Your Empty Bowl

 My bowl, empty now, will soon be filled with precious food. Beings all over the Earth are struggling to live. How fortunate I am to have enough to eat.

When many people on this Earth look at an empty bowl, they know their bowl will continue to be empty for a long time. So the empty bowl is as important to honor as the full bowl. We are grateful to have food to eat, and with this gatha [Buddhist hymn], we can vow to find ways to help those who are hungry.

Thich Nhat Hanh
From his new book
The World We Have: A Buddhist Approach to Peace and Ecology
Parallax Press (September 2008, $10.95)