Generosity Of Practice: Maybe We’re All Teachers

Hi everyone,

It's Judy Cohen and this is Wake Up Call 356.

So generosity,

The first of the six perfections or paramitas of heart and mind.

There are three types,

Giving material support,

Offering the teachings of mindfulness,

And offering safety.

Today,

Let's explore offering the teachings.

And the first thought that comes to mind for me around offering the teachings of mindfulness is something like only true teachers can offer that kind of generosity.

Only monks and nuns and lamas and Zen priests and other sort of anointed spiritual teachers can be considered to be offering teachings that this type of generosity is reserved for them.

So that's the first thought that comes to mind,

But I want to challenge that thought.

Before I do though,

I want to dig a little deeper into the practice of generosity from the perspective of kind of how we relate to it.

So for me,

When I'm giving material support,

Which is the first type of generosity,

And let's say I'm making a donation to Planned Parenthood or I'm making sandwiches at the food bank,

You know,

I have a few different motivations.

I know the organizations need support.

I believe in their work.

I want to help.

So one motivation is I guess what you could call altruism,

Which maybe you can relate to and maybe you share.

And I went to Google,

Of course,

To look up the actual definition of altruism.

And it's the belief in or practice of disinterested but selfless concern for the well-being of others.

So it's a good motivation.

Also,

Remember that word others because I'm going to come back to it and maybe you know where I'm going here.

So another motivation is that I want to feel helpful when I offer money,

When I offer time,

I do it in part because I feel like the world needs help right now and it makes me feel helpful.

So if you feel that way too,

That's great.

That's also a good motivation,

Right?

And it could be that you contribute money or time to certain organizations or causes in order to be part of something.

I do that for that reason as well.

My partner and I are part of a giving circle for an organization.

That means a lot to us and they hold this annual dinner and we get to meet other folks who believe in the work of the organization and being part of that community as part of our motivation.

So that feels like a good motivation too.

And from a mindfulness perspective,

There's no qualification.

These motivations are good and they fall into the category of building character,

Which is what I was talking about in the last couple of weeks and which is where we started in this Paramita exploration where we're perfecting generosity,

The perfection of generosity,

Because by doing so we're building our character,

Which is something we can do and because we can,

We should do,

Right?

Okay.

So,

And as such,

These motivations,

And I think this is true whether the motivations are for this first type of generosity,

Generosity of material support,

Or the second or third type,

The generosity of offering the teachings of mindfulness and the generosity of offering safety.

These motivations fall into the first of two levels.

Maybe,

I don't know if level is the right word,

But I'm just going to go with it for now.

Levels of generosity.

And the first level is where these fall and it's called worldly generosity,

Worldly generosity.

And I think of worldly generosity as practical,

Right?

I can help,

So I do.

And whether I do it out of altruism or to feel helpful or to be connected with like-minded community,

I'm being generous because I can help and I want to be a good person.

I want to build my character and I want to do some good in the world.

All right.

There's a second level of generosity too.

And it's a generosity that doesn't distinguish between giver and recipient and gift.

And that might sound really strange,

Right?

Because if I head down to the food bank to pack lunches,

I know that I'm the one spreading the mayo and the sandwich is the result and there's someone else who's going to eat it.

The other person is going to eat it.

But at this second level of generosity,

Which maybe we could call absolute generosity,

It's like the old Phil Oak song there,

But for fortune,

But John Bayo sang so beautifully.

The person with extra time who can go make sandwiches or who can make a donation to the food bank,

Isn't separate from the person who needs those sandwiches to survive.

And even the sandwiches are really just symbolic because there's really only one thing happening.

Care,

Compassion,

Flowing in all directions.

Or maybe we could say there's a community or a field of caring,

Of compassion,

And we're all tapped into it.

We're all offering into it,

Right?

So we could think of it maybe as a kind of flow.

So think about that in the law,

And it might not feel like that,

But imagine it like this and remember to Norman Fisher's invitation,

I was going to say admonition,

But I think he would call it an invitation more than an admonition.

There's really no plaintiff or defendant,

Even though of course there is on a worldly level.

And maybe the defendant is being truly generous by offering say X dollars to the settlement or the plaintiff is being truly generous in being willing to accept X dollars in settlement.

But what if in the absolute sense and assuming everyone is acting out of generosity,

Which I realize is a big assumption,

But that's what we're talking about.

We're talking about the cultivation of generosity,

The perfection of generosity.

So assuming everyone is acting out of generosity,

The settlement is really just creating peace.

Or maybe it's really just illuminating a peace that was already there.

Peace,

P-E-A-C-E,

That was already there.

And just waiting to be invited,

Waiting to be noticed,

Maybe peace between the parties or their companies or organizations or families,

Peace between the lawyers,

Peace for everyone else affected,

Which means a little more peace in the community,

Which means a little more peace in the world.

And of course,

If the settlement also contains seeds of resentment or only contains seeds of resentment,

Then those seeds affect the community as well.

And I'm not saying all settlements are motivated out of generosity.

I'm just saying here's a place where generosity could also be perfected and maybe we can help.

Which takes me back to the second type of generosity,

The generosity of offering the teachings of mindfulness.

So that's always been the tradition from the very beginning that the mindfulness teachings should be offered freely as an act of generosity.

In fact,

For those of you who are old timers on the wake up call,

You might remember that I used to ask for subscriptions and then I shifted to donation-based.

And thanks if you donate.

And because of this invitation in the mindfulness community that the teachings are really supposed to be an act of generosity offered freely.

And that feels really good.

And I'm not an anointed teacher.

I'm just someone who studies and practices and whose own teacher says,

Yes,

If you keep studying and practicing so that you understand what you're teaching,

You can offer what you know.

That's what I've been permitted to do by my own teacher.

So that's what I do.

And so that's where I'm going with the second kind of generosity,

The generosity of offering mindfulness teachings.

Because maybe none of us here is an anointed teacher and yet I suspect every single person here today is offering mindfulness teachings.

Maybe you're doing it overtly.

I know some of you are offering programs,

Your firms,

Your organizations,

Your schools,

But even for everyone who's not doing that,

And maybe that's most of you,

Your very practice is an offering.

Your very practice is an offering.

You may never say one word about generosity or love or mindfulness,

To the plaintiff,

To the defendant,

Or to anyone else.

And yet your very way of being in your office and in the world of being generous,

Of being loving,

Of being mindful is generosity.

And maybe you practice it in a way that you don't have to do.

And maybe you practice to build your own character.

That's great.

And maybe you also know somewhere in your bones that there's not really a you and a practice and others who are benefiting in any kind of separated way.

And maybe it's a little of both.

And either way,

Your practice,

Your very practice is an offering.

So let's sit.

Finding a comfortable posture that's also upright,

Whatever your posture is,

The posture that best supports you.

Locating the breath or whatever your anchor is,

The object to which you would like to direct or upon which you would like to rest your attention.

And doing that,

Resting the attention on the breath,

Maybe the body,

Maybe the sounds in the environment.

And as you settle in or with whatever amount of settledness you have today,

See if you can locate in your own body that place of generosity,

Of open heartedness,

And wanting to help.

Tapping into that goodness,

The way the perfection of generosity is already alive in you.

And how the practice itself creates a kind of connection or opens to an understanding of a kind of connection,

A kind of not separateness.

And if that's true for you,

Just exploring how that feels.

Thank you.

And if the mind wanders away into planning or remembering or anything at all,

Just coming back to the sense of generosity,

Generosity in the body,

Openness,

Connectedness,

Just exploring.

Thank you.

And then letting go of any purposeful exploration and just coming back to the breath,

The body,

Sound in the environment,

Maybe gratitude for your practice.

I think it's Annie Lamott who says,

There's three kinds of prayer.

Please,

Wow,

And thank you.

So coming to thank you.

Thank you everyone for coming to the wake-up call this morning or today,

Whatever time it is for you in your part of the world.

It's lovely to see you all.

Take good care and have a good Thursday.

Be safe,

Have a good weekend.

Be safe out there.

See you again soon,

Next Thursday.