Bhikkhu Bodhi's Compassion in Action

Bhikkhu Bodhi (buddhistglobalrelief.org); Dhr. Seven, Ananda (Dharma BM), Wisdom Quarterly

Bhikkhu Bodhi made a choice to first help girls in the developing world (Buddhist Global Relief)

Can a scholar and hermit care about people?

Who says Theravada Buddhist monastics are just in it for themselves -- pursuing their own salvation (realization, enlightenment/awakening, and final nirvana)? They're mistaken.

There's no contradiction in saving oneself -- the only person we can save -- and helping others in every way we can.

Help females first, and thereby help everyone.

It's not only the Bodhisattva Ideal claimed by Mahayana, it's the expression of friendliness, compassion, positive empathy, and equanimity, the Four "Divine Abidings" (Brahma Viharas). Just ask Jewish-American scholar-monk Bhikkhu Bodhi, our beloved teacher, the translator (and organizer of many translations) of the classic texts. He saw the need and went beyond the meditation mat, the editorial desk, and the monastic cell to establish Buddhist Global Relief to help alleviate "real world" problems pressing on the needy simply to exist on the human plane.

The Buddha Gautama

We certainly need what the historical Buddha offered, liberation, but he offered much more than most realize. Not only the Dharma (the Path to Freedom, the Middle Way to Liberation, the road to the end of all suffering), he accounted for the present needs of all kinds of beings.

Not everyone is interested in nirvana, nor spirituality, nor the unseen. Most want a better life here and now, a better rebirth hereafter, rearising in the heavens, and he pointed the way to those goals. For the wise, he set out a path of complete liberation (nirodha-moksha), for reaching nirvana in this very life. Perhaps if beings had the necessities of life -- food, shelter, clean water, medicinal products, care, and purpose -- the loftier ideal of spiritual liberation would become very attractive.