A Texas small business owner donated a new car to a group of Buddhist monks crossing America on foot after their previous vehicle was destroyed in a collision.
In October, almost 20 Buddhist monks set out from Fort Worth on a 2,300-mile walk toward Washington, DC with a goal of promoting unity and compassion.
They were being followed by an escort vehicle carrying donated supplies, but in the following month, the car and several of the monks were victims in a serious collision that left the former totaled, and 4 of the latter hospitalized.
A roofing company owner in Dayton, Texas, where the incident occurred, saw the news and felt compelled to help.
“I saw that and I was like, ‘No, they need some help. We gotta help them. They’re walking for us — why can we not put something for them?’” said Osbaldo Durán.
Durán outfitted a fully-insured Toyota Rav4 with new tires and extra safety lights, while also going the extra mile to change the oil and fill up the tank before offering it to the monks in an act that he himself might not have known is called “Dana” in the Buddhist tradition.
Dana, meaning “charity” in Pali, the ancient Indian language the Buddha’s teachings were written in, is the act of laymen and laywomen going out of their way to offer food, clothing, shelter, or medicine to those living the holy life.
There are two interpretations of Dana’s importance, the first is that it affects Karma, a sort of moral destiny that sees those who are compassionate and charitable in one life be rewarded with a higher birth (in the realm of men or gods) in the next life, and those who are wicked be rewarded with a birth in the lower realms of animals, hungry ghosts, and hells.
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Another, more recent interpretation of Dana is that it fills the mind space, occupying it in lieu of covetous thoughts that arise from attachments.
Whether Durán knew any of this before he performed this substantial act of Dana is anyone’s guess, but in doing so he embodied one of Buddha’s greatest teachings, that Buddha-nature lies in anyone, and that anyone can unlock it and become a Buddha in subsequent lives.
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Local Texas news KPRC 2 captured a little of the moment when the monks, some walking without shoes, and accompanied by a faithful dog they had taken in as a stray in their previous monastic life in India, received the vehicle at the Dayton Fire Department, where the group was resting.
The monks passed through Jackson, Mississippi just before Christmas, and are currently in Charlotte, NC, where so many people turned out to wish them well and see them pass by that the traffic situation looked as if the Tour de France was on the road.
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