Blog #29--How Much Can We Help?

In the 28 years my wife and I have owned Insight Bookstore, we have enjoyed meeting many wise and super-talented people. And with only rare exceptions, our customers have been trustworthy and honest. There has been minimal theft and only rare problems with checks and credit cards. We seem to have attracted some of the highest quality citizens of our community in addition to contacts we’ve made internationally through our website.

But have we helped them? My wife and I love to give of ourselves to help others; we had to learn how to receive, to allow others the rewards possible through giving. We have made all sorts of ideas available to them through our books and sidelines, and they have responded by keeping us in business. But it is difficult to quantify what good we may have done for them in the process.

Ram Dass and Paul Gorman wrote a book called “How Can I Help?” Dass, who became internationally recognized for his extremely thought-provoking first book “Be Here Now,” and Gorman provide numerous stories of the successes and failures possible through helping others. While some people are grateful for help, others actually suffer when not permitted to live their own lives without outside assistance. The two authors did a remarkable job of making a difficult subject understandable.

Ideally, my wife and I hoped at least some of our customers would enjoy a burst of energized enlightenment. But frankly, we cannot state with any assurance that anyone benefitted more than minimally from visiting our store, buying our products or sharing ideas with us. Undoubtedly many learned things that made their lives better, but we always hoped for more for them. Hopefully, that enlightenment will come for them eventually, if it hasn’t already.

Whether we know it or not, all of us have the same internal goal: recognizing and becoming our true selves. No matter how our individual lives proceed, that is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. But no two pathways to that truth are identical. We can and usually do try to copy someone else’s path, but invariably detours force changes. Ultimately, our path must be our own.

Books and other tools can be helpful to our quest, but in reality every author is sharing his or her own personal path to enlightenment. If it helps someone, great. But there are no guarantees anyone else will have the same results as the person whose path is laid out for them. Our best bet is to take what makes sense to us from a book or other source and blend it with our present understanding. Slowly but surely, we can find the keys to a smoother ride on our own paths.

My book “It’s a Secret, So Pass It On: a Toolbox For Life” shares what I have learned in life and the resulting synthesis of myriad details and thoughts. It describes events that appeared to lead to an explosion of awareness, but that path is unique to me. It may be mostly if not entirely correct for me, but there are no guarantees it will be received as well by those with backgrounds and perspectives dissimilar from my own.

I hope it will help many. But I may never know for sure, one way or the other. All any writer or teacher can do is give his or her best effort and hope it works out. After that, what will be, will be.

http://dreamtime3.wix.com/jacktuttlebook

Comments and questions can be directed to dreamtime@insight-books.com.