I Cannot Cover the World with Leather, but I Can Transform My Heart

As we walk through the villages and streets of Antigua and the surrounding towns, we give money and clothes and buy food and supplies for everyone we can. Samy correctly observed that the more we give, the more poor people there seem to be. How can we help everyone? I told her about this beautiful teaching by Master Shantideva, from the "Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life:"

Chapter 5 v13
Where would I possibly find enough leather
With which to cover the surface of the earth?
But wearing leather just on the soles of my shoes
Is equivalent to covering the earth with it.

Chapter 5 v14
Likewise it is not possible for me
To restrain the external course of things;
But should I restrain this mind of mine
What would be the need to restrain all else?

It is not possible to help every person in need here in Guatemala or in the rest of the world. What we can do is transform our hearts to love every single being the way we love our parents and children; to not only wish them happiness and freedom from suffering but to do as much as we can, individually and collectively, to make that happen. Only by transforming our hearts can we transform the world around us.