Episode
Feeding the Hungry Heart
- Published
- Nov 8, 2025
- Duration seconds
- 1150
- Processing state
not_requested- Canonical source
- https://amykisei.substack.com/p/feeding-the-hungry-heart
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Summary
Calling all you hungry hearts Everywhere through endless time You who wander, you who thirst I offer you, this Bodhi Mind Calling all you hungry spirits All the lost and the left behind Gather round and share this meal Your joy and your sorrow, I make it mine. —Kanromon Giving awakens the unbounded heart. What in our lives isn’t already shared? If we open to all the inter-relationships that make up our lives, we begin to see that this life is vast, and full of uncounted kindnesses. In the Zen tradition, we have ceremonies and rituals for awakening unbounded generosity. One seasonal ceremony is Sejiki, the Ceremony for the Hungry Ghost. During the ceremony we offer on the altar something for the hungry heart—the part of us that looks for satisfaction in things that often bring more pain, confusion and harm to ourselves and others. We often fear the hungry ghost. We sometimes feel haunted by it. We often feel a lot of shame around what it reaches for, want it seems to want. This ceremony invites us to meet this energy, this part of us—from a place of non-judgmental acceptance, loving kindness, curiosity. Welcoming them out of the shadows, we feed them an offering of something that they truly desire, consciously—with awareness—we let ourselves feel their hunger, as well as perhaps the nourishment of generosity, of kind acceptance and care. What happens when we when make an offering to our ghosts from a place of unbounded generosity and love? We practice Sejiki once a year, but the spirit of making offerings to the hungry heart can continue beyond this one ceremony. Transformation often happens through sustained care, dedication and vow. Below are some daily rituals I have practiced in relationship to the hungry heart. * Making offerings on my personal altar—I have a plate…