In the presence of Sangha, in the light of Dharma, in oneness with Buddha
In this passing moment
I now choose what is:
If there’s cost, I choose to pay.
If there’s want, I choose to give.
If there’s pain, I choose to feel.
If there’s sorrow, I choose to grieve.
When burning - I choose heat.
When calm - I choose peace.
When starving - I choose hunger.
When happy - I choose joy.
Whom I encounter, I choose to meet.
What I shoulder, I choose to bear.
When it’s my death, I choose to die.
Where this takes me, I choose to go.
Because this moment is the truth-
Because all things change-
Because it is my life-
I will meet it!
May all Buddhas and Wise Ones help me live this vow.
(To avow is to own.)
6 comments:
This reminds me a bit of St. Francis' prayer, but whereas his deliberately makes contrasts between good/bad/owned/given, this avowal swings between and embraces all, obviously (karmic debt being what it is). I have St. Francis' on my small altar; with your permission, I'll ad Hogen Bays' as well.
I'm sure Hogen won't mind. I'll post a newer version if it appears.
Hogen has always taught this, and it's a useful distillation, full of heart.
Very nice, as long as "choose" is in quotes and includes the ever-implicit [wink, wink] [nudge, nudge] disclaimers.
I'm not sure I see the need for nudging and winking.
You can fully meet your life as it is; or you can strategize/whine/tell stories about it.
perhaps the nudge nudge refers to the linguistic form . . . kinda like reminding someone to say "this is what arises for me" instead of "i do this"
-gassho-
I think the important aspect of "choose" here is saying that I choose to meet "what is."
It is _not_ saying "I choose what happens, therefore if I get mugged on my way home I must secretly have requested that from the Universe."
The deeper fact of the matter, according to the doctrine of karma, is that we end up exactly where we're headed; that things don't just happen to us out of nowhere, but as a result of past actions operating on the present in ways impossible to fully comprehend.
But this chant is about turning the small self, the personality--which usually doesn't like to suffer, and which grasps joy too hard--in a wholesome direction.
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