Helping Others 3

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Human decency and compassion is a difficult subject to understand. What exactly compels people to help each other? Can it be scientifically broken down in terms of animal socialization and relationships, in that by helping one another human beings are truly only helping themselves? Or is there truly a more abstract, altruistic dimension to human compassion?

I often find myself helping people out of societal pressure. I don't want to look like I lack compassionate or that I don't care about people. But I have begun to notice that perhaps I am being somewhat numb to the suffering of others. When I was younger it used to pain me immensely to see homeless people under freeways begging for change. I found it difficult to look into their faces and acknowledge their pain. Now, I feel that whenever I am in this situation I completely ignore the people in visible distress right in front of me. I suppose I cannot find a reason for this distance I have created for myself. I do not know why my own personal issues have taken so much more of commanding role in my priorities.













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Ram Dass states that "By dispassionately acknowledging our personal needs, we lessen their grip on our actions" (How Can I Help? 193). Perhaps this is the right philosophy. To realize that my own needs are not the basis for all my happiness or the reason for my existence. Perhaps than I can begin to understand why people help each other, why they show compassion.

"Separateness is there...to be awakened out of. Service is a perfect vehicle for this awakening" (How Can I Help? 229). Some of the most amazing moments in my life have been in the service of others. Volunteering to help brighten the day of kids with cancer, helping at wildlife refuges, or driving around downtown Houston giving food to the homeless. I suppose now I see some of the points that Dass argues. Perhaps in order to escape my self-created shell and look beyond my own needs, I need to become aware of the needs of others.