Sharing the Merit
Showing our gratitude, practicing the way of awareness
Gives rise to benefits without limit.
We vow to share the fruits with all beings.
We vow to offer tribute to parents, teachers, friends,
And numerous beings.
Who give guidance and support along the path (page 170-71).[1]
It just happens to be 5 days before Christmas as I am beginning to think about what I will write next for my blog. The theme has been prayer and so I scoured my numerous book shelves with books on prayer both Unity ones and Buddhist ones and low and behold what did I see this wonderful book given to me by my sangha, Chanting from the heart Buddhist Ceremonies and Daily Practices by Thich Nhat Hanh and the Monks and Nuns of Plum Village in France. I noticed there was a cloth bookmark and as I lifted it to open to the page there to my surprise was a short chant entitled “Sharing the Merit.”
How perfect is that! “God is good…all the time” as my friends at the Sunshine Cathedral in Fort Lauderdale always say. And they are right, even when it doesn’t seem so. When we say and do the right things, right things happen in our lives. So not only is it important to believe the words above in our chant it is imperative that we live our lives as the example of them. And not just at Christmas time but 365 days a year.
Whatever you do don’t turn away your good when someone showers you with gratitude by saying, “Oh, it was nothing.” That demeans their gift of gratitude, and equally as important, you are turning away your good. In Unity we encouraged our students and congregants never to do that as you don’t know what good may be coming your way and if it hears those words of rejection it may decide to bless someone else with that “good.”
And that “good” could have been prosperity, a new job, a visit from a long lost friend or relative, or a healing. So always accept your good with grace and gratitude. Use the above sutra and share that grace with others whenever you get the opportunity. Christmas is the time of giving so instead of giving material possessions try giving kind words, your help, your love, and your gratitude and watch your good manifest in miraculous ways—especially without expectation of receiving.
Give simply for the gift of giving. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
In gassho,
Shokai
[1]Hanh, T.N. et.al. (2007) Chanting from the heart Buddhist Ceremonies and Daily Practices. Parallax Press: Berkeley, CA
Meet Your Good Today… Part 13 Liberation
Posted in attachment, BUddhism, cause and effect, clinging, fears, happiness, Kazuaki Tanahashi, love, meditation, Mindfulness, self-help, sickness, suffering, The Four Sufferings, Uncategorized, wisdom, Zen, Zen Chants Thirty-Five Essential Texts with Commentary, tagged "Setting Out the Bowls", anger, anxiety, boundlessness, Buddah, Buddha, Buddhism, challenges, compassion, contemplation, fear, goals, happiness, health, joy, Kazuaki Tanahashi, liberation, life, love, meditation, mind, mindfulness, monasteries, oryoki, patience, peace, sitting, stinkin thinkin, suffering, Tathagata, Zazen, Zen, Zen Buddhism on August 14, 2016| Leave a Comment »
I opened up one of my favorite books by Kazuaki Tanahashi, Zen Chants Thirty-Five Essential Texts with Commentary, looking for some sage advice today and sure enough I got it!
In Buddhist monasteries you may sit and eat in oryoki style which is sitting on the floor with your bowls of food in front of you. The word oryoki roughly means “that which contains just enough.”[1] When you are ordained you receive these three bowls nested together with chopsticks and wrapped in a napkin. Additionally, you carry these with you wherever you travel. This allows you to dine sitting anywhere.
When was the last time you took a meal where you focused your time and energy on the eating. Where you did not fill the plate to over flowing and eat way too much—but just enough to be satisfied. If you focus your attention on the food and savor the textures and the flavors and the smells your food will taste better, it will satisfy you more, and the process will ultimately have you eating less.
You will be liberated from indigestion that is caused by the ruminations controlling your mind from the day or the week of that nasty boss, or the bills, or the fears and anxieties of everyday living. You can focus on the boundlessness of that liberation and know that through silence comes liberation, whether the silence is during a meal, during your meditation, walking the dog, or at break during your workday.
Our lives are filled with noise from the TV, radio, cellphone, traffic, people talking, children crying, or the chatter inside our heads. Silence is a “utensil” that you can use to clear your mind and body of irritations, “stinkin thinkin,” and more. Silence can bring you liberation from the self-talk and exaggerations that we create about our life and its circumstances. Liberate yourself from hyperbole, and critical thinking, and see how peaceful your life can be. See how filled with gratitude, love, and compassion it can be. Then watch your physical ails slowly disappear into nothingness.
Remember you are boundless and limitless only if you think you are! Create your own “three wheels” of peace, love, and compassion in your body, mind, and spirit then watch what happens in your life—liberation!
Let me know how it goes!
Shokai
[1] The Shambhala Dictionary of Buddhism and Zen (1991) Shambhala Press:Boston
[2] The three wheels of boundlessness:
The Four Noble Truths
Emptiness
Buddha Nature
[3] Tanahashi, K. (2015) Zen Chants Thirty-Five Essential Texts with Commentary. Shambala: Boston & London
Read Full Post »