In Eight Steps to Happiness Geshe-la says "'Self' and 'other' are relative terms, rather like 'this mountain' and 'that mountain ... 'This' and 'that' therefore depend upon our point of reference. This is also true of self and other. By climbing down the mountain of self, it is possible to ascend the mountain of other, and thereby cherish others as much as we presently cherish ourself."

Monday, December 12, 2011

If Rats Can Do It ...

I don't usually post news articles in this blog, but a few days ago there was an article that describes how a free rat will try to release a captive one, and it was such a powerful image for me. If rats can generate empathy, certainly I can develop compassion and bodhichitta.

As it says in another article about the same research, "In repeated tests, rats freed another trapped rat in their cage, even when yummy chocolate served as a tempting distraction. ... The rats could have gobbled the chocolate before freeing their partners, but often didn't, choosing to help and share the goodies."

From the neurobiologist who conducted the research: "I would suggest that helping is what we are biologically programmed to do. You have to suppress that biological tendency to not help. If we owned up to our biological inheritance a little bit more than we do, we would be better off."

In addition, when I meditate on Equanimity, the being I most often use for aversion is rats. (I didn't even want to see the animated movie Ratatouille.) So knowing that they have good qualities is helpful for that too.

1 comment:

  1. i love rats! This article was cool, too.
    I hate to think of any furby being used in experiments, but i think this one had good results.

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