The Abundance Of Generosity

Tonight I would like to talk about the abundance of generosity.

I feel that this talk needs a few words of preface.

As a teacher who lives from donations and from the generosity of the retreat participants,

It can be somewhat difficult or questionable to talk about generosity and giving,

Especially on the last evening of the retreat.

I hope it doesn't look like eliciting.

And yes,

The quality of heart,

Of generosity and its practice,

Of its practice in daily life especially,

Is enormously helpful and joyful and liberating that I will talk about it.

I'll begin with a quote by the Buddha.

He said,

If you knew as much about the power of giving as I do,

You wouldn't eat a single meal without sharing it.

There are many models that try to describe and convey the essential aspects of spiritual practice.

We can speak about the threefold training of sila,

Samadhi,

Panya,

Ethical conduct,

Meditation and wisdom.

Or about the seven qualities of the awakened mind or the seven qualities of enlightenment and the five spiritual shaping faculties as I did the other night.

I'd like to talk about generosity in terms of yet another model of practice,

Model of dana,

Sila and bhavana,

Generosity,

Ethical conduct and meditation.

Generosity here is seen as the first supporting pillar of practice.

Here in the West,

Especially I feel in the tradition of Insight Meditation,

Of vipassana,

Perhaps also in Western Zen,

We have begun with the reverse order.

We began and most often people begin even today with bhavana,

With meditation.

Many of us of the generation of my colleague actually began 30 or so years ago with psychedelic drugs.

We experienced and recognized the powerful and vast possibilities of the mind.

But since the extraordinary states never lasted very long,

We began to turn to bhavana,

Meditation.

Sila,

Ethical conduct,

Seems somewhat unimportant,

Maybe even a little bit ridiculous for some,

Or petty.

Quite some people who newly come to practice today still feel that way.

It's about bhavana,

Meditation.

Yet those of us who sat many retreats and then turned to the world,

To daily life,

And went back into retreat,

So forth,

Began to realize how important a non-violent,

Sensitive and kind conduct sila really is.

Without this basis,

Truing the transformation and liberation wasn't and isn't possible.

Without the basis of non-violent honesty,

Trustworthiness,

Sensitivity in our relationship,

Respect to its all forms of life,

That's the basis.

So sila is the foundation,

Just as the root of a tree,

Without which there are no branches,

No leaves,

No blossoms and no fruit.

Ethics or sila became important to us.

Then it slowly began to dawn on us.

If we want the teachers,

We want the Dharma teaching,

Seminars and retreats here in the West,

We ourselves needed to create the conditions for it to happen.

Dhanas,

Generosity,

Giving,

Supporting,

Serving became an issue.

To make retreats in course is possible.

To create Dharma city centers,

To run meditation centers,

We need it and we of course still need today.

Organizers,

Managers,

Cooks,

Builders,

Maintenance people,

Housekeepers,

Accountants,

Computer people,

Artists,

Lay-outists and so forth and so forth.

It takes also the support in the form of donations,

Of loans,

Of know-how,

Of time,

Of energy.

So generosity is not just a matter of material giving,

But it's the giving of time,

Giving of attention and care,

Of knowledge,

Of skills,

Of helping,

Of healing,

Of teaching,

Of counseling and all that.

So slowly over the years we began to recognize and also to lift the central importance of generosity.

I feel that Gaia house here is a great example of the generosity.

From the early beginnings in East Farmhouse to the founding of the old Gaia house over in Denbury in 1984 or so,

To this much bigger place here,

Four,

Five,

Perhaps six hundred retreats have been organized and made possible.

Through the generosity of countless unpaid helpers,

Through the tremendous service of innumerable managers,

Cooks and gardeners and organizers and housekeepers and maintenance workers and artists and accountants and teachers and committee members and so forth.

And through the enormous generosity of all those who came up with the money to buy these places.

And of course those who have come here to practice things.

Really inspiring event in this whole history.

The great Dharma and the great Dhanas,

Generosity,

Success story.

In Buddhist Asia the dynamics of dhanas,

Silas and palanas function exactly the other way around from what we have seen here in the West.

Dhanas,

The neuropathy,

Comes first and is practiced with amazing enthusiasm and unimpeded energy and openness there.

Silas,

Ethical conduct,

Is seen as very important but perhaps a little less important or maybe a little less practiced.

One lists ethically and takes the ethical precepts,

Especially on Sundays or what there is the full moon days.

Maybe a little like going to church here half a century or a century ago.

In daily life it often gets somewhat forgotten again.

Now,

Bhavana meditation practice is more rare in Asia.

Among the monks and nuns in Thailand,

Perhaps two,

Three percent meditate.

Among laypeople hardly anyone.

Probably similar in most Buddhist countries.

Maybe a little higher in Burma,

A little lower in Sri Lanka.

But generosity is overwhelming there.

And of course not only generosity in spiritual domains.

The practice of generosity needs to pervade more and more our whole being.

Needs to be part of our practice.

We give away instead of holding on.

We give up instead of accumulating.

We let go instead of being attached.

The deep sense of connectedness that arises through generosity will make ethical conduct into our natural way of acting.

The openness and the fluidity that arises through generosity will also support and deepen our meditation in substantial ways.

In the text Mahayana Alankara Sutra,

It says,

Generosity overcomes all hindrances.

It bestows or reveals non-conceptual primordial awareness.

It fulfills all wishes in a complete manner.

And it brings beings to full maturation.

And in the Bodhisattva Sutra Pitaka it says,

For the generous ones,

Enlightenment is not difficult to attain.

That's a convincing argument,

Isn't it?

What's important with respect to this statement is that we properly understand dāna.

It's not simply about some present or some gift we bring to our host on a visit.

It's not simply about whatever 20 pounds we send to Amnesty International or Greenpeace or whatever.

Much more,

It is a radical inner attitude of heart and mind.

Rumi,

The Sufi mystic,

Describes it as the attitude of the dervish,

Of the Sufi adept.

The Sufi opens his hand to the universe and gives away each instant free.

Unlike someone who banks on the street for money to survive,

The dervish begs to give you his life.

The term that's used in Pali language,

Dāna,

Is synonymous or a synonym of alo-pa,

Of non-lobha.

Loba means great desire,

Attachment,

Stinginess.

It's one of the root causes of our suffering,

One of the three root causes.

Now,

Alo-pa or non-attachment or dāna generosity is the exact opposite of great attachment.

It's dissolution,

It's healing,

Cure.

That's the end of suffering.

You could say the essence of all dharma practice,

Of all dharma teaching is this.

Develop the mind and heart that clings to nothing whatsoever.

You could say the essence of all teachings is the dharma of non-grasping.

And that's exactly what dāna generosity is all about.

It's the central quality of liberation.

We could say the deepest wisdom,

The deepest insight and wisdom sees,

Recognizes and makes visible.

But it's the end of grasping,

Of clinging,

To letting go,

The opening that liberates.

Generosity is an expression of love,

Compassion and of trust.

And it's one of the three roots of goodness,

Along with metta,

Loving kindness,

And vipanya,

With insight or wisdom.

And non-grasping is the main characteristic of dāna,

Of generosity,

Comparable with the way that a drop of water flows off a lotus leaf,

Not sticking to the leaf.

Flows off without even leaving a wet stain on the leaf.

They oppose to,

If you think of a drop of oil on the blotting paper,

Which completely gets into the paper,

Immovably stays in there.

When generosity begins to pervade our life,

Our life's quality,

Feel begins to change noticeably.

It begins to feel more open,

Feel more connected,

Feel more joyful.

And see how generous people awaken in our feelings of openness,

Of love and of joy.

And every way and every degree of giving makes us happy in class.

In ancient texts about giving,

And when they speak of giving it's often about food is often in reference to eating.

And I think that sometimes I will forget the central importance of that,

But even today it may be the fist of humanity,

Which is us,

That eats maybe 80 or 90 percent of the food on earth.

So this text says,

Those who give alms and give food,

Bestow however you pronounce that,

A forceful blessing.

They helped to long life,

To good appearance,

To happiness,

To strength.

And therefore long life,

Good appearance,

Happiness and strength will be their share,

Whether amongst heavenly beings or amongst men.

In elsewhere it says,

Five blessings accrue to the giver of alms.

The affection of many,

Noble association,

Good reputation,

Self-confidence and heavenly rebirth.

The essence of giving is letting go.

That's why giving makes us feel lighter,

Makes us feel happier,

Makes us feel free.

In a strange way it's not when we own a lot,

But when we're generous,

That we feel rich.

That's why Bob Dylan thinks,

When I was deep in poverty,

You taught me how to give.

When we give,

Then our heart is open.

In giving,

There's a sense of abundance.

As long as there's something we have to give,

There's a feeling of richness,

Of wealth.

Unlike when we're looking around for what we could get,

Even when we have a lot,

If we're in the mode of looking where one could get,

Immediately there's a sense of poverty,

Quite tangibly,

Because I don't have what I need,

I don't have enough,

I need something.

While with generosity there's abundance and we feel free and easy,

And at the same time deeply connected,

Because we connect with others in the giving.

Because in giving and generosity also we trust the artificial confinement of self- concern.

We break through the feeling of separation and in that feel one with life.

As Rumi said,

Returning from the treasury,

I feel rich.

Along with sympathetic joy,

The quality of mudita,

Appreciation,

Joyful appreciation,

I think generosity is the most joyful Dharma practice I can think of.

What are the areas of generosity in life?

We can give material things,

Food,

Drink,

Shelter,

Living spaces,

Clothes,

Medicine when needed,

All kinds of gifts and presents,

Whatever is needed of the things we have a gift.

Money is very important.

We're often quite unclear in our relationship to money.

Somehow it has such a high emotional charge for many of us.

All the questions,

You know,

Should I give?

And if I give,

How much should I give?

Am I stupid when I give?

Am I taken advantage of?

Or am I naive?

Or if it's known that I give?

Does it look ostentatious?

Or does it look uncultured?

Or yes,

Stingy?

Complex,

Often.

Money in itself isn't good or bad.

If it's used with a wholesome motivation for useful things,

It's certainly good.

The other way around,

It can be useless,

Can be unhelpful,

Can be even very destructive.

Some are overly cautious with money.

Sometimes we remain romantic with money.

I would like to offer a rose to the temple,

Something beautiful,

Exalted,

Not filthy money.

And I think we also do need roses,

Of course.

And that's fine,

Except when the temple needs a new roof or a new heating system.

Then again,

Roses alone want to.

Then we need roses and money.

It takes awareness,

Takes clarity,

Sensitivity and responsibility.

Then we can use money in meaningful ways.

One of the outstanding figures at the time of the Buddha was Anathapindika.

He was a wealthy merchant.

He used to support the Sangha of monks and nuns in many ways.

Once he bought an entire grove,

A park,

The Kirtva Grove,

From the local prince in order to offer it to the monks and nuns in a boat at a place where they could stay.

And often in the sutra,

In this text on the top given by the Buddha,

It says,

That I have heard.

And then it says where this discourse took place.

And often it's in the Kirtva Grove that Anathapindika bought.

When the prince was hesitant about selling the place,

Anathapindika covered the surface of the entire park with silver or gold coins.

That's to persuade the prince.

And that in turn the prince was so impressed and moved that he gave it for half of the price.

Half of the price,

As he called it by gold coins.

In a meditation center,

I was practicing in Asia,

They had a waiting list of one whole year for families and clans and groups of people,

Villages,

Who wanted to come there and help bring food to cook and to feed all the monks and nuns and laypeople who were on retreat there.

It's a list of a whole year.

They were waiting,

They wanted,

They were so eager,

So many people.

It's very moving for me to see that.

It's so deep in our culture that there's no way anyone would ask you money to come to a retreat center to practice.

There's so much generosity from the people because there's so much respect for that,

That it works that way.

Maybe one day we can do this on donation basis.

Why not?

It'd be wonderful.

And of course we can find that kind of generosity in our culture too,

Not only in just little inside meditation pockets or buddhist pockets.

And yet it seems to be less and less compatible with the contemporary shareholder value approach to life,

A different way of thinking.

We don't only give material things,

But also our care and attention.

We give our time,

We give our energy.

We do that at home,

We do it at work,

We do it in our free time.

Nimkarolibaba,

Ramdas Guru,

Said,

Said it in a simple way,

Love all the people and treat them.

That is,

With food,

With care and attention,

With respect,

With appreciation and with love,

And with everything they need of the things that we have.

We can serve and help in so many areas.

Maybe it's most helpful in areas that we're familiar with,

That we're at home with,

That we're things that we're good at.

And it can be politically,

Peace work or ecology or human rights.

It could be socially,

With every project,

Neighborhood projects or soup kitchens,

Of course within the family.

It could be third world projects,

Most needed.

Or in the area of Dharma practices,

Many of you do,

So supporting monasteries,

Centers,

By organizing,

Managing.

We can give by helping,

Supporting,

Sharing,

Healing,

Touching,

Sorry,

Teaching,

Training,

Creating.

Chuck Hornfield writes this about Burma,

That in 1960 the great Svetakana pagoda in Yangon and Rangoon was badly damaged by a heavy storm.

Burma is a country with unimaginable poverty,

But the entire population grows in order to repair and to beautify this holiest of holy places.

Even the poorest help.

And often also they took off their earrings,

Their jewelry,

Their wedding rings.

They brought the small piece of gold they had to taste for their old age,

So that the temple of awakening could be reconstructed again and shine forth in all its splendor.

What also fascinated me in Burma was the enthusiasm of the young people.

Many of them came on retreat in their school vacations or school holidays.

Quite often they helped with the most needed work,

You know,

The Svetakana pagoda.

They also came to sit a lot.

When at the time I absorbed about 20 students,

Almost school kids,

Sweeping the vast platform around the Svetakana pagoda.

It's a huge pagoda in the middle of the city of Rangoon.

Young people with brooms advancing in long rows.

Very mindful,

Very respectful,

Also very joyful.

It was nice to see how somehow that went together,

You know,

Having fun,

Enjoying themselves,

Being mindful and doing something that was supportive for the temple.

A text that generosity is free-fall.

The gift of material things.

The gift of fearlessness.

Protecting beings from any possible harm as far as best possible to us.

The gift of the noble teachings,

The Dharma.

Another important form of giving is the sharing and dedication of all the wholesome qualities and energies we have cultivated through our practice as we do it every evening,

Every night.

Saying,

By the power of this practice,

May all living beings realise liberation and enlightenment.

So even within our practice to not just sort of make it a self-centered kind of business,

But to remember to open it up and see it as something that we do for the benefit of many.

A very effective form of giving,

Of course,

Is to devote oneself totally to the practice,

Especially in retreat.

It's also generosity to completely give oneself into the moment,

As one.

Mindfulness,

One.

Waitfulness.

We give ourselves to the moment,

We give ourselves to life.

And with practice,

To the degree we become kinder,

Wiser and freer,

Very often with the gift to all those around us,

And of course ourselves.

This also means that we need to learn to respect our own practice and ourselves.

Meet ourselves and meet our practice with appreciation,

Something that seems so obvious and often we find it so difficult.

We don't think that our practice is really such a great thing.

Appreciation itself depends on generosity.

Because the generosity we cultivate also towards ourselves,

Towards our practice,

Towards the wonderful things we are doing.

So,

Joyful appreciation for our own and for others' good inequalities,

That is a form of generosity.

Also the joyful appreciation for our own and others' wholesome good actions,

Is a form of generosity.

And also quite noticeably,

Impregnated by generosity,

Is the joyful appreciation of the wellbeing and the success of others,

Of human beings,

Of all living beings.

On the other hand,

Impurities are listed,

Poisons,

Weapons,

Traps and other hunting utensils,

Sometimes also alcohol,

Tobacco or drugs.

It looks like we need to learn also to maybe count on the impurities,

Products of companies or banks,

Which are known to deal in nuclear waste or any other environmental destructive material.

We use child labour,

Maybe in third world countries,

We support repressive governments,

Promote and insist on the use of non-renewable energies.

Maybe again,

You know,

Maybe in old times it was more simple,

You know,

With poison and weapons,

Maybe now it's more complex.

The idea is that we do not offer and give things that are the direct cause of suffering,

I would say the indirect cause of suffering too,

And that are harmful for people.

What is it that motivates us to give,

Motivates us to be generous and open-hearted?

So what are the inner attitudes out of which we give?

Khalil Gibran's prophet said about giving,

There are those who give little of the much which they have,

And they give it for recognition,

And their hidden desires make their gifts unwholesome.

And there are those who have little and give it all.

These are the believers in life and in the bounty of life,

And their coffer is never empty.

There are those who give it joy,

And that joy is their reward.

There are those who give it pain,

And that pain is their baptism.

And there are those who give and know not pain in giving,

Nor do they seek joy,

Nor do they give with the intention of being virtuous.

They give as in Yondir Valley,

The myrtle breathes its fragrance into space.

Through the hands of such as these,

God speaks,

And from behind their eyes,

God smiles upon the earth.

When we practice generosity quite consistently for a while,

It becomes more and more noticeable that it feels good.

Many of you know,

Feels more open,

More at ease,

More connected and more joyful.

This experience motivates us to become ever more generous.

Sometimes though we may try to be generous because we're told to do so,

Or because we know that it would be good if we were generous,

Or because worthwhile,

Pleasant results are being promised.

Certainly in the Buddhist religion,

One may be generous because it brings enormous advantages for the next life to come.

It's not uncommon in Buddhist countries.

In the Christian religion,

Perhaps one could be generous because one will go to paradise and hereafter.

It's fine to get motivated to be generous by the fact that it's worthwhile,

That it makes sense.

Yet it's also possible that this kind of expectation becomes a desire for profit,

Generous because I get something from it.

Then the original positive attitudes become poignant and the motivation isn't really generosity anymore.

A man used to give money and gifts to a yogi.

As he did this,

He became more and more wealthy and the richer he got,

The more donations and presents he gave.

But one day he thought,

It is said that the holier the person to whom one makes offerings,

The greater will be one's merit.

Therefore I will give my gifts to the guru of the yogi from now on.

But as he did so,

He became poorer and poorer.

Finally in despair,

He went to the yogi to ask for advice.

The yogi explained,

Look,

As long as you gave and didn't care to whom you gave,

Me or someone else,

God gave to you and didn't care to whom he was giving.

But when you began to choose particularly worthy and famous people,

God began to do exactly the same.

Supposedly,

I've never seen that,

But I heard supposedly the Buddhist temples,

Where one can buy paper cars,

Paper refrigerators,

Paper thousand dollar bills,

Right outside the gate in order to then go in and offer those things to the deities,

Also to the Buddha and the altar,

With the expectation that as a future karmic result one would get cars,

Refrigerators and lots of money.

I think.

Comments are unnecessary.

That's also Buddhist religion.

The effects and results are entirely different when we're generous out of the experience of feeling deeply connected with others and with life.

In Sri Lanka and Khandrobora,

I was doing a retreat for a couple of months,

A fellow meditator who was practicing with me for a long time,

But for about three weeks and then he disappeared.

I sort of forgot about him.

And then another two weeks later he showed up again with his whole family and they came to cook and they brought food and they took care of the whole place for that day.

And that's where I sort of saw how beautiful this was,

This experience.

For so much time,

The time he was being there,

He was taken care by people who came in and then as he was done with his retreat,

He would come with his family and then again take care of those who were practicing in there.

And I think to quite some extent this is happening already here and it's really wonderful and it's a generosity that comes of a sense of mutual connectedness.

This could perhaps be compared to parents and their children.

In most cases,

I assume,

A mother won't ask herself in the morning,

I wonder whether I should make breakfast today for my little ones.

Parents in general don't ask themselves,

You know,

Should I try to do something just to be able to provide food and clothes,

Education for the kids.

The mothers,

The parents love their children and care for them,

But that's their motivation.

Not,

Should I do it,

If so,

How much does it have to be,

Would less be enough to.

So,

One could say giving generosity,

Open-heartedness,

Is divisible.

A parent and natural manifestation of love,

Compassion and connectedness.

Giving is seen as impure in the case of giving in order to harm someone,

Giving to get praise or a good reputation,

Giving out of rivalry with others.

And also when we give with irritation,

With pride or with disrespectful attitude,

Looking down on the receiver.

It's an essential part of spiritual practice to look at the motivation,

Look at the intention behind our actions.

It's really exactly there where the meaning of karma lies and this intention in our thoughts,

In our speech,

In our actions,

Or behind our actions.

The effects of an action depend on the intention or motivation out of which we act.

Meaning the effects on ourselves depend on the motivation out of which the act comes.

And therefore giving in itself doesn't automatically cause good results for us.

But when the intention is one of generosity then it's effective,

Powerful and positive.

And it's the effect that is eventually ours.

There's a very interesting statement by the Buddha which shows how much our usual view of things in terms of generosity and its benefits are somehow upside down,

Really the reverse of actual reality.

You ready?

What we give away is ours.

What we keep at home is not ours.

What we give away has value.

What we keep at home has no value.

What we give away we don't need to protect.

That's more obvious.

What we keep at home we need to protect.

What we give away causes no worry.

What we keep at home causes worry.

What we give away gives inexhaustible wealth.

What we keep at home will be exhausted.

What we keep at home leads to negativity.

What we give away leads directly to enlightenment.

The exact same statement,

But much shorter,

By the pop band Young Radical on one of their CDs,

Which is called You Get What You Give.

Interesting title,

You Get What You Give.

Dhanan's generosity is also one of the parameters,

One of the perfections of a human being,

On their way to the full enlightenment of a Buddha,

Together with patience or determination.

The completion of dhananaparamita,

The paramita of generosity,

Is realized when all the apparent separation between givers,

The gifts and the receiver completely falls away.

When all the deluded perception of self-existence in the giver,

In the gift and the recipient is completely seen through the completion of dhanaparamita,

In this way coincides with the completion of rajna or pannya paramita,

The completion of insight or wisdom.

The bronze prophet describes an attitude that seems to lie in that direction,

And I repeat parts of the verse I just read.

There are those who give and know,

Not pain in giving,

Nor do they seek joy,

Nor give with mindfulness of virtue.

They give as in the Andhra Valley,

The myrtle breathes its fragrance into space.

Chong Su describes a time or a world maybe,

In which connectedness and that kind of openness are natural,

That no one pays any special attention to worthy people,

Nor do they single out those of ability.

Rulers are simply the highest branches on the tree,

And people are like deer in the woods.

They're honest and righteous without realizing that they are doing their duty.

They love each other and do not know this is love of neighbor.

They deceive no one,

Yet do not know they are trustworthy.

They live freely together in giving and taking,

And do not think that they are generous.

I'd like to close with the definition of generosity from a text that's called Bodhisattva Bhumi,

Quite the radical one.

It says,

What is the essence of generosity?

A spontaneously arising,

Non-grasping attitude of heart and mind,

With its resulting generous action in which one gives away absolutely everything.

I'd like to be quiet.

Thank you for listening.

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