A Poor Monk
Wednesday, February 17, 2010 at 8:14AM
Genjo Osho examines the tenth case of the Mumonkan or Gateless Gate collection of Zen koans and investigates what is poverty. He transcends our collective day-to-day thinking and feeling, rendering a far more vast and dare I say "richer" understanding of what is and is not poverty, within each moment.
Genjo Osho relates, "Yamakawa Sogen Roshi, tells the following story, he say's, I once knew a priest near my temple who near my temple volunteered to help refugee's, in the Vietnam War. One day he heard that the relief supplies were not going directly to the refugee's, so he decided to go to Vietnam himself to deliver them.
In the camps, the refugee camps, there were lots of sick and wounded people, adults and children, men and women. They where all malnourished. When he visted the camps, he carried loaves of bread, in his duffel bag. At one camp, he saw five (5) children outside. They had beautiful eyes, but were very skinny. When they saw him, they approached him with wishful looks. He happened to have only five (5) loaves of bread, so he gave one to each child. One child said to him, "There are more children inside the tent. They are sick. Do you have something for them too?" But he did not have anything left so he said, "Sorry, that's all I have now. I'll bring some more later." He thought they would eat their bread immediately, because he knew that they had not had anything to eat for days. But they didn't do this. They talked among themselves and then went into the tent, with their loaves of bread. the priest who brought the bread followed them. then he saw them... the children breaking their loaves of bread into pieces and sharing them with the sick children. They even gave away their own portion to others. These children who he had given the bread to must have been starving yet they gave up their food for the weaker children.
The priest realized his own arrogance. He learned from these children that even though they were poor, their hearts were not poor."
This is the beautiful and open launching point Genjo Osho uses, rendering and connecting the dots on the compassionate heart of being and becoming. His expression is so intimate and clear, I came away thoroughly soaked with appreciation. And though I use the word appreciation, it comes up miles short of the feeling within my chest.
I'm hopeful that you take the time to listen to the complete teisho. It's fuel for the heart-mind, giving a window of opportunity to connect with ourselves in a seamless way. If you'd like, you can also listen, by way of iTunes, for free. May you find yourself with his words.
Love All - Serve All - Every Single Say,
Jaye Seiho Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO
Reader Comments (1)
thank you! what a terrific story about how our own stories get in the way of our intentions. looking forward to listening to the talk this afternoon!
genju