Help Oneself

Written by Dhammacaro

The Buddha said, "Help yourself, no one else can help you. You are your own savior."

To explain what the Buddha said, I will tell you a Zen story, which may provide you with more understanding. Here is the story:

There was once a man, who had a deep faith in Bodhisattva Guanyin. He prayed and worshiped her and was faithful to her in every way. One day there was a big flood in his village. Every one fled, except this man. He climbed up the roof of his house and prayed to Bodhisattva Guanyin to help him. There, he sat and waited.

As time passed, rescuers on a boat came by offering to help. The man declined saying "No, I will stay here and wait for my goddess. She is going to come to help me." So the boat left, leaving the man on his roof as the water began to rise. The man prayed once more asking his Bodhisattva to come and help him.

While he was praying, another group of rescuers came on a boat and offered him help. Once again he declined and so the boat left, leaving the man sitting alone on his roof. By this time, the water rose right up to his chest. The man continued to pray again to his Bodhisattva for help.

Yet another boat came and rescuers urged the man to get in the boat as the water was rising higher and higher still. The man again refused saying "No I will not go, your boat is full of people. I will wait for my Bodhisattva to come and rescue me."

As time went by, the water rose all the way up to his nose and as he was near to drowning, he was rescued by a Zen Master. The man said to him "I have all faith in the Bodhisattva Guanyin. Why does she not come and help me?" The Zen Master replied "I notice that a number of rescue boats came to your aid, but you refused their offer. They might have been someone your Bodhisattva Guanyin has sent to help you. Have you not thought of that? On the other hand, you must also learn to help yourself. Praying and simply waiting for things to happen will not get you anywhere, as you just saw yourself."

After hearing this, the man pondered for a while and thought to himself "It is true, I almost die because all I have been doing is praying and just waiting for help to come to me, but instead, I should have acted and helped myself."

This story teaching us that sometimes we miss a lot of opportunities because we push away our responsibilities to others. On many occasions, we could have acted to help ourselves, but just do nothing and simply wait for the others to help us.

The Buddha’s words are a good reminder: "Help yourself; no one else can help you. You are your own saviour."

We should learn this, remember it and put it into practice. With right understanding and wisdom, we can learn to help ourselves.