Creating Health for Others

While watching Schindler's List, I had a strange revelation about health: being healthy isn't about me, it's about what I can do for others¹. As I watched the Nazis kill many Jewish Poles, I thought, 'Okay, if I were there, how well would I stand up to those bastards physically.' Then I realized, 'Not so well.' So, there is my incentive to be fit. While true that my life will most certainly be better if my body is tuned up and well oiled, I find fitness in the service of others to be more appealing. The motivation from the thought of having to defend others by myself is much stronger than any motivation derived from the hope of looking good or feeling good.

I realize that this idea isn't anywhere near original, as it's spread throughout the corporate world, though in a slightly pathological form. In this manifestation, the idea is that unfit workers hurt productivity, therefore it's in the interest of a company to get their workers fit. This is very true: there's definitely a hierarchy of development from physical to biological to mental to spiritual. If you don't have the physical and biological levels (the ones encompassed by being the colloquial term "fit"), you're not going to have optimum mental or spiritual levels either. That's just the way it is.

I don't especially appreciate the companies getting involved in people's personal lives (therefore why I call this strain of the idea "pathological"). I'd prefer if people would come to this conclusion of their own free will. But free will only gets you so far; at points, you do have to legislate healthy behaviors. Take segregation for example: if we really had majority rule in this country, many states in the south would still have segregated everything. At some point, enlightened common sense does have to win the day.

Hm, I guess this whole "health for others" is just another manifestation of the Bodhisattva Vow. This vow states loosely that I will attain enlightenment in order to help enlighten all other beings. So, in the health form, it states that I'll attain optimum health so that I may show others the benefits of optimum health.

And now I have no excuse to skip a day of working out. How does my excuse of "I'm tired" stand up to my obligation to all sentient beings? Not so much.

Namaste.

¹ I witnessed another manifestation of this "not about me but others" idea during my Steinbright scholarship interview. The winner of the scholarship from two years ago was given the job of talking to all the applicants and asking them if they had any questions. At one point, it was just her, my parents, and me in the room. I really, honestly had no questions, and therefore sat silently in quiet meditation (like I normally do when I don't have anything pressing to do). But still, I was thinking, 'Wow, this must be really uncomfortable for her. I should make small talk so she doesn't have to feel so uncomfortable.' I, in such a situation as she, would be perfectly comfortable, but I could sense her discomorft. I didn't act on this impulse, but it was there nonetheless. Maybe it's a sign that I'm maturing.