by Nikkyo Niwano

The Pleasure of Doing a Good Deed

It is said that there are about 500 million starving people in our world. Wars have deprived many people of their homes and driven them off their land. Japan is now fortunate to be free of famine and war, but we should not rest comfortably just because we happen to be so blessed.

Shimazu Nariakira, the nineteenth-century lord of the Satsuma domain (now Kagoshima Prefecture), was renowned for his great insight and judgment. He claimed that it takes at least ten years to see whether an enterprise will acquire a solid foundation. The Japanese Committee of the World Conference on Religion and Peace (WCRP/Japan) has continued its permanent Donate a Meal Campaign for more than fifteen [at the time of his writing this essay, in 1994] years. It was originally proposed by Rev. Yasusaburo Tazawa, the leader of Shoroku Shinto Yamatoyama (a new Shinto organization). It encourages people to fast one or two days a month to share in a small way the suffering of those who starve. The money that would otherwise have been spent on all of these meals is contributed to the Fund for Peace and Development of WCRP/Japan, which provides food to starving people in developing nations. The Donate a Meal Campaign has won acceptance among religionists not only in Japan but around the world. It is a way in which anyone, anywhere, at any time, can help others. I am convinced that this is why it has gained such wide approval.

There are people who think that helping those in distress is something special, but I believe that it is a matter of course. As I have pointed out repeatedly, nothing in the world exists entirely of its own accord; all things are interrelated and mutually sustaining. If you think about the way we are all interconnected like the meshes of a net, you will see that helping others is also a way of helping yourself. Goethe said something to the effect that within the virtuous human soul dwells the noble sentiment that it is unforgivable for one person alone to be fortunate. It follows that one must seek one's own fortune in the good fortune of others.

Everyone wishes, deep in their heart, for everyone around them to achieve happiness. So we must do all we can to help others. Unfortunately, there is also a troublesome thing in the human heart known as self-interest--a nagging tendency to think first of what we might do to make our own lives easier regardless of the effect on others. Thinking this way, we come to feel that helping others is merely an irksome chore. However, when we look closely at the real situation and set aside this attitude for a moment, we surely comprehend that mutual support is part of human nature.

This is as clear as day, even in the way our bodies work. The human body is said to be composed of about 60 trillion cells. Physiologists have ascertained that every cell has two distinct functions. One is to take nutrients from the blood, assimilate them, and excrete the waste; in other words, to tend to the business of the cell. What I want to draw attention to is the second function, which is to assist the functions of the other cells; for example, supplying hormones to other cells and providing them with enzymes. Hence the 60 trillion cells that make up the body both continue their own lives and, by assisting the functioning of other cells, fulfill responsibilities as members of a larger community. They in no way compete with one another. In balancing give and take, they coexist and coprosper. Although the interdependency of cells in the human body is a neat system, fundamental human relationships are characterized by a jarring awkwardness, attributable to what we call self-centeredness. How might this imperfection be remedied? All would go well, of course, if we would each cast aside our self-centered thinking. But such thinking has been part of human nature for thousands of years, and is unlikely to be overcome at a single stroke.

There is, however, one infallible remedy for it: service to others. Any form of service will do. Small kindnesses are enough. In the very beginning, performing these might seem a little bothersome, but if you summon up the courage, they are done easily enough. After doing a small kindness, one is filled with an indescribable joy. One's heart feels at ease, because such a deed accords with the law of nature. It is natural, like a train traveling smoothly on two rails. A poem by the thirteenth-century Zen master Dogen says it this way:

The ferryman takes others one by one
To the Other Shore without alighting himself.

As long as others suffer and are in need, we devote ourselves to helping them reach, before we do, the other shore of enlightenment. In thus forgetting the self, we follow the bodhisattva way.

The late Dr. Kiyoshi Oka, in his Shunsho Juwa (Ten Tales of a Spring Evening), makes the following point:

People of a slightly earlier time knew much better than we do the special quality of good deeds, and to make these easier there were ways to communicate that quality in the home. It was one of the values of this nation that if one did good deeds, all would go well, so there was no philosophy, or need of any. If in this way people constantly do good, their feelings gradually become nobler. As a result, they come to understand well the feelings of others and therefore cannot help doing good deeds all the more.

Besides savoring these words, it is important to see the cycle that is activated: when one's heart is pure, one's deeds are pure, and pure deeds make the heart even purer. Unable to forget the pleasure of doing good, one repeatedly does good whenever the occasion arises, and it becomes a habit. One who forms this habit acquires a noble character.

Christ said that he came not to be served but to serve. In the Sermon on the Mount he said, "Always treat others as you would like them to treat you" (Matt. 7:12). This is known as the Golden Rule and is a guiding principle for human harmony. Some proclaim that the golden age of humanity will arrive when the Golden Rule is always observed.

Serve others. Be kind. Help those in need. The practice of helping others is in the end the fastest means of making oneself happy.

Since helping others is in keeping with the law of nature and makes us feel good, we want to do it all the more.