An Offering of Dirt
Dharma Talk by Rev. Kenzan Seidenberg
In a recent difficult situation, on pondering how I would
want to handle it, I realized, ideally, I would want to offer the whole complicated
situation up as an offering – simply, “whatever happens, may it be of benefit.”
There is a story of a teacher asking, “Which is more
valuable, gold or dirt?” Although perplexed
at such a self-evident question, the student answered confidently, “Gold, of
course!” To which the teacher responded
gently, “Not to a seed.”
We naturally judge and evaluate: “This is valuable,” “That
is worthless,” or “This is important,” “That is unimportant.” Society judges gold to be valuable since it is
scarce and shiny, and dirt to be worthless, since it is abundant and dull. Sometimes what we’ve got in our life seems
like dirt. Sometimes it may seem like dirt
is all we have and all we are able to offer and it may seem not good enough. And yet it may be exactly the right thing to
offer. It may be the nurturing ground
for a sprouting seed.
Perhaps our life situation includes aspects we don’t want: confusing,
chaotic, painful circumstances, our “dirt.”
When that’s what we’ve got, that’s what we have to offer. How do we offer a situation? One part of offering it might be to dedicate
it: “May it be of benefit.” Perhaps another aspect of offering it would be to
let go of our idea of how it should be.
What might be another way to offer our life?
In our current study of the Lotus Sutra, several times we’ve
read things such as “They made innumerable offerings to countless buddhas.” It
may seem as though this is referring to offering treasures, parasols, bubbles,
and bells. That may be, and when we have
something we deem wonderful, let us offer that, too. But likely it is also referring to the kind
of offering we’re talking about here, offering this moment.
There is a legend that once when Shakyamuni Buddha was on
alms round, he came upon children playing in the sand and one of the children
innocently offered Buddha sand as “play food” into his alms bowl. Although Ananda tried to stop the child, the Buddha
accepted the gift of sand as sincerely given. The child was giving what he had as an
offering.
Someone asked the significance of the different little offerings on Rev. Taihaku’s altar. It’s not so much the significance of the coffee and chocolate, blueberries, and cucumbers. As with the temple lunch food offering, we take a small portion to give – offering the first bit of whatever we are having (not what is leftover or unwanted). With sincerity, we give the offering of our attention to taking care. For the kids in the Family Program, Noah summarizes what we do at Shao Shan Temple as, “We pay attention and we take care.” This is an excellent summation. And when we do it, it is a marvelous offering.
Dogen Zenji said: “We give flowers blooming on the distant
mountains to the Tathagata, and offer treasures accumulated in past lives to
living beings. Whether our gifts are of the Dharma or of material objects, each
gift is truly endowed with the virtue of offering, or dana. . . . In the giving the gift transforms the mind and
the mind transforms the gift.”
Let us give the gift of our practice. Whether we consider it “gold” or “dirt,” let
us give the offering of this moment.
