Sunday, February 26, 2023
Worship Service
11:00 a.m.
“The Monk’s Bowl”
Service conducted by
Srimati Karuna, Minister
Sunday Bulletin
What is the meaning of the monk’s bowl?
Both practical and symbolic, this simple object reveals an important message to spiritual aspirants. Emblematic of both renunciation and charity, it reminds us that “it is in giving that we receive.”
“Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?”
—Matthew 6:25-27
“Time after I came to your gate with raised hands asking for more yet more. You gave and gave, now in slow measure, now in sudden excess. I took some, and some things I let drop; some lay heavy on my hands; some I made into playthings and broke them when tired; till the wrecks and hoard of gifts grew immense, hiding You, and the ceaseless expectations wore my heart out.
“Take, O take, has now become my cry. Shatter all from the beggar's bowl. Put out this lamp of the importunate watcher; hold my hands, raise me from the still-gathering heap of your gifts into the bare infinity of your uncrowded presence.”
—Rabndranath Tagore