Dear Brothers and Sisters

This is Zen story numbered 53 in 101 Zen Stories.

The Giver Should Be Thankful

While Seisetsu was the master of Engaku in Kamakura he required larger quarters, since those in which he was teaching were overcrowded. Umezu Seibei a merchant of Edo, decided to donate five hundred pieces of gold called ryo toward the construction of a more commodious school. This money he brought to the teacher. Seisetsu said: “All right. I will take it.”

Umezu gave Seisetsu the sack of gold, but he was dissatisfied with the attitude of the teacher. One might live a whole year on three ryo, and the merchant had not even been thanked for five hundred.

– “In that sack are five hundred ryo,” hinted Umezu.
– “You told me that before,” replied Seisetsu.
– “Even if I am a wealthy merchant, five hundred ryo is a lot of money,” said Umezu.
– “Do you want me to thank you for it?” asked Seisetsi.
– “You ought to,” replied Umezu.
– “Why should I?” inquired Seisetsu. “The giver should be thankful.”

Of course, the giver should be thankful, because the receiver has given him an opportunity to do a good deed. Most of us have Umezu’s attitude – when we give, we want the receiver to thank us. That is an arrogant attitude, which takes all the blessings out of the gift. When we give, heaven blesses us, if we have the right attitude – happy and thankful with an opportunity to do a good deed. However, if we are arrogant when giving and want the receiver to thank, we have no blessings from heaven, because heaven doesn’t approve arrogancy.

The most important point, however, is that if we give with an arrogant attitude, we just use the gift to commit the sin of arrogance in our heart. The gift becomes an instrument of sin. We make ourself sinful by giving a gift.

Kahlil Griban in The Prophet wrote beautifully about giving in the chapter “On Giving”:

Then a rich man said, Speak to us of Giving.

And he answered:

You give but little when you give of your possessions.
It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.
For what are your possessions but things you keep and guard for fear you may need them tomorrow?
And tomorrow, what shall tomorrow bring to the overprudent dog burying bones in the trackless sand as he follows the pilgrims to the holy city?
And what is fear of need but need itself?
Is not dread of thirst when your well is full, the thirst that is unquenchable?

There are those who give little of the much which they have—and they give it for recognition and their hidden desire makes their gifts unwholesome.
And there are those who have little and give it all.
These are the believers in life and the bounty of life, and their coffer is never empty.
There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward.
And there are those who give with pain, and that pain is their baptism.
And there are those who give and know not pain in giving, nor do they seek joy, nor give with mindfulness of virtue;
They give as in yonder valley the myrtle breathes its fragrance into space.
Through the hands of such as these God speaks, and from behind their eyes He smiles upon the earth.

It is well to give when asked, but it is better to give unasked, through understanding;
And to the open-handed the search for one who shall receive is joy greater than giving.
And is there aught you would withhold?
All you have shall some day be given;
Therefore give now, that the season of giving may be yours and not your inheritors’.

You often say, “I would give, but only to the deserving.”
The trees in your orchard say not so, nor the flocks in your pasture.
They give that they may live, for to withhold is to perish.
Surely he who is worthy to receive his days and his nights, is worthy of all else from you.
And he who has deserved to drink from the ocean of life deserves to fill his cup from your little stream.
And what desert greater shall there be, than that which lies in the courage and the confidence, nay the charity, of receiving?
And who are you that men should rend their bosom and unveil their pride, that you may see their worth naked and their pride unabashed?
See first that you yourself deserve to be a giver, and an instrument of giving.
For in truth it is life that gives unto life—while you, who deem yourself a giver, are but a witness.

And you receivers—and you are all receivers—assume no weight of gratitude, lest you lay a yoke upon yourself and upon him who gives.
Rather rise together with the giver on his gifts as on wings;
For to be overmindful of your debt, is to doubt his generosity who has the freehearted earth for mother, and God for father.

The Prophet, Kahlil Gibran.

Giver, see first that you yourself deserve to be a giver, and an instrument of giving.
And you receivers—and you are all receivers—assume no weight of gratitude, lest you lay a yoke upon yourself and upon him who gives.

Wish us all know how to give and how to receive.

With compassion,

Hoành

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Trần Đình Hoành
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