All my best ideas come to me during my morning meditations.  I’m not sure if that makes me a really good or really bad meditator.  I think it’s both, and neither, simultaneously.

During my morning meditation today, I figured out what I want for my40th birthday.  What I want is …

One …. Million …. Bodhisattvas.

My biggest goal in life is to create the conditions for world peace within my lifetime.  I know it’s impossible.  I also know it becomes slightly less impossible if a lot of people also work towards the same goal in support of each other.  So one of my sub-goals in life is to “Awaken One Million Bodhisattvas” **.  There are very many good people in the world, if we can get a mere one million of them to regularly commit to actions that increases wisdom and compassion in the world, that may create an unstoppable momentum towards global enlightenment and world peace.

During my morning meditation today, it just hit me: Let’s ask for one million Bodhisattvas for my birthday.  I’ll start by inviting my friends (especially those who can’t run away from me quickly enough) and anybody else I can annoy to commit to one act a month intended to increase wisdom and compassion in the world.  I’m only asking for this commitment from my friends for the rest of their lives, so I didn’t think it was too much to ask.  I know most of my friends will say “yes” because they are enthralled by my good looks.

I hope that, eventually, this will become a movement that will extend far beyond my circle of friends and people enthralled by my good looks.  I hope to eventually reach one million people.

To get the ball rolling, I’ve created a “Bodhisattva Wannabes” group on Facebook.   (I think that if this catches on, we’ll eventually need to create some sort of real support infrastructure, but for now, all we have is a lousy Facebook group.  Sorry).

If you are a Bodhisattva wannabe, or already an union-certified, card-carrying Bodhisattva, or you just want to give me something for my birthday, I’ll love to invite you to join the group.  I promise you’ll warm this old man’s heart.

[** I know, I can also awaken one million Bodhisattvas with one million alarm clocks, or one very very loud alarm clock, but that won’t be very compassionate, especially not towards me.]