Dharma and Dāna

Our dedicated Fund Development Committee is now focused on our fall campaigns: an upcoming Membership Drive, and Minnesota’s “Give to the Max Day” in November. I’m not new to fundraising, but am new to the Clouds sangha, and while doing this work I’m continually struck that Clouds is almost entirely self-supported by members. And whether our dāna (generosity) is our presence, volunteering, or monetary, we don’t view this support as noble self-deprivation, but instead as an expression of our practice…the Dharma of compassion.

This nondual expression of dāna recalls Meister Eckhart’s line, often quoted by Buddhist authors: “The eye with which I see God is the same eye with which God sees me.” Our dāna to Clouds is all of us giving to ourselves, so that we can then give to others.

This vow to give remains constant. But we’re in extraordinary times, so we must consider how we can be most responsive to this moment. What actions, carried out by each of us and together, create an energetic, wholehearted defense of our values and those who suffer?

This is another powerful effect of our support for our sangha: it creates a refuge for us to answer this question. We convene in a space of stillness and communion, and together we can recharge and move past the passivity of resignation towards the responsiveness of acceptance. 

So, while we focus on the details of fundraising, at the same time we're mindful of the perspective from Dogen’s “total function”: this process is indispensable for the community of practice and engagement that is Clouds.

Interested in learning more about offering dāna at Clouds? Click here.

by Cleve Miller, Finance & Development Director, Clouds in Water