I have heard, once it happened: one man’s wife died in a Buddhist land, somewhere in China. The man called a Buddhist monk to pray for his wife who was dead now and had gone on a new journey – just to pray to protect her. The monk prayed, meditated, and then he said, ”Everything will be good. Don’t you worry.”
The man asked, ”But I heard you saying something like ’for all the beings of the earth.’ You never mentioned my wife in particular. You were asking blessings, you were asking bliss for all the beings of the earth, but you were not mentioning my wife in particular. Mention her name in particular!”
The monk said, ”It is difficult, because Buddha has said that whenever you ask for something, ask for all. It has to be shared with all. I cannot ask only for your wife. And if I ask only for your wife she will not get it. If I ask for all, only then is there a possibility.”
Then the man said, ”Okay, but at least make one exception – just my neighbor. Exclude him! – and ask for everyone else. But at least make one exception. Exclude him, because I cannot bear this idea that he is also getting blessings of the divine.”
This miserliness, this mind of jealousy, hatred, cannot understand how to share. You never share anything. You may give something to somebody, but there is always a hidden bargain.
Remember the difference. You can give many gifts to your husband, to your wife, to your friends, but they are
deep bargains – you are expecting something to be returned. That is not sharing. Sharing means you are never expecting anything in return, you are simply giving. You are not even expecting thankfulness.
It happened with Dozo, one Zen monk. A rich man came to Dozo with ten thousand gold coins. That is very much, a big amount. He was going to make that a gift for the temple where Dozo was the priest. Dozo accepted as if it was nothing. The man became disturbed. He said, ”Do you know these are ten thousand gold coins?”
Dozo said, ”You have said it so many times, I have heard it so many times. You have said it already too many times – do you think I am deaf?”
The man was just asking for thanks, only thanks, nothing more. Then he said, ”Ten thousand golden coins is a big amount, even to me. I am a very rich man, but that amount is very big.”
Dozo said, ”What do you want? What are you really asking? Are you asking for some gratitude? Are you asking that I should be thankful to you?”
The man said, ”At least that much can be expected.”
So Dozo said, ”Take your gold coins back. Or, if you want to give them to this temple, you will have to be thankful to me that I accepted.”
On the temple it is written even still... it is written that the giver should be thankful; only then is it a sharing. Somebody accepted your gift. This is such a great thing, because he could have rejected. Somebody accepted you through your gift. He could have rejected, there was no necessity to accept it. The giver should be thankful. Then it becomes a sharing, otherwise it is always a bargain. You are expecting something – something more valuable than you have given. When someone becomes enlightened he can share, and he will do whatsoever he can just to share it.
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