Giving Everything Without Reservation—The Eternal Buddha's Generosity Revealed in the Entrustment Chapter

The assembly at Eagle Peak was approaching its climax.
The eternal Shakyamuni Buddha stood up gracefully from his seat.
Then, with his right hand, he gently stroked the heads of the countless Bodhisattvas, one by one, three times over. At that moment, the following words were recorded in the twenty-second chapter of the Lotus Sutra, the Entrustment Chapter:

The Tathagata has great compassion, is free from all stinginess, and has nothing to fear. He is able to bestow upon living beings the Buddha's wisdom, the Tathagata's wisdom, and natural wisdom. The Tathagata is the great benefactor of all living beings. You, too, should follow and learn the Tathagata's Law. Do not give rise to stinginess.

The Tathagata possesses great compassion, has no stinginess whatsoever, and fears nothing; he continues to bestow the Buddha's wisdom, the Tathagata's wisdom, and natural wisdom upon living beings without reservation. The Tathagata is truly the great benefactor of all living beings. You, too, should follow and learn from the Tathagata's Law.
Never give rise to a heart of stinginess.

I am deeply struck by the phrase 'free from all stinginess.'
Stinginess means to be miserly and hold back.
To be reluctant to give.
The sutra asserts that Shakyamuni, who attained enlightenment in the remote past, has none of this.

We sometimes hold back what we have.
Our knowledge, our time, our affection.
Thinking it is a waste, or that it might diminish.

But the eternal Buddha is different.
He continues to give all wisdom—the Buddha's wisdom, the Tathagata's wisdom, and natural wisdom—to living beings without reservation and without fear.
There exists a fountain of wisdom that never runs dry, no matter how much is given.

Where else in this universe can such a bright and generous being be found? Even at this very moment, the eternal Shakyamuni Buddha continues to offer everything to us.

And I suddenly think:
Is this way of 'not holding back in giving' not the very image of the human being we should strive to become in our daily lives?

Leonardo da Vinci left these words in his notebooks:

'As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well used brings happy death.'

What is a well-spent day?
I believe it is a day in which we sincerely offer what is within us, without reservation and without fear. Just as the eternal Buddha does not hold back his wisdom, we too should strive to make today a day where we give everything we have. When we can think this way, perhaps the great compassion of the eternal Buddha and our own small days can connect within the same light.

Let us think, and let us move forward.
Just as the wisdom of all Buddhas is profound and immeasurable.