I received the most precious gift earlier this week. It came from overseas, from someone I just adore but have yet to meet face to face. The enclosed card read, "This is the relic of the Buddha of our time, Shakyamuni Buddha. This is a treasure from my monastery [it] has been kept in a stupa and the actual relic has been growing and multiplying, thus, I could offer this to you." To say I was overcome by emotion would be an understatement.
As the enclosed card made clear, aside from the precious dharma, THIS is the most precious gift a Buddhist can receive. WOW. I feel so unworthy of receiving such a treasure-especially when I am honest about what went through my mind when I got it. My ego started to whisper, "I must have a very special karmic connection with this person for them to send me such a gift." Ahhhhhh, how un-Buddhist of me!! At the same time, how "Western". We seem to always want to "label" things...special, not special, good, bad, real, fake. I constantly fight my urge to look at something, make a judgement, label it and "put it away". When I label something, I don't really have to think about it anymore. Think about that for a minute. Once we make up our mind about something - we really don't "have" to give it any more thought or attention. How sad that we often do that with people as well. We "label" and "move on".
A few days before I received my gift, someone I don't know that well asked for my help. Again, my ego started to whisper...."Why are they asking me this? What do they really want? This person just wants to take advantage of me." It seemed I was more concerned about the possibility of "being scammed" than I was of offering help to someone who may really need it. Don't get me wrong - I think we DO need to make sure we aren't allowing ourselves to be the victim of scam-artists - but I had immediately jumped to the negative (darn you "self-cherishing -I"). The part that makes me the most sad about this situation is , this person really did need help, he had reached out and asked and then ended up fraught with worry over the fact that his request had made me uncomfortable.
When I brought the relic into our home, I took it into my meditation room and placed it on my altar. After performing a little "ceremony", I meditated. The feeling of joy I had from receiving this precious gift was something I needed to share. I contacted my acquaintance-in-need and told him I would do what I could to help.
This act doesn't make me a "good" person. It is my way of "paying-it-forward", of re-paying the kindness and generosity of my dharma son, Kunsang Tulku. What would you rather do - help someone when you thought they needed it or hold back because you are afraid you might be taken advantage of? Imagine if we all lived our lives with our hearts just a little bit more open.
 |
| Precious Buddha Relic If you want to know more about relics, look here http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week711/feature.html |
A few days before I received my gift, someone I don't know that well asked for my help. Again, my ego started to whisper...."Why are they asking me this? What do they really want? This person just wants to take advantage of me." It seemed I was more concerned about the possibility of "being scammed" than I was of offering help to someone who may really need it. Don't get me wrong - I think we DO need to make sure we aren't allowing ourselves to be the victim of scam-artists - but I had immediately jumped to the negative (darn you "self-cherishing -I"). The part that makes me the most sad about this situation is , this person really did need help, he had reached out and asked and then ended up fraught with worry over the fact that his request had made me uncomfortable.
When I brought the relic into our home, I took it into my meditation room and placed it on my altar. After performing a little "ceremony", I meditated. The feeling of joy I had from receiving this precious gift was something I needed to share. I contacted my acquaintance-in-need and told him I would do what I could to help.
This act doesn't make me a "good" person. It is my way of "paying-it-forward", of re-paying the kindness and generosity of my dharma son, Kunsang Tulku. What would you rather do - help someone when you thought they needed it or hold back because you are afraid you might be taken advantage of? Imagine if we all lived our lives with our hearts just a little bit more open.
No comments:
Post a Comment