Sharing Blessings and Liberating the Self

When I was living at the San Francisco Zen Center, Shōhaku Okumura came to visit. He had recently moved out of the building to go to Bloomington, Indiana to establish a practice center. I was making a new student’s stipend of about seventy-five dollars per month and I happened to have a ten dollar bill in my pocket. Okumura rōshi spoke about his work translating and teaching Dōgen Zenji and as a collection basket came by me, I put my whole ten dollars in it. I thought, “I want to support this.”

In 2004, ten dollars could get you two burritos from El Castillito on Church Street, my favorite to this day. I still remember that moment 20 years later as a time when I was able to taste the benefits of generosity. I doubt I’d remember the burrito as vividly.

Growing up in a commerce based society, I have a hard time not considering my money as a means to support myself. The Buddha likened that attitude to being a cloud that doesn’t rain. As much as I want a society where there’s no such thing as a billionaire, more of my dollars have gone to Amazon in recent years than to support the teaching and practice I hold most dear. As our slice of earth enters its cold and dark season and I turn within, I vow to make effort to loosen around me and mine and to try to become a cloud that rains everywhere.

Bowing, Rev. Koji Acquaviva