Trying to Help

"Trying to help often creates more problems than it solves. Sitting in zazen is the easiest, safest way to help yourself and others."

--Suzuki Roshi

Zen masters are not do-gooders. It's not that they avoid helping, it's just that they avoid trying. You will never see the Zen Masters Charity Golf Tournament or Kinhin for the Cure. Zen masters "help" by sitting in meditating (zazen), by walking meditation (kinhin), not by fund raising, intervening, or trying to set the world right.

Classical Taoists have a similar approach. They call it wu wei, usually translated as "non-doing" But it's not that Lao Tzu and the boys don't do anything. It's that what they do is a spontaneous outpouring of Being. No trying, no contriving, no ulterior motives, not even any goals. Just Be and let doing flow accordingly. If Nike had been founded by Taoists, their motto would have been Just Be It! And the famous Nike swoosh would have been an empty circle painted in black calligraphic ink.

We live in a complex world. When we try and fix things, try and help, so many forces are set in motion that many times we exacerbate the problem we are attempting to remedy, create new problems, or both. Sometimes we see the unfortunate results of our trying, other times we never see the negative repercussions, because they manifest in ways that are far afield from our field of perception.

Trying is the problem here. But it won't help if you try to quit trying! Don't just do something, sit there. That's what zazen, and all other true forms of meditation, are all about. You don't do them to get enlightened or to save the world, or to produce some result either internal or external. You do them because you love to do them! You "sit there" because sitting is a naturally enjoyable way of being you.

Help happens. Easily, spontaneously. You are walking down the street with a small child. The child wanders off the sidewalk and into the path of a large delivery truck. You don't try and help. You spontaneously pull the little rug rat out of harm's way. Help happens through you when you are attuned to what is needed in the moment. And how do you become that attentive and spontaneous? Through meditating, of course.

Paradoxically the very sitting is helping. Helping you, helping those around you, helping the world. But it's helping without trying to help, and that makes all the difference.