AtDTDA (37) p. 1060Time travel in the name of love

[robinlandseadel at comcast.net]

          Amid a technical environment so corrupted by 
          less-than-elevated motives, usually mercenary, for 
          "setting forth against the Enemy Wind" (as early 
          epics of time-travel described it), there must now and 
          then appear one compassionate time-machine story, 
          time travel in the name of love, with no expectation of 
          success, let alone reward.

Somewhere in Lew's exploration of all his possible pasts—time regained—is 
a repetition of  Pynchon's concept of Grace being the natural result of doing 
good without a thought of compensation, doing good "merely" out of habit.

          Buddhist Concept of Grace
          I have been intrigued by the Christian concept of “grace” 
          and wondered if Buddhism has the same or similar concept. 
 
          In the Bible the apostle Paul began an ended nearly every one 
          of his letters with the word “grace.” But what is mean by “grace?” 
          Christians define “grace” as unmerited favor. In other words it 
          is some gift of kindness that we don’t deserve. In Christianity 
          this unmerited favor or grace comes from God. Buddhism is a 
          non-theistic religion, so of course we then have a problem with 
          the Christian concept of “grace.” But I was exploring whether in
          Buddhism we also have “grace” but perhaps it simply comes in 
          a different form. I believe we do. 
          I can think of many examples of grace in Buddhism….. 
 
          • The Universe is Grace. 
          • The Buddha Nature is Grace. 
          • We receive grace when doing trantric sadhana practies. 
          • We received grace when the Buddha shared his precious 
            teachings with the world. 
 
          So, I believe we have many forms of “grace” in Buddhism. For 
          example when we practice “tonglen” the exchanging of self 
          with others, we are practicing a type of meditative invocation 
          for the benefit of others. It involves a seeking of grace of all 
          enlightened beings and our own willingness to be part of the 
          cure for the suffering of the world. 

http://www.rimecenter.org/dharma.cfm?dharmaID=22