Dana for Robert Aitken Roshi.

Robert Aitken Roshi is in very poor health and in need of our dana. I first heard about this from Al on his great blog Open Buddha. I can't say it any better than Al so I'm just going to re-post his great write up. I hope Al won't mind and please know that these words are his and not mine--thanks Al for bringing this to our attention (bowing):

Robert Aitken Roshi is one of the earliest Western teachers of Zen still alive today. He was exposed to Zen while in a Japanese internment camp in Kobe, Japan after being captured as a worker in Guam. Following the war, he went on to study in America and then in Japan before returning to the States. He has been teaching here in the West continually for 50 years now. I’ve read a number of his books and have learned a lot from them.

Aitken Roshi has been sick for a number of years now, suffering a stroke a few years ago. While he isn’t destitute, he does require round the clock care. I read today that he’s been diagnosed with Parkinson’s recently but has been active in his sangha in spit [sic] of his illness. Because of his care requirements, there has been a general call to the Buddhist community for support and financial help for Aitken Roshi, a man who has given his life to the Dharma. He is not going to be able to afford the care on his own for very long and there is no retirement plan for Zen masters.

I’ve donated to help and I would encourage others to consider doing the same as well. You can find out more information, as well as give donatations, at http://www.aitkenroshi.org.

James: Master Aitken has done so much for Zen and Buddhism here in America and around the world. Let us all come together and help make his suffering a bit less through a donation. He looks so old and frail in that picture yet noble and beautiful as ever--he shows us that growing old and getting sick need not be as miserable as our mind would want to make it.

Dana is a Buddhist principle of donating or giving something we value to others that helps alieviate the suffering of others and purify our minds of one of the three poisons--greed. Dana need not be money--in fact one of the things that is most valuable is our time. Spending time just being with other people and sharing a moment is sharing the precious gift of mindfulness and suchness. And it need not include a lot of talking--some of the most wonderful moments that I've shared with others has been just sharing silence together and enjoying the sounds of nature around us.

~Peace to all beings~