Generosity

This article in the Daily Good reveals the current American trend attacking Generosity. I could blame it on the Reagan era republicans but it is really just greed, the lack of generosity, the opposition to generosity we have in this culture, our culture. Across the country individuals are being jailed and fined for feeding and helping the homeless.

Generosity obviously necessarily includes giving, sharing, supporting those in need and this time I am not here to dig deeper and look at the fine print underpinning the spiritual practice of generosity. Instead I think we have to address the macro since it is being challenged on a nation-wide scale.

Any time an opportunity to support Generosity arises on any scale we take it, that is the practice. We support the generosity of others as well. Acknowledge and praise acts of generosity, speak out in celebration of generosity by talking about it with random strangers, by writing in blogs, tweets, print, anywhere anytime keep it in the forefront of speech and this will feed a whole flock of birds with just the one seed - because the ripple effect multiplies your words by magnitudes like a cavern echoes a shout. Don't bother complaining, this is just an attempt by Mara to instill fear and set us back. Instead by proactive and keep on giving, and support giving directly.  Let officials know you support kindness.

Many of the indirect ways of giving available today like adding a donation to your bill at the grocery store or giving to united way and that sort of charity brokerage end up supporting the overhead of the organizations rather than helping out those in need, and are also not doing your kamma much good. That is not enough intention, attention or personal focus to beef up the benefits of giving. Instead evaluate your resources, see where you can give of yourself and do that. The point is not to over extend but to extend in such a way that both you and the one you are reaching out to and for, are more stable and stronger than before you reached out. This means just making eye contact may be right generosity. But if you have an hour to volunteer, to help someone, or a meal to share, then do it. Failure to do so does not maintain your stability and strength, instead it stagnates and rots. This is the constant ebb and flow of the awakening universe.