Words of Wisdom for November 08, 2025

Giving (dana) is an essential Buddhist practice. It is about generosity, openness, and our capacity to embrace others with compassion and love. When we truly see ourselves as others and others as ourselves, we naturally want to do everything we can to secure their happiness and well-being, because we know that it is also our own well-being and happiness.

We exist in interbeing with all of life. When we understand this fundamental truth, our acts of giving will be made in the spirit of nondiscrimination. The merit, the spiritual benefit to be gained from the practice of giving cannot be calculated.

There is a kind of vegetable in Vietnam called h? (pronounced hey). It belongs to the onion family and looks like a scallion, and it is very good in soup. The more you cut the he plants at the base, the more they grow. If you dont cut them they wont grow very much. But if you cut them often, right at the base of the stalk, they grow bigger and bigger. This is also true of the practice of dana. If you give and continue to give, you become richer and richer all the time, richer in terms of happiness and well-being. This may seem strange but it is always true.

– Thich Nhat Hanh