Wild Fox Zen
May we all attain the way by giving the way to the way.
May we give to each other as if we were giving away unneeded belongings to someone we don’t know, or offering flowers blooming on a distant mountain to thusness, or offering treasures we had in former lives.
May we give ourselves to ourselves and others to others. Indeed, giving to ourselves is giving. Giving to our families is also giving.
May we give even a phrase or verse of the truth; our valuables, even a penny or a blade of grass.
May we know that to launch a boat or build a bridge is an act of giving – making a living and producing things is fully giving just as leaving flowers to the wind, leaving birds to the seasons, are also acts of giving.
May we study giving closely, seeing that to accept a body and to give up the body are both giving.
May we make an effort to give and be mindful of every opportunity to give.
May we know that even when we give a particle of dust, we should rejoice in our own act as a gift of awakening to self and others.
Indeed, the hearts of living beings are difficult to change. May we keep on changing the hearts of living beings, beginning by offering something of value and on to the moment that they attain the way.
Heart is beyond measure. Things given are beyond measure. And yet, in giving, heart transforms the gift and the gift transforms heart.
(inspired by Dogen’s section on giving from “The Bodhisattva’s Four Methods of Guidance”)
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