As Sylvia Boorstein points out in the foreword to this book, the Buddha named generosity as the first of the Ten Perfected Qualities of an enlightened mind. She calls it a habit of mind, a tendency, a capacity that can be cultivated in daily life.

M. J. Ryan, author of the best-selling Attitudes of Gratitude, contends that generosity is "the mother of kindness." And it can be manifested in many forms — material, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual. "We can be generous when we give our knowledge, our awareness, our empathy, or our silence. Generosity is also about letting go of grudges, hurts, and concepts of ourselves and the world that stand in the way of our connection to others."

The art of giving and serving others is its own reward. But there are also benefits that naturally accrue to us. It is a mood elevator (the helper's high), and it is good for our health. Generosity connects us to others and pulls out the spaces that separate people from each other.

Ryan challenges us to learn from generosity teachers, to give meaningful holiday gifts to others, and to share all that we have. Near the end of this work, the author presents the following thought-piece quotation by Lama Surya Das, which sums up all that has gone before: "Don't we all need some concrete form of retraining so that we may learn to be more generous and let go more gracefully? We all — each of us without exception — have so much to give if we only knew it."