Do the best you can and as freely as possible.
The spiritual teacher did not want his disciple to only surrender to meditation and abandon generous actions because, for him, the wisdom was to combine mental discipline with generous action.
Therefore, every afternoon he sent the disciple to help the most helpless people. One afternoon the disciple went to the leprosarium and was helping sick people to eat and get dressed. Then he returned to the hermitage and that night the spiritual teacher asked him:
How was everything?
And the disciple exclaimed:
Oh very well! I have helped a lot. Everyone was happy with me. I have
prepared meals, I have washed, I have made bandages. I have been very
helpful, so much that I have even told the director of the leprosarium
and he congratulated me. Yes, I have helped tremendously.
Then the teacher took the candle that was lit and threw it to a small fire that was outside to scare away the vermin. The disciple was dismayed and asked with insolence:
Why are you coming with this impulsive and absurd act?
The teacher replied:
As the wax melts at the stake, so the merits of the good deeds of
which one boasts are dispelled.
Do the best you can and as freely as possible at all times and circumstances. It does not matter that nobody knows; you know it.
Conclusion: This story reminds me of an expression “WHEN YOU GIVE WITH YOUR RIGHT HAND, DO NOT LET YOUR LEFT HAND KNOW...”, if we need to be rewarded for giving help and collaboration we are in trouble, our ego is empowered and needs to be magnified, so we must learn to be humble in order to discover that there is no greater gratification than the one you feel inside each time you do something for someone else. Beware for yourself that it is already a lot and enough.
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Thank you for reading!