Living Compassion held a two-day participation event at the Zen Center in Palo Alto, September 17-18. We prepared presentations for the fundraising luncheons in early November, and created audiovisual presentations to share the many ways that Living Compassion is saying “Yes” to life as it presents itself.

On Sunday morning, before the first working session of the day, the doorbell of the Palo Alto Zen Center rang and Life presented itself in the form of a man and a woman standing on the doorstep in need. They appeared to be homeless and mentally challenged. The woman had lost control of her bowels and her pants and shoes were badly soiled. The man explained that they had no place to go to clean up, and that they could not even get on a bus with her in this condition. Life, in the form of these two homeless people, was asking Living Compassion to put aside the morning work schedule and say “yes” to these folks in this unfortunate situation.

The “yes” was unanimous from the Living Compassion team. Several people got hot water, soap, and other cleaning supplies. Another person gathered clothing to be worn while the soiled clothes and shoes were laundered and dried. The Guide offered her favorite African wrap-around skirt. The man and woman were served a hot meal and a cup of tea while the soiled clothing was laundered. Another Living Compassion team member ran to the store and purchased clean undergarments and protection against further soiling. Several people worked in the kitchen, serving food, cleaning up and doing the dishes. It was a joyful, enthusiastic group response to Life presenting itself in a form very different from what was on the schedule for that morning.

Participating in this group “yes” opened my heart and moved me to tears. This was not a “I will do what I can because it will make me feel like a good person” type of Yes. This was an all-outYES, fromthe heart, give it all you’ve got Yes. The whole experience demonstrated to me the power of saying yes to Life and the importance of participation.

Ego tried to wiggle its way between me and the compassion being experienced by telling me that I probably would not have been able to say Yes to this request if I had been there alone when these folks come to the door for help. This little message from conditioning started a slide into a separate “I,” looking at compassion from the outside, rather than being a part of it. Fortunately, I saw that I was projecting goodness and compassion onto others, and then subsequently feeling separate from it, as a familiar form of suffering. I saw that No comes from listening to conditioning tell me that “I” won’t be able to do what is required after saying Yes. Conditioning says, “No, that’s too hard, too … you can’t.”  That Sunday morning at the Palo Alto Zen Center demonstrated the power of just saying Yes and of moving into the possibilities that open in the wake of that Yes. I saw that participating in this group Yes was a way to experience that saying Yes is all that is required to be a participant rather than a spectator of Life. Saying Yes is not about being good or being the right person. It’s about moving from being a spectator of life to being a participant in life… from feeling separate from life to being a part of all that is… from feeling numb and closed to feeling alive and open.

Willingness is the key. Participation is turning the key to the door to life and going on in.