Karmic Muscle Group: Generosity and Commitment
Today’s Exercise: Pick Up Someone Else’s Litter
- Put a couple of grocery bags in your pockets. If you have reusable bags that is even better, but they will need to be washed when you are finished with this exercise.
- Take a walk outside. Keep an eye out for litter. Unfortunately, this exercise is very easy to do because there is litter everywhere.
- Pick up as much litter as you can. If you are near a trash can, clean the whole area.
- Properly dispose of the garbage you collect. [hr]
Training Note:
Even a city sidewalk is your living space. You can be as upset as you want to be about how people throw things careless on the ground, but it still landed in your living space. Take responsibility for the quality of your space. Ignoring messes made by others is nearly as bad as making the mess yourself because it is an attitude that perpetuates the mess one way or the other. Yes, it is your problem even if you did not put the garbage on the ground.If you get your friends to help, you may find that your immediate environment improves rapidly and substantially.[hr]
Karmic Benefits:
- Clean The Space, Clean The Earth: you can be the problem, you can ignore the problem or you can solve the problem. The choice is yours. Note that there is very little difference in the end result between these first two alternatives. It is really easy to make a daily difference in the quality of your living space. It is not much work, it mostly takes thought and a little motivation. Making yourself responsible for your living space, and this includes public spaces, is not a burden, it is a commitment to a better world.
- Transcend Your Laziness: face it, the reason you do not pick up litter as you walk around is because 1) you think it someone else’s problem; 2) you do not have time to save the earth; 3) you are really lazy about these kinds of things. This exercise is the perfect opportunity to confront all of the opportunities that you pass up to make a difference.
- Own Your Space: the truth about life is that you have no right to survive. In fact, you have no right to anything. If you want a cleaner space, get a bag and pick it up. You and only you are responsible for what you allow around you. The garbage in our world was not put there by sea otters, it was put there by us.[hr]
Share Your Experience:
Leave a comment when you have completed the exercise.
