We all want to learn how to open our hearts to benefit other living beings and know that our actions matter and influence other people. This is where toilet paper comes in. When you use up the last of the toilet paper, do you install a new roll, or do you just leave the bare cardboard cylinder and let the next person who comes replace it? If you do the second, your bodhicitta practice is not going anywhere.

We may dream about being of great benefit to all mother-sentient beings as long as space endures and manifests many bodies to help them. Yet we feel that taking less than half a minute to put on a new roll is going to cause us so much suffering that we leave it for the next person who comes into the bathroom. We might leave two sheets on the old roll so we can feel completely okay about not putting on a new roll. Or we put on a new roll but do not put the old one in the recycling because that takes an extra ten seconds.

Our ego mind is so tricky and can make up reasons to justify our action, “I’m saving natural resources by leaving the two sheets, and even if I take out the old cardboard roll and leave the two sheets on top of the new roll, the next person may not see them and he or she would really suffer when the roll turns and the two sheets go flying onto the floor. So, I’m leaving the old roll out of kindness and compassion because the next person would be inconvenienced by having to get off to pick up the two sheets.”

Since this same way of thinking can affect so many of our other interactions with people throughout the day, bodhicitta starts in the bathroom. When we get good at changing toilet paper rolls, we can think about changing the hand towel, which at 45 seconds is almost double the effort because you must throw it in the laundry and go to the closet and get a new one. Living as part of a community is valuable because there are all sorts of opportunities to do small things that manifest your deepest heartfelt wish to be kind and compassionate, and give joy to the world.

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