Giving

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With GENEROSITY comes POWER!

The Buddha always started with new practitioners by teaching them "dana", the practice of generosity. This method has remained as the classical tradition of Buddhist teaching. Generosity has great power because it is characterized by the inner quality of letting go, or relinquishing. Being able to let go, to give up, to renounce, to give generously, these capacities spring from the same source within us. When we practice generosity we open up to all those liberating qualities. These qualities carry us to a profound freedom in that they are a loving expression of our inner goodness. The Buddha said, "No true spiritual life is possible without a generous heart". Dana - the practice of generosity - is the very first of the "ten paramis" or "qualities of the awakened mind". When we practice this we begin to know a very beautiful quality of joy. Giving brings happiness at every stage of its expression. We experience joy in remembering the fact we have, unconditionally, given.

The traditional teachings describe many worldly benefits that come from giving. When we are generous, others love us. This does not mean we give to become popular; it is the law of the universe that when we give we receive. Those who are generous awaken in us openness, love and delight. Part of the delight that comes from giving is in the love we also feel for ourselves; a sense of courage, strength and brightness grows within us as we learn to give. It also protects us, in easy situations and in difficult ones. People who are drawn to us, through our generosity, trust us and that trust grows, strongly.

There are, also, spiritual benefits in giving. A single act of giving has a value beyond our imagination. So much of a spiritual path is expressed in the act of giving: love, compassion, sympathetic joy, equanimity; letting go of hording, aversion and delusion. To give is powerful.

When the Buddha said that if we knew the power of giving, we would not let a single meal pass without sharing, he was referring to the metaphor of all giving. When we offer someone food, we are not just giving something to eat, we are giving strength, health, beauty, clarity of mind, and even life because non of these things would be possible without food. So when we feed another we are offering the substance of life itself.

The Buddha said “in offering food a great part of our spiritual path is fulfilled". All four of the “Brahma-viharas -heavenly abodes- are contained in that moment.

Genorosity’s aim is twofold: we give to free ourselves and we give to free others. Without both the process is incomplete. So the benefits of generosity are very powerful. As we cultivate it our heart will stop sticking to things. It will be like making a tight fist for a long period of time and then, slowly, the fist opens. We will experience relief and happiness as the tightness loosens. Our world opens up because we can let go. We can relinquish and not be afraid. We do not have to hold on.

We can actually watch this sense of spaciousness develop and grow as we practice giving. None of us does these things perfectly; that is why we call our efforts “practice” We “practice generosity” towards others and we practice it towards ourselves, over and over. The power of giving grows until it becomes like a great waterfall, until it becomes so natural for us that this is who we are.

Blessings for a generous heart!