Posts tagged ‘Generosity’

February 21, 2011

Gratituderosity

In meditation last week we focused on generosity, and how we cultivate it or prevent it from manifesting. I just came across a blog about “generosity day” (to be celebrated the week that just past-February 14). The blog post got me thinking about the actions we do in our daily lives that cultivate generosity. Here are some things in daily life that come to mind…

Kathmandu sunrise
Image via Wikipedia
  • expressing your gratitude for things large and small
  • eating slowly and sharing what you have
  • smile at someone and say hello
  • go out of your way to share appreciation with another person
  • take the time to be with others
  • take the time to nurture yourself

And I think that the connection between gratitude and generosity are so close. It is only in the act of gratitude for what we have, and the knowledge that what we are and what we have is enough that we can then give with reckless abandon. This includes being generous to ourselves. And it does not require money or physical goods.

 

~There is a willingness to receive the generosity of another that becomes the practice of gratitude.
And as well it is in the giving to oneself and to others that the seeds for deep appreciation can be planted.~

 

February 15, 2011

Cultivating Generosity

Peace

Image via Wikipedia

New year, new noticings. One day-gratitude, one day-grace. Today-generosity. It’s all around you, but is it inside?

If this is really the basis from which we find internal peace, it seems a worthwhile one to chew on for a spell.

…this ability to cease holding or grasping. This opening of heart that then creates space. From this openness there is enough space for everyone, for everything to come and go as they (it) need to. Holding on too tight restricts this capacity for space, because there’s no room for light to shine in, no room for new people to enter, no possibility for new additions.

Sharon Salzberg’s article on generosity in the Shambala Sun discusses many aspects of generosity, that we can develop generosity through practice, practice, practice. And with this capacity for generosity,

“The benefits of generosity have the power to change us. If we cultivate generosity, the mind will stop sticking to things. It’s as if we’ve made a tight fist that is slowly opening, and we experience the relief of that. When the mind becomes suffused with the feeling of generosity, it moves out of rigid confinement into a less bounded space. Our world opens up because we can let go.” (Sharon Salzberg)

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