Last year, a few members from my fraternity, including myself, decided that although we do philanthropic events year round, we rarely perform community service through volunteer work. Soon after, we set up a date to volunteer at Feed My Starving Children in Eagan, MN. Feed My Starving Children receives such a large amount of volunteer help that the only time made available for us to come and give support was 2 pm on a Wednesday afternoon. Needless to say, many members of our chapter were unable to help with this service work, either from class, work, or other activities. However, the small group of us that made the trip agreed to do our best job and come in with a friendly and open mind.

In 2002 I travelled to India and Nepal to study Buddhism. I began with an organized pilgrimage called “Chasing Buddha” and ended up at a monastery in Kathmandu, Nepal called Kopan. The two month trip was a Buddhism intensive, immersion experience. A box of journals, books and various other articles from the trip had been packed away unopened until a few weeks ago when my parents finally cleared everything out of storage before moving across the country. 

When thinking of Compassion, what comes to mind? In "Compassionate Societies" case, it is the ending of suffering worldwide. But how can just one person make a difference in this world? By changing and affecting those around them with small acts of compassion that can be demonstrated in their every day lives. The act of 'compassion' does not necessarily have to be a large, quantitative lump some of money or even donating time.

 

                                                    In my opinion, small acts of compassion can alleviate some suffering but ultimately do not contribute to a lasting compassionate society. Compassion is not a new or recent concept. Suffering seems to grow exponentially in proportion to population and throughout history acts of cruelty and abuse seem to match acts of kindness and overwhelm them. Moreover, I believe that there is no amount of alms giving, volunteering, charity work or tree saving that’s going to change the momentum of our self-centered society. The dominant social paradigm reinforces competition and individualism which is reflected on an individual level thus selfishness and disregard for the welfare of others are values that are rewarded. In our society a gain for one often means a loss or less for another. 

I've written about Students Today Leaders Forever a bit before, and while working with STLF and going on Pay It Forward Tours with college and high school students I have had the chance to work with amazing organizations around the country. In his blog Compassion Through Service, Tyler mentioned that individuals can change lives working only 1 to 2 hours per week.

 

For months I have been blogging about international volunteer experiences and opportunities. Now I want to tell about my upcoming trip to Peru.

 On May 15^th, 2011 I will fly out of Minneapolis, Minnesota and about 12 hours  later land in Lima, Peru. After landing I will be picked up by a representative from the International Volunteer Headquarters program and then driven up the Andes Mountains to the city of Cusco. Once there, I will move in with a local family and begin work at the orphanage.

I came across a website called Random Acts of Kindness. It’s a website where people submit their stories about how they helped someone or someone helped them. The website shows that there are people in the world who take time out of their day to do a good deed for others. The goal of this site is to inspire and motivate others to participate in a random act of kindness.  Their mission statement is “get involved, get inspired, and tell us your story."

As I look outside my dorm window at the latest snow fall, I think about home and my neighbor Mark. When I lived at home, nearly every time the snow fell hard, Mark would come around the neighborhood with his big snowblower and plow the end of our driveways where the snowplow leaves huge mounds from plowing the street.  It takes up time that he could use to do other things, but instead, he gives kindness and compassion to our neighborhood. Kudos to Mark for being such a great neighbor! I hope more people, including me, can be as kind and selfless as he.

Many people have heard reggae music, but if you listen closely to the music you will experience a lot more than just some words and beats. You will hear thoughts and ideas of compassion. Reggae is one of the few music genres that consistently spreads the ideas of compassion.