Four Gifts
I come to you with four gifts.
The first gift is a lotus-flower.
Do you understand?
My second gift is a golden net.
Can you recognize it?
My third gift is a shepherds’ round-dance.
Do your feet know how to dance?
My fourth gift is a garden planted in a wilderness.
Could you work there?
I come to you with four gifts.
Dare you accept them?
Sangharakshita on “Four Gifts”
Listen to the whole interview. Or to individual tracks below.
The tenth in a series of ten intimate interviews between Sangharakshita and Saddhanandi, reflecting on Sangharakshita’s own selections from his extensive body of poetry. In this segment they discuss the poem “Four Gifts”.
Track 1: Reading of Four Gifts
Track 2: Writing of the Poem
Track 3: The Gift of the Lotus Flower – Development
Track 4: The Practice of Service to Others
Track 5: Understanding the Need for Development
Track 6: The Gift of the Golden Net – Interconnectedness
Track 7: A Vision of Existence
Track 8: The Gift of the Garden – Cultivation
Track 10: Final Thoughts on Four Gifts
With thanks to Urgyen Sangharakshita, Saddhanandi, Rijupatha, and Candradasa
This space created by the team at Dharmachakra
Recorded in 2016