Volunteering at FareShare - Right Intentions moving into Right Actions

As part of our exploration of the Noble Eightfold Path, the Kadhampa Youth Group organised a volunteering event to put into action our 'Right Intentions' of love and compassion through assisting a charity organisation in hunger relief. Living in a developed nation, most of us are fortunate not having to worry about where our next meal is ; but for the many homeless and poor people in Melbourne, this is a daily struggle. We participated in a volunteering shift at the FareShare kitchens on July 24th and it proved to be an enlightening and meaningful experience.

Kadhampa Youth decided to support the good work of FareShare, an inspirational not-for-profit organisation innovatively tackling both food insecurity and food wastage in Melbourne, feeding the hungry in a practical and sustainable manner. They receive donations of surplus good quality food - which would otherwise go to landfills - from supermarkets, food manufacturers, butchers, bakeries and other generous businesses. Tonnes of rescued food are then transformed by the FareShare kitchen into healthy, nutritious meals which are distributed to charities to deliver to those in need.

One early Saturday morning, we met at the FareShare kitchen in Abbotsford, equipped with our aprons and caps, ready to do our little bit for the community. We were greeted by one of the chef managers at FareShare, Kellie, an enthusiastic, warm and friendly lady who introduced us to their kitchen and taught us how to prepare the meals.

Our first task was to make sausage rolls – and right from scratch! We worked as teams through each step of the process, from mixing the raw ingredients to cutting pastry squares, to rolling the filling up in pastry, and putting the trays into the oven to cook. Whilst the sausage rolls quietly baked away, we split up into small groups taking on different tasks: finely dicing vegies for quiches, packing sweet potato curry spaghetti into vacuum bags, and packing quiches for delivery.

The Kadhampa Youth Group & Friends:
Maureen, TuYi, Therese, Eric, Lisa, Enlin, Rebecca, Joseph, Jennifer and Sandra


Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the FareShare experience:

“It was a great experience to join in the FareShare volunteering. I not only met a lot of friends in the FareShare house but also enjoyed making meals for the poor. It was very well organised and the chef, Kellie, gave clear instructions. To tell the truth I've never made sausage rolls before. I couldn't believe that some of the golden brown sausage rolls were made by us when they open the oven. When I thought of the poor people enjoying eating the food I made, I felt very happy to contribute. Thanks to the organiser and I'd love to join these kinds of activities in the future.” ~ Tu Yi

“I thought it was quite fun and a good learning experience in terms of learning what goes on behind the scenes of a charity and how to make sausage rolls. It's nice knowing that your little bit of work will be appreciated by those who will really need it.” ~ Lisa

"FareShare was rejuvenating to the spirit. The 3.5 hours of preparing food for the hungry people in Melbourne may not be that much, but it was more than enough to make me always remember to have a grateful heart. It was a lot of fun too because you see everyone doing a simple task wholeheartedly. At that particular moment, the group had put into action the 'right intention'. It may not be the grandest step, but every little step counts especially when this little step is done with much love and compassion." ~ Maureen

“My experience volunteering at FareShare was an enjoyable one. It was a good way to give back to the community, and we also got to practice our cooking skills and have fun whilst doing it, even meeting some new people along the way. Overall it was a fun and fulfilling experience.” ~ Rebecca

Volunteering with FareShare gave us an invaluable opportunity to connect with and give a little something back to the wider community. With the ‘Right Intention’ in mind, sharing a few hours of our time, and geared with enthusiasm and energy, we hope that the small contribution we made will help make a difference to the growing number of people affected by food insecurity and poor nutrition.

It is from the heart that we give most, it is through practice that we learn best, and it is by working together that we make the greatest positive contribution to the world we live in.

How powerful are our thoughts?

It may be the miracle cancer recovery, the incredible healing from an incurable disease, or even just the placebo effect - we've all heard about it, if not witnessed or experienced it, sometime in our lives. Positive thinking has been evidenced in many research studies to be beneficial in the cure or control of illnesses. And likewise on the other hand, negative thinking appears to be equally effective in its destructive sense - such as the harm on our health that stress and unhappiness can cause. Although current science cannot yet fully explain all these occurrences, we all are aware of that our thoughts can potentially have considerable impact on our wellbeing. So really, how powerful are our thoughts?

We started a simple experiment five weeks ago based on Dr Masuru Emoto's studies on water crystals. The experiment is outlined below, with photos taken during the course of our experiment.

Aim: Test the power of how your thought can affect energy matter

Materials: Raw rice, 3 glass bottles, one bottle of tap water

Method:

1. Divide the raw rice evenly into the three different bottles.


2. Put an equal amount of water into all the glass bottles and the water level should be about 3cm above the rice.


3. Seal the bottles and label the bottle with what you are going to speak (eg. You fool, Thank you etc.). Remember to keep one bottle as control which means you are going to ignore it.


4. Hold the bottle and speak to them everyday for at least 30 seconds.
   
   
   
   
   

As you can see from the photographs, all three bottles of water with rice were the same colour at the beginning of the experiment. However, notice how the bottle marked 'You fool' altered in colour following two weeks, and by five weeks it turned a distinct dark brown colour whilst the rice in the 'Thank You' bottle maintained its pristine white colour.

The outcome of this rice experiment underscores the immense power our mind and thoughts possess.

Indeed, Buddha once said:

“All that we are is the result of what we have thought.

The mind is everything. What we think we become."

Right intentions

We often overlook the severity of our intentions because it seems so private and ephemeral. However, a careful self examination will soon reveal the opposite. Intentions are the seeds of our thoughts and actions. They are the building blocks of our behaviour and the foundation to our character. Through each intention we build ideas that lead to actions which grow into habits and form lasting personalities, ultimately determining our destinies. Intentions are therefore real, powerful and productive. Learning about right intentions and practicing its importance is a crucial Buddhist training. The art of which can allow us to become masters of our own destinies. Through nurturing right intentions, we can be constant gardeners of fields of positive consequences. So what do Buddhists consider as ‘right intentions’?

The practice of right intention is one of the Noble Eightfold paths. It is defined by the Buddha as involving three types: the intention of renunciation, the intention of good will or non-aversion, and the intention of harmlessness. These are respectively opposed to the three types of wrong intention – desire, ill will and harmfulness. From our attachments springs the unwholesome root of greed, and thus renunciation is necessary to counteract desire since they are mutually exclusive. In a similar manner, the intention of good will counters that of ill will, and the intention of harmless erodes those of harmfulness.

All this may sound quite simple in words, yet how can we integrate these teachings into our everyday lives? Furthermore, our cultural surroundings as well as the society we live in constantly pose to us challenges such as those created by the malevolent intentions of others and complicated situations which are often not black and white. Sometimes, these challenges can cause us to easily fall into the trap of attempting to combat the ill intents of others with equally ill intents of our own. The result is that we contribute to, rather than halt, this vicious cycle of unwholesome intentions.

It is important to seek clarity and the right view of a situation, and also have an awareness of our motivations. Most of our immediate intentions are usually based upon an instinctive sense of self-centredness. If someone were to purposely hurt you, betray you or spread rumours about you, would your first reaction be anger and an urge to seek vengeance? Or would you try to understand where they are coming from, and why they took such actions against you? If the fault of another person causes you to lose something that you had worked long and hard for, would you want to firstly reclaim what you had lost at their costs? Or would you console them right away and make sure they aren’t feeling too upset about what they had done? Naturally, many of us would probably first respond with the former intentions rather than the latter because our judgement can easily become clouded by our selfish intents. Instead, if we take a step back, remove ourselves from all attachment, and look at the picture with a wider field of view and less self-centredness, we often find that we can understand others and their circumstances much better.

As we develop an understanding that all sentient beings seek happiness and elimination from suffering, we come to realise that it is through love, compassion and wisdom that we can do so. Only through cultivating pure aspirations in our minds, can we then begin to empower ourselves into leading positive and conscious lives.

Buddhist competition in the 21st Century – playing nice or playing wise?

Living in a developed western country like Australia, people often experience competition from a very young age. This is a complex experience that involves personal characteristics, values, self esteem, family dynamics and sometimes the unavoidable reality of surviving in a modern world. As a practicing Buddhist, how does one approach competition as a constructive development towards one’s own enlightenment and also contribute to the greater happiness of others?

We have all experienced competition in one way or another. Starting from our first conscious thoughts as babies, we may be competing for the attention of our parents. As we progress through childhood, it may change to competition for the best toys or our favourite books. However, competition becomes a lot more complicated when we reach our teenage years as we suddenly become more aware of the differences between the beautiful and the ugly, popular and ordinary, smart and average, fat and thin and all the emotions attached to being praised, accepted or rejected. Throughout our lives, we are met with experiences that challenge us with how we compete and compare. Are we going to be friendly or jealous about the neighbours buying another new car, our friends getting into better universities, our colleagues getting promoted or our partner making more money? As a Buddhist, what should we do when competition is necessary to defeat others, and withholding knowledge to protect our personal interests or withholding the truth from others to get ahead seems to be the simplest approach? It is the underlying principles of Buddhist teachings that allow us to understand how to wisely deal with these everyday experiences. They are the ethical decisions we make that become the building blocks of our character, values and principles. Our life experiences, when taken seriously, can help us develop wisdom, insight and give us the opportunities to grow as human beings, however, when these situations are treated carelessly, they can lead to regrets which may cause unnecessary suffering upon ourselves and others or have long term damage to our conscience, integrity and self esteem.

Ethical and compassionate modes of competition are practiced Buddhist principles that we can apply to our everyday lives. This transforms the way we approach competitive behaviour by firstly acknowledging that negative or ‘mutual destructive’ competition is a direct reflection of our conscious attachment to ‘self’ and the affirmation of ‘ego. Activity that thrives on self-aggrandising through the destruction of others is the sort of competition discouraged in the Buddhist practice. However, competition in itself is not an inherently negative activity. In fact, when viewed and practiced from the right intentions, competitions can be a mutually beneficial experience. It becomes a diligent practice of our own personal betterment when competition is directed ‘inwards’ instead of ‘outwards’. This kind of Buddhist competition is a drive to seek the perfection of our mind and actions. With this competition comes the practice of high moral and ethical disciplines, careful actions to create zero harm upon others and the effortful self reflections and corrections to rid the greed, hatred, ignorance, arrogance and doubts that infest our minds. Indeed, it is often mentioned in the Buddhist literature that these ‘poisons’ of the mind are our enemies to defeat and crush at all costs because they are the roots of perpetual suffering.

Compassionate competition moves a step beyond ethics to provide an ‘outward’ example of competition. Instead of aiming for the destruction of others, compassion becomes the driving motivation to strive for improvement of ourselves, our company, industry or nation. By having the right intentions, it becomes easy to ‘shift gears’ from destructive to constructive competition. We should compete not with the aim to defeat others but to ‘lift the game’ for both parties. This way, the energy is very different yet wholesome. We are in the position to help our competitors so that they themselves can be a better competitor, able to create a better product, and hence put pressure on ourselves to strive to reach an even higher benchmark. An example of this can be seen with the recent movement to ‘open access’ research, where top universities around the world are participating to make their research findings free and available for others to browse in the hope to create a climate of better research through positive competition.

In fact, the most successful and respected people in this world are positive competitors. They constantly strive to better others and in the process, better themselves. These people build an energy of mutual assistance. When we start helping others, the energy of the relationship changes from self-help to collective enlightenment. This is essentially a ‘mahayana’ or ‘greater vehicle’ concept, in that our enlightenment is caught up in the enlightenment of all because our consciousness and energies are linked. This idea can be explained when we cannot find personal security living in a dangerous neighbourhood or are unable to find personal peace in the midst of war. Our fates are much more interconnected and mutually dependant than we think, thus our achievement is ultimately tied up with the happiness and success of those around us.

Finally, as we compete with ourselves and one another towards enlightenment, we are forever reminded to dedicate all our merits and efforts for the collective enlightenment of all living beings. In this spirit, we can learn the idea of ethical and compassionate competition and integrate Buddhist teachings within contemporary life situations to succeed without compromising ourselves or others.