Give Away

We celebrated the Festival Ceremony of Avalokiteshwara, Bodhisattva of compassion and wisdom. It was good to see some old friends, and blog readers, here. There never is enough time to talk to everybody I’d like to on these occasions.

The monk giving the Dharma talk after the ceremony made the point that compassion and wisdom go together, seamlessly. Well, there was a news item last week about money being left anonymously in all sorts of odd places in Japan. Men’s toilets, posted through letter boxes and showering down into the street from above. This has left people very anxious and much if not all the money has been handed into the police or local authorities. What ever the intent it looks like this project backfired.

Here it seems inconceivable that people would hand in free cash to the police. Although one of our monks did hand in a £20 note he had found on the beach at Portobello near Edinburgh. Later they gave it to him. I’m wondering what will end up happening with this large gift cast into the unknown by somebody, perhaps with compassion in mind.

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2 thoughts on “Give Away”

  1. It is certainly very much the norm for people to hand in any money or ‘valuables’ they find here in Japan.

    Two years ago a friend of mine left a handbag with over £600 ($1200) in it in a toilet in a bowling alley in Kure. She thought her daughter had the bag with her in the car. It wasn’t missed until she got to Hiroshima an hour later.

    Of course the bag had been handed in to the reception desk within minutes.

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