I’ll post some of my thought about this, and what I’m doing and hoping to do. Some of it revolves around continually trying to improve my character, my capacities and the way I live my life, in ways that will help improve the lives of people around me and all people everywhere, and help improve the world for future generations; and helping with the growth and spread of healthier, happier and more loving communities.
Currently I’m trying to learn to be more friendly to all people everywhere all the time, and to learn to say whatever I want to say in non-intimidating and non-incriminating ways. For a while I was trying to learn ways to help make life easier and more fun for people around me, in everything I do, everywhere all the time. I practiced looking for beauty all around me, and in people’s faces, to fill myself with joy, hoping for that joy to spread to people all around me. Other qualities that I’ve worked on in the past have been purity, kindness and humility. I had a long list of what I wanted to practice in Internet discussions, but for now I’ve reduced it all to friendliness. I want to learn to resist the temptation to post until I can say everything I want to say with genuinely friendly feelings.
I’m going through a list of practices from some training materials for spiritual growth and community service, practicing them one by one. There are some that I can’t do in my current circumstances, so I roleplay them. I’m on the first one now, which is to read from my scriptures morning and evening. I’m using an app for learning habits. When I kept forgetting to do it, the app suggested for me to try doing it once a day. I rejected that idea at first, but on second thought I decided to do it. Now I’m on day 22.
I’m still not planning to post much in these forums for now, but when I do, I want to try to find friendly and helpful ways to respond to what people are saying and doing, as a way for me to practice community service.
Another way I’m practicing community service online is posting photos on Facebook, of some of the scenery of Guilin. To roleplay community service in my neighborhood offline, I’m doing origami sometimes in a place where people walk by.