Healed People Heal People

There’s a Buddhist story of two acrobats, male and female. The female acrobat was standing on the male acrobat’s shoulders when the male acrobat looked up and said, “You take care of me and I’ll take care of you.”

The female acrobat replied, “No, you take care of yourself, I’ll take care of myself, and in that way we’ll get along.”

They got into an argument and went to the Buddha, who said the female acrobat was right. But he added, “We practice for ourselves and others.” We start by taking care of ourselves, but what we learn inside casts wide ripples.

Americans are so impatient with proving the value of inner work in the outer world. A woman once told me she wanted to learn meditation, not to practice herself, but to teach and “start a movement.” The implication was that, if it doesn’t go viral, it isn’t worthwhile. That comes from doubt in the value of the work itself.

If something is worthwhile, you don’t need followers, just as if you have a lump of gold in your pocket, you don’t need to advertise it. You know you can put it to good use any time, and eventually people will find out.

They say hurt people hurt people, but healed people heal people too. It’s nice to be a doctor or therapist or activist, but don’t minimize how much your own healing itself contributes to the healing of humanity. As you uproot your greed, hatred, and delusion, you give others the gift of safety and the encouragement that another way is possible. That’s no small thing.

There’s a Christian story about a man named Macarius who visited a sick friend with the only gift he could afford: a bunch of grapes. The friend had lost his sense of taste, so he gave the grapes to his attendant.

But the attendant had eaten, so he gave the grapes to his wife, who gave them to her friend, and so on, until the grapes had been handed round the whole village and returned to Macarius, who cried, “What a waste!”

But someone said, “Don’t say that. With one bunch of grapes, you have fed a village.” It’s the same with your own healing. Don’t underestimate how much it gets spread around.

As always, if you'd like to be held through your own process, contact me and we’ll set up a free coaching call.