How Can I Help?
The Buddha reminded us that dāna, the practice of generosity, is the first step to Nibbāna.
At our AIMC recent half day retreat, the first of the year, what touched my heart most deeply was watching our retreat team quietly and wholeheartedly serve. Every gesture, every task met with presence and care. Nicoletta, David, and Susan solving the coffee crisis, making sure it was hot and ready. Sharon offering warm welcomes at the registration desk. Laura holding the larger container of the day, while also tending to specific needs of retreatants. And Tara, noticing a gentleman outside who looked hungry, gently inviting him to join us for the potluck afterwards. It was a living, breathing teaching of dāna, generosity embodied not in grand gestures, but in countless small acts of care.
How often do we ask, “How can I help?” This simple question carries within it so many jewels of the path. It reflects right intention, right action, and wise effort. It is a whisper of mettā, the wish for all beings to be at ease. It is a turning away from self-centered striving, a glimpse of anatta, of interdependence seen and felt directly.
In offering help, not from obligation but from an open heart, we loosen the grip of “me” and “mine.” We begin to reorient our lives, not toward acquisition, but toward release. Toward freedom. And how joyful it can be to notice where help is needed, to have our attention turned toward others, to be attuned to the greater world around us. This kind of helping requires a balanced mind, the steady presence of equanimity. It asks us to see clearly, to discern what wise helping looks like in any given moment.
“How can I help?” is always a skillful question, a reflection of the Dhamma. But given the state of our world and country right now, it can have particularly powerful consequences. It can lead us to notice a neighbor in need or in danger. It can interrupt isolation and despair, offering instead a sense of belonging. When this question becomes our compass, our actions can be life affirming, and sometimes even life saving.
And in this turning, we taste the joy of giving. A joy that leaves no residue. A joy that points quietly and steadily toward Nibbāna.
So we return to the question, not just in retreat but in daily life:
How can I help?
Invitation
You might take a moment today to ask this question with sincerity and stillness. Let it settle in the heart. And then, gently, follow where it leads.
