Pass The Torch, My Friend (Small Acts of Kindness & The Secret Teaching of Professor Cheng Man Ching)

Enlightenment Prompt #11

The light of friendship,

warms hearts on long winter days-

pass the torch, my friend.

Bush House is located at the southern end of Kingsway between Aldwych and the Strand in London, England. It was conceived as a major new trade centre by American industrialist Irving T. Bush, and commissioned, designed, funded, and constructed under his direction. The design was approved in 1919, work began in 1925, and was completed in 1935. Erected in stages, by 1929 Bush House was already declared the "most expensive building in the world". The building's opening ceremony included the unveiling of two statues at the entrance made by American artist Malvina Hoffman. The statues symbolise Anglo-American friendship and the building bears the inscription "To the friendship of English speaking peoples". Now part of the Strand Campus of King's College London, Bush House previously served as the headquarters of the BBC World Service. Broadcasting from Bush House lasted for 70 years, from winter 1941 to summer 2012.

London is a brown brick beehive filled with busy people who have to work hard and move fast in order to survive. My impression, formed over the last six months, is that Londoners tend to have a small circle of close friends and then shut out everyone else as they go about their day in the metropolis, sometimes in quite an abrasive way. This is not unusual in big, crowded cities with a high cost of living. I've seen a similar vibe in Paris and New York. You've only got so much energy and you have to use it wisely to get through the day and not only survive, but more importantly, get ahead.

I've never been very interested in getting ahead. I like to write, think, and sit in slow time. Naturally, I gravitate towards like-minded people and have found havens in the British capital where islands of slow time exist within the rush of the day. Libraries are such temples of solace to me. I'm writing this article from inside one now. Composing words in a peaceful, quiet environment is, to me, one of life's greatest joys. When I finish I will be replenished, I've exercised my vocation. Then, filled with warmth and a little light, I can go out into the world.

One of my favorite places in London- The Writer's Room in The London Library, an institution founded in 1841 by Charles Dickens, Thomas Carlyle and Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Photo by Morgan Buchanan.

Small acts of kindness go a long way in a hungry, busy city. I don't intend to look for the opportunity to help anyone, but if I'm in a listening state with an open heart, these opportunities seem to present themselves: help a person lift heavy suitcases up train station stairs, help an older person who has fallen over to stand up, give up the big window seats on the bus to tourists who are excited to see the city, guide a stranger who seems lost or is unsure as to how something works.

I think a lot of people don't help others in need because they're worried that they might be unwontedly intruding or risk giving offence. Perhaps they fear that the person they'd like to help turns around and becomes ungrateful or aggressive. I'm not saying this can't happen but if you listen well enough and enter the situation courteously, with an air of human compassion and kindness, you can avoid giving offence or causing irritation, and most of the time you can do good without it negatively impacting on you.

“The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the greatest intention”

—Kahlil Gibran

You can share the light of friendship, from your heart, to the heart of another. Perhaps they will share the light you have given them with someone else. We are beings of limited perspective. Once a stranger steps out of the sphere of our senses, we don't know how their story progresses. It's easy to be discouraged, to imagine that the small acts of kindness we engage in make no difference at all, but the truth is we have absolutely no way of knowing one way or the other. There's just as much chance that our kindness is transferred, person to person, like lined up dominos tumbling, incremental change to create one immense pattern of kindness that just keeps rippling out. And as you act with kindness, this kindness is reciprocated back towards you. Since we can't know either way, I prefer to think this way, and more, this way of thinking, even if misguided, is still most likely to bring about positive change, even if it doesn't spread past the one person you help.

Take a risk. Without being pushy or intrusive, just listen as you're out and about in the world, and let your senses and intuition let you know what good you can do.

My tai chi tradition suggests, in a paradoxical Taoist fashion, that one should invest in loss. The greater the investment in loss, the greater the gain. The turning of the wheel of yin and yang (actually called the tai chi diagram) means that risking your fear and comfort to help others seems like a loss but transforms into its opposite if applied correctly. 

With the Japanese tradition of kintsugi, the broken bowl is repaired with golden glue. The spiritual counterpart is to use gradual enlightenment to repair ourselves and the world.

 When I became a teacher of tai chi under Master Law Lun Yeung, he gifted me a painting from his teacher. A figure held up a lantern and Chinese calligraphy ran down the side, reading “passing on the torch of learning from teacher to student, from generation to generation”.

Here is a "secret” teaching from that tradition, directly from Professor Cheng Man Ching, to help cultivate the light for your physical, mental and spiritual health and also, so that you have enough to share as you venture out into the fast moving world: