for chopping onions, it must be the first time I’ve cried so much in years - and about time too!

Around midday, I decided to explore other areas of the shelter. As I talked with several of the guests, I found that many of them really did want someone to share their thoughts with. There’s this one guy, we’ll call him Mr L, 6′6″, waiting for his turn in the clothes ticket queue, who had trouble finding shoes that would fit him. Empathising is when you put yourself in someone else’s shoes, and I knew right then how he must have been feeling. I myself have size 15 feet! In the few days that Mr L was at the shelter, he told me he’d transformed his appearance, and donned a groovy haircut. Crisis goes well beyond a simple meal - guests get advice, haircuts, spiritual healing, computer skills, art skills, an abundance of cakes, and much more.

Back in the volunteers’ area, a call came out for outdoor duty. At the front gate, my role was to filter through anyone who arrived. Guests line up to get searched for illegal possessions and guest transport vehicles drop off guests just outside the gate. Certain individuals are banned from Crisis for reasons of bad behaviour or drug dealing, and must not be allowed in. Some of the guests that filter through have an amazingly polite attitude about them, and you know their hearts are being touched when they receive food, shelter and love, without necessarily having to reciprocate.

Whilst on Front Gate Duty, a gentleman who we’ll name Mr G approached me. He’s a Big Issue vendor and was volunteering at Crisis. Mr G greeted me with such warmth, and was surprised to see a young Asian working with the homeless. In his years of selling Big Issue on the streets of London, not a single Asian person had bought a copy from him. When talking with others about this, I found that a common perception is that Asians are tight-fisted - plain and simple. To find out more about Big Issue, I checked out www.bigissue.com and learned that the Big Issue, a news and current affairs magazine, provides opportunities for people facing homelessness to help themselves. Some members of the public choose not to buy this magazine from vendors such as Mr G because they are concerned about how vendors spend their money. The Big Issue believes that all people must take responsibility for themselves, and homeless people have as much right to spend their earnings as they wish as anyone else.

As I was warming up with a hot coffee, a call was made for an internal job of sorting jackets. As we were placing the jackets into the various boxes, we realised just how quickly these jackets will disappear. Much of the clothing was of high quality, and gratefully received by the guests.

In between tasks, the idea was to head into the volunteers’ area, where there were opportunities to mingle with other volunteers, have some food and hot drinks, and wait for a request for the massive variety of jobs that were available to take on such as refereeing a football match. A request came for cigarette rollers - experienced or ready to learn. I was in the latter category and my first ever rolling attempt was impressive, if I may say so myself. The rolling team was challenged to fill up 4 cups worth of rolled cigarettes so that a large number of cigarettes could be distributed out to the guests in each of the 4 main zones. Although I had started rolling quite well, the quality of my cigarettes appeared to decrease fast. Others on the Young Jains team who had never done it before seemed to be naturals!

In the final hour of the shift, some volunteers were needed to clean the guest areas, including sweeping the carpeted floors. Guests sleep on the bare floor with just a blanket covering them, and it’s essential the floors are kept clean. It’s also nice to leave the areas in a better state than they were found for the next shift to take it to a greater level.

Wrapping up now… Following the Young Jains team photo shoot, a Crisis green badge (one of the volunteers who ran the shelter) thanked all “The Jains” for supporting Crisis this year and every year. Those who had no other commitments for the evening then made their way over to Yogi Jis for the traditional YJ post-event social.

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Crisis is a national charity that fights homelessness and empowers people to fulfil their potential and transform their lives.

During Christmas, Crisis provides Centres across London for homeless people, offering hot meals and a wide range of essential services.

Dates: 23rd - 30th December 2007
Times: daytime slot, evening slot, night slot
Location: London - specific location will be disclosed by Crisis nearer the time
Advanced Registration:
http://www.crisis.org.uk/page.builder/crisis_open_christmasnew.html
Group on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5468753268

Event details from the Crisis website…

If you are homeless or living in hostel accommodation, Christmas can be a lonely and depressing time. For the past 35 years, Crisis Open Christmas has helped to alleviate that loneliness, providing Christmas Centres across London from 23 – 30 December that not only offer vital companionship, hot meals and warmth, but a wide range of essential services that homeless people do not normally have access to.

In 2006 over 6500 volunteers gave up their time over the Christmas week to support our work. If you are interested in volunteering at the next COC you can do so in five ways.

General volunteer: This role gives you an opportunity to take part in a variety of tasks which ensure the safe and effective running of the Centre. Tasks such as welcoming guests and serving food, to washing hair and sorting bedding. We need about 85 per cent of volunteers to carry out this role.

Support volunteer: Join the team that makes the COC happen! From logistics and operational roles to driving vehicles, coordinating food deliveries to being a translator, we need key people to help deliver the event.

Services volunteer: Use your specialist skills to help deliver the variety of services we provide our guests – medical professionals, advice practitioners, hairdressers, massage therapists, chefs and many more

Learning & Skills: Help us inspire and entertain our guests. Learning and skills volunteers have a unique opportunity to engage with our guests on a very personal level. Learning and skills covers a wide range of activities.

Set up volunteers: Help get the Centres ready for our guests before the 23 Dec, and put them back to normal after the 30 Dec.

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Date: Friday 18th to Sunday 20th May 2007
Times: Depart at 12 noon from NW London, Return by 9pm to NW London
Location: The Abbey, Oxfordshire
Register: By contacting Malini at retreat@youngjains.org.uk or call 020 8907 7972 / 07816 627817

Early this summer, spend a dynamic weekend in the Oxfordshire countryside, as you encounter the warm, open-minded atmosphere of the Young Jains Residential Retreat.

Spanning across two and a half days of mind, body, and spiritual nourishment, this is your opportunity to immerse yourself in sessions that explore the foundations and lifestyle application of Jain Dharma, amongst a group of twenty curious and creative individuals just like you.

Take some time out to make new friends, build on existing friendships, and have fun within a playful setting where we will cook together, play games, and walk in nature.

Subsidised by Young Jains, your contribution is just £45 for Young Jains Student Members, £60 for Young Jains Members, and £75 for Non-members. With 12 people already signed up, be sure to contact Malini now to register for one of the 8 remaining places.

Get in touch with Malini at retreat@youngjains.org.uk or call 020 8907 7972 / 07816 627817 to request a registration form, or to have any questions about the retreat answered.

For more information, visit http://www.youngjains.org.uk/events/retreat/

Pujyashree Chitrabhanuji is coming to town! That’s right, in March 2007, for just a few days, Pujyashree Chitrabhanu is in London, giving us the opportunity to spend time with an individual that has had and who continues to have a tremendous impact, in spreading the messages of Jain Dharma to the wider world outside India.

There are a series of events taking place from Tuesday 6th to Sunday 11th March in and around London, and I highly recommend you get to as many of them as you can. For those understanding English only, I suggest you check out the event that Young Jains is hosting on Saturday 10th March - details at TwelveFacets.com

What a wonderful chance to learn in person from someone who has so eloquently written about the twelve bhavnas, which are the ancient reflections on everyday reality. His book Twelve Facets of Reality has been instrumental in my current exploration and approach to overcoming inner desires, working towards freedom from the cycles of birth and rebirth, with the ultimate aim of abundant, infinite, eternal bliss - a.k.a. Moksha!

Inspired by the layout of Monopoly, this Jain twist to the game gives all teams the chance to shine out with their knowledge and understanding of Jain Dharma, in a typically warm, supportive, and light-hearted Young Jains setting.

Facilitated by the creator of Jainopoly, Deepa M Shah used quizzes and party games to elicit the qualities required to playfully embrace the often challenging life we come across in our every waking moment.

My personal favourite game involved coming into a circle, catching a tennis ball from someone, and then whilst throwing it to someone else, shouting out a Jain word or phrase. Then, remembering who you threw the ball to, the next time a ball would come your way, throwing it to that same person, shouting out the same phrase as last time.

For me this really helped me build focus, awareness, attentiveness, vigilance, and persistence to keep going, even in moments when the ball dropped. Repeating that one phrase helped keep the main thing the main thing.

The lesson was: if the ball drops, and you go to pick it up, don’t forget to stay alert for the next ball coming your way, otherwise it’ll hit you on the head! It may be better to let the ball roll away rather than get knocked out by trying to do it all. Alternatively, let all the tennis balls come to you, pick up the one you dropped, and with all the tennis balls in your hand, continue the game by releasing each ball out to the group one at a time.

Recently I have found myself following my usual habit pattern of taking on loads of projects, and can sense myself collapsing soon by trying to meet all these expectations I’ve been overloading myself with. I have one of two options to relieve this pressure:

1. Release some of the projects into the world so that other people receive the opportunity to take them on, whilst I can focus on the projects that I need to be working on the most.
2. Continue to oversee all the projects, focusing only on what I’m uniquely qualified to do, and then delegate all the other tasks and sections of each project to other talented individuals who generate much greater value than what I could do on my own.

I do like the sound of the second option, and it gives me the opportunity to be involved in projects that really mean a lot to me, whilst offering the chance for others to get involved. As it is, I love collaborating with other creative individuals, so what a great way to stop hoarding and continue GIVING!

If you’re reading this and fancy working with me on one of the projects I’m currently immersed in, get in touch, and I’ll fill you in on what you can get involved with. It’ll be interesting to explore the special talents you can bring to the mix.

What a truly educational and fulfilling Wednesday evening!

In today’s class, Harshadbhai gave us the low-down on Mahavira and Early Jainism. He started the class by showing the Timeline of India and putting Jainism into temporal perspective.

Here are the key messages (fused with my prior knowledge and experience) that I took away from the class:

• Anekantvad: Every being has the right to have their own belief. This doesn’t mean that you have to accept EVERYTHING. Rather it indicates that you can respect other people’s views, and allow them to respect yours. Afterall, our view of the world is only limited by what we know to be true, and the biggest hurt is created when we do everything in our power to defend that view. What if, although your view may be different, it actually complements the view of the other person? What synergistic solution could you both create, rather than putting up the barriers?
• Ahimsa: Every being has the right to exist without fear of being killed or harmed in some way. However, Ahimsa doesn’t mean inaction. By all means, take action if you’re faced with an adverse situation and the need to protect yourself and others arises. Be pragmatic about it in a minimal-violent way. Wherever possible, do it in an absolutely non-violent way. It’s been said that sitting back and allowing injustice to take place is a cowardly act and is in itself an act of violence – although I’m still unsure of where I sit with this (i.e. if life’s about just observing situations that arise, with equanimity, without getting caught up in delight or anger towards it, then if you’re detached from witnessing an unjust act, is action really necessary?). Gandhi objected to wrong activity that he witnessed, and carried out that objection with minimal violence.
• Anarambha: Avoid starting anything unnecessary. As I understand it, parigraha (the desire to own) leads to arambha (the starting of an unnecessary act). Also, I wonder if this lines up with the Taoist principle of Wu Wei, which is non-doing / non-action. According to Wei Wu Wei, the philosophy of non-dual action, when wu-wei (non-action) is done, nothing is left undone. It’s about following the flow of nature, without trying, behaving completely naturally and in tune with the natural order of things. From a karmic viewpoint, it’s about letting karma come to fruition, without forcing specific situations to take place, and so by not fighting and controlling situations, you embrace what you experience fully, and bind no further karma – so long as you have no raag (attraction) or dwesh (aversion) to it. This philosophy kind of sheds a whole new light on the general message in society that “you MUST make plans and make them work to be successful in life!” What do you think? Should you force life down a certain path, or should you just be an observer of whatever comes up for you in life? How do YOU see the game being played?
• Samayik: This is not so much about the ritualistic 48 minutes sat down in complete isolation, in one spot, reading religious books, praying, worshipping, reciting rosary, or doing meditation. No way! It’s actually about coming closer to the true beautiful reality of our soul, whereby you express ZERO excitement (raag / attraction), and ZERO anger (dwesh / aversion) to any situation that you come to experience in your life. It’s just about equanimity, and practicing equanimity. It’s about observing yourself and the world around you, clearly responding to it, but not reacting to it. It’s about letting karma come to fruition, without binding more karma on top. So samayik as a ritual is INCREDIBLY helpful for us to come closer to our soul, because it keeps us focused on what reality is, penetrating through all the layers of distractions and delusions that hold us back from the truth.
• Aparigraha: Restraining the desire to accumulate more and more. When you want something enough, chances are that you’re going to do what it takes to get it. You might fight someone for it, you might kill for it, you might steal, you might tell a lie to get it, you might negatively influence someone to get it for you. You might even harm yourself to get it. All these things, in the name of accumulation, you’ll do, and as you do them, you bind more karma, that of course keeps you tied up in the cycle of birth and rebirth. Beyond non-accumulation is non-possession. What if you have something, and you hold onto it so tightly because you’re afraid of losing it. Grabbing hold of it, not letting it go, is a result of a deep fear of change that you have within you. You anticipate change, and fear it. You hold so tightly onto things, onto people, because you don’t want it to change, and you end up suffocating these very people. So Aparigraha is not just about restraining your desire for accumulation. Aparigraha is also about not being possessive about what you do have, and releasing it from your grip so that it can flow naturally. There’s a story about two little boys playing in the garden. They see a pair of incredible butterflies, and walk closer to them. The first boy reaches out and catches a butterfly in his hand. The second boy does the same. The first boy, not wanting to lose this butterfly clenches his fist so that the butterfly doesn’t escape. Oops, too late – he’s just crushed it. The physical shell of the butterfly is still there, but he’s squeezed the life out of it. He wanted to keep it forever and now it’s no more. The second boy, however, faces his palm upwards and opens his hand. The butterfly floats out and playfully returns to the palm of his hand within moments. Have you noticed that when you want something enough, but you don’t obsess over how to get it, that before you know it, the very thing you want comes flooding into your life? There’s a brief personal example of that at my post on Travelling Alone But Never Lonely.
• Ahimsa and the Environment: Wow, for me probably the biggest lesson of all! You know what, I’ll let Harshadbhai fill you in on this one. Read the full transcript of Dr Harshad Sanghrajka’s talk about ‘Ahimsa and the Environment’ given on Ahimsa Day at the House of Commons on 1st November 2006. In essence, if we gave enough importance to the elements of nature (earth, water, wind, fire, etc..) as we do to ourselves, then we’d understand that they are also life forms (types of Jiva). By us practicing ahimsa towards the elements, and have restraint in our activity with these life forms, then we wouldn’t be crying so much today about the state of the environment, pollution, and the ozone layer. Seriously, check out the link to his article – you’ll get it!

Following the class, a bunch of us went down for a social at a local place called Spice Rack on Honeypot Lane in Queensbury - the food there is terrific! We talked about our various professions, about yoga & meditation, about 6.30am walks, about the ‘Jain Jigsaw Puzzle’ and about what we each want to get from the classes.

Looking forward to week 3 of the Foundation in Jain Studies course…