March 3, 2024
Bodhidharma and many Chan masters after him claim that if the practice of generosity one of the six paramitas—is perfected, all the other paramitas will be practiced and perfected as well. In today’s world (and maybe, too, in Bodhidharma’s world of 6th century China), that claim might sound like a clever way of procuring financial support for monks and temples.
But financial support is not the most significant part of the perfection of generosity. It’s less about physical giving and more about giving up something to which we are attached. This might be money, but for me it’s often more abstract concepts like control and expectations. It’s often helpful to hold such concepts in order to function in the world, but when I give them up, I’m freed to give and receive simultaneously of the abundant resources within the present, not-separate moment.
I find wealth in the sharing of a meal in silence, in water running over rocks, and in Dharma quietly picking apart twisted karma. As my karma unravels, generosity abounds.