Giving up our ideas of the world to see what is before us

From time to time, The Seattle Times hosts guest columnists on the Faith & Values Page. Today, we bring you Eileen Kiera, dharmacarya (dharma teacher in Sanskrit).

The essence of Buddhist practice is realized through the art of giving. It doesn't matter what we give, nor does it matter how we give. The attitude of offering freely with no thought of any return is the heart and soul of meditation and mindfulness.

In meditation, when something comes up in our mind — a thought, for example — we hold it, we see it and we accept it just as it is. When a thought arises, we know that a thought is there, and we know what the thought is about. In our meditation, we always know exactly what is arising. Sometimes the thought just passes through, sometimes it lingers, but in recognizing it, we let it go.

Zen priest and writer Uchiyama Roshi calls this "opening the hand of thought." We give the thought up, and when emptied of thought, the world comes forth to greet us. We hear the lovely call of the red-winged blackbird outside our window. We smell the sweet smell of the rose on the altar. We let go of the thought, and come back to what is giving itself to us in that moment. We touch the world with our awareness, and we, in turn, are touched by the world.

The Buddhist practice of mindfulness is simply this practice of giving. Throughout the day, we remember to give ourselves to this moment. The word "remember" in this context is interesting. At its root, to re-member is to bring one's self together. Our breath is the anchor here, uniting body and mind as one. And through grounding in our breath, this moment unfolds within and around us. We experience the world offering itself to us. The dual nature of our thinking disappears, subject and object fall away, and what comes forth is the sweet smell of the rose, the gentle smile of our partner, the trill of the hermit thrush in alder brush.

We give up our ideas about the world in order to experience what is right before us, the reality of this moment. Inherent in this giving is receiving. Giving and receiving are of one reality, and they belong to each other. Where can we say that the smell of the rose begins, and where do we think it ends? Is it outside of us? Is it inside? Clearly there is no separation here. We give ourselves completely, and we are filled by everything.

Letting go and being here, we see that giving is the nature of reality, the reflection of the universe, and we are part of that whole. We are always and constantly being included in the universe's generosity. The trees and green algae give the breath of our life and receive our breath in return. The sun, the rain, the good earth give us food, shelter and clothing. Our very bodies are in constant communion with the universe.

It's simple science, the kind we learned in grade school, and yet when we stop and reflect, we see that we're involved in the great mystery of a gift that has no beginning or end. We are part and parcel within the giving circle of life. Our lives both express and manifest that gift in which there is no separation, no self, no other, only a continuous generous flow of giving. In truth, we have never been separate from the universal giving. My teacher, the Venerable Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh, calls it "interbeing."

In giving, we align ourselves with a perennial generosity. Whether it is material resources, knowledge, wisdom or love, whatever we offer expresses the truth of our existence and, as such, is sacred. And we, too, together with all things, are sacred from the very beginning and have never been separate from the universe of giving.

Eileen Kiera is a dharma heir of the Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh. She is the guiding teacher for several meditation communities in the Northwest, including the Mindfulness Community of Puget Sound. 206-767-4589 or www.mindfulnesspugetsound.org