Brothers or Fools?

"We must all learn to live together as brothers or we will all perish together as fools. We are tied together in the single garment of destiny, caught in an inescapable network of mutuality. And whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. For some strange reason I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. And you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. This is the way God’s universe is made; this is the way it is structured." — Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Until I read this quote I didn't realize I had anything to write about MLK day today. But until I read it I also never thought of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr as a true bodhisattva. Clearly Dr. King realized, on more than an intellectual level, that we are indeed all One.

(The 10 minute video below is called "Bodhisattva Breakfast Corner - Martin Luther King, Jr. His Life and Deeds" by Ven. Thubten Semky.)



Yet if we are all one and our individual thoughts effect the whole, then what path is more beneficial: withdrawing from the world to concentrate entirely on one's spiritual practice, or staying active in the drama of this world by protesting injustice and serving others?

I like to think it takes a combination of the two. Perhaps the deep prayers eminating from secluded monestaries help provide people like Martin Luther King with the inner strength to keep fighting. Perhaps each rotation of every prayer wheel in India holds off the darkness for one more precious minute, gives the world 60 more seconds to change its ways, gives each of us one small opportunity after one small opportunity to wake up.

If we are all one, perhaps some of us are here to be the One's fighting fists, and others the One's eloquently speaking mouth. Some of us are the mothering arms that hold, and others are the analytical brain that devises solutions. Some of us are the feet who walk in protest. Some of us are the eyes of the One that see beauty — thus revealing itSelf to itSelf. And of course all of us together are a little of each, with our own individual strengths and weaknesses, striving to find our proper place in this "inescapable network of mutuality." As my Teacher says, "the individual is indivisable!"

The happiness of one’s own heart alone cannot satisfy the soul; one must try to include, as necessary to one’s own happiness, the happiness of others. — Paramahansa Yogananda

May the life of Martin Luther King, Jr remind us of the bodhisattvas that we are.


The Prayer Wheel from Jonathan Marrs on Vimeo.