Spirituality & Practice

"I suggested creating a box labeled 'Tips for Acts of Kindness' and placing it next to the dinner table. Here are some more suggestions to be added to the box. Most are for children, but adults can adapt them for themselves, too. • "Text a thank you note to your mother or father immediately after they drive you somewhere so they know how much you appreciate them. • "Give a friend a chance to use your new toy even while you're still learning how to use it yourself (don't make them wait forever for a turn). • "Participate in a walkathon or another fund-raiser for a charity whose work affects a member of your family. • "Give a compliment to someone who serves you at a fast-food restaurant. • "Do two acts of kindness instead of just one! • "Buy a box of chocolates for someone who doesn't usually get told thanks (like a crossing guard, coach, bus driver, or school cook). • "Bake sugar-free or gluten-free cookies for a child who normally can't eat the treats brought to school by the other children. • "Turn down the music to be nice to a neighbor. • "Turn up the music to be nice to a different neighbor. • "Load your parents' iPod with songs they'll like. • "Pack your own sports gear. • "Make arrangements yourself to get home from a friend's house (but let your parents know what you're doing). • "Patiently wait your turn. • "Do your own laundry. • "Cook a meal even if it isn't your turn, provided you're old enough."

Warren Buffett, one of the world's richest men, announced in June 2006 that he is giving 85% of his fortune to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to help the foundation pursue its longstanding goal of curing the globe's most fatal diseases and improving American education. This is a $31 billion gift, certainly one of the largest acts of generosity in world history. Two thoughts came to mind when we heard this news. First, we recalled something Bill Gates, chairman of the Microsoft Corporation, said three years ago. It came near the end of an interview with by Bill Moyers on the PBS series Now. Moyers and Gates were discussing his philanthrophic activities, and Gates recounted a litany of reasons why some people think addressing global health problems is a good idea. Some use economic arguments. If we cure something like malaria in an African country, say, then that country's Gross National Product will be higher (and presumably they will buy more things). Some use security arguments; "If we don't cure these diseases, the instability in these countries will be bad." Others use the neighborhood arguments; "Somebody could get on a plane from one of these places and you might get sick." None of these arguments, Gates said matter-of-factly, is the right one. "The right argument is this mother's child is sick. And that child's life is no less valuable than the life of anyone else. And the world has plenty of resources to go solve these problems." We have never forgotten that statement. On the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation website, they restate it as the "two simple values that lie at the core of the foundation's work": (1) "All lives — no matter where they are being led — have equal value." (2) "To whom much has been given, much is expected." The second thought that came to mind when we heard of Warren Buffett's gift is that generosity is for everyone. If this is how we honor and express human value, than any act of kindness counts in the bigger picture. We can all be kind. We can all be generous. This is one of the key teachings of all the world's religions. "You can share even if you have a little," according to a Lungundan (East African) proverb. So we decided to look into our databases of quotes collected from our reading and see what teachers of our times and earlier ones have said about the spiritual practice of generosity. We encourage you to take them to heart, as we have, and to share them with others. Wendy Lustbader, a mental health counselor, writes in Counting on Kindness: "The words 'genius' and 'generous' come from the Latin root 'genere' meaning 'to beget.' To have a genius for life is to possess the ability to generate warmth and well-being in others. Largess literally enlarges our lives." In Simple Truths, Kent Nerburn states: "Giving is a miracle that can transform the heaviest of hearts. Two people, who moments before lived in separate worlds of private concerns, suddenly meet each other over a simple act of sharing. The world expands, a moment of goodness is created, and something new comes into being where before there was nothing. . . . But true giving is not an economic exchange; it is a generative act. It does not subtract from what we have; it multiples the effect we can have in the world." Buddhist teacher Sharon Salzberg writes in Lovingkindness: "The Buddha said that no true spiritual life is possible without a generous heart. . . . Generosity allies itself with an inner feeling of abundance — the feeling that we have enough to share." Jose Hobday in Simple Living explains how generosity is viewed in the Native American community: "We used to say you could tell if a person was an authentic native whether or not she had a red heart. A red heart had to do with whether the heart had blood from being massaged by good works, especially sharing." In The Knowing Heart, Sufi sheikh Kabir Helminski states: "The Prophet Muhammad said, 'the best of my people will enter paradise not because of their achievements, but because of the Mercy of God and their being satisfied with little for themselves and their extreme generosity toward others.' " Matthew Fox in Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh writes: "Generosity is about giving without a guaranteed return — it is about the 'giveaway.' I believe that the true moral path of the twenty-first century will be very different from the path of the modern era because it will be marked by generosity." Anglican Archbishop and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Desmond Tutu writes in God Has a Dream: "Like humility, generosity comes from seeing that everything we have and everything we accomplish comes from God's grace and God's love for us. In the African understanding of ubuntu, our humility and generosity also come from realizing that we could not be alive, nor could we accomplish anything, without the support, love, and generosity of all the people who have helped us to become the people we are today. Certainly it is from experiencing this generosity of God and the generosity of those in our life that we learn gratitude and to be generous to others." In Contact with God, Anthony de Mello states: "Those who expect God to be generous with them must be generous with their fellows. 'Give,' says Jesus, 'and gifts will be given you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will be poured out into your lap; for whatever measure you deal out to others will be dealt out to you in return. (Luke 6:38) If you are tight-fisted and calculating with the poor, the needy, with those who ask you for help and service, how can you expect God to be generous with you?" In Beyond Belief, her examination of the Gospel of Thomas, Elaine Pagels describes the long tradition of generosity in Christianity: "Tertullian, a Christian spokesman of the second century, writes that, unlike members of other clubs and societies that collected dues and fees to pay for feasts, members of the Christian 'family' contributed money voluntarily to a common fund to support orphans abandoned in the streets and garbage dumps. Christian groups brought food, medicine, and companionship to prisoners forced to work in mines, banished to prison islands, or held in jail. Christians even bought coffins and dug graves to bury the poor and criminals, whose corpses would otherwise lie unburied beyond the city gates. . . such generosity, which ordinarily could be expected only from one's own family, attracted crowds of newcomers to Christian groups, despite the risks." Christian author Tony Campolo in Spiritual Perspectives on America's Role as a Superpower points out how far many of us are from being generous. He notes: "Americans do not realize that the wealth we have gained since the middle of the twentieth century has slowly made us into a very selfish people. We know that after World War II we helped rebuild Europe under the Marshall Plan, and we still think that the same kind of generosity marks our present-day foreign policy. That is not the case. Of the twenty-two industrial nations of the world, the United States is dead last on per-capita giving to the poor peoples of the world. By way of comparison, let me point out that on a per-capita-basis, for every dollar that America gives to the world, the people of Norway give seventy." Margaret Guenther in At Home in the World states: "Jesus' standard of generosity is not the world's standard. 'Just give a cup of cold water in my name,' he instructs. So little and so simple as to be scarcely noticed! Like the widow's mite it is nevertheless a high standard. It demands that we live in awareness of the thirst all around us." Catholic priest Edward Hays in Prayer Notes to a Friend suggests: "Make extravagant generosity your greatest vice and become God-like." Editor Rebecca Laird in The Heart of Henri Nouwen quotes from this Catholic contemplative's book Sabbatical Journey: "I think that generosity has many levels. We have to think generously, speak generously, and act generously. Thinking well of others and speaking well of others is the basis for generous giving. It means that we relate to others as part of our 'gen' or 'kin' and treat them as family. Generosity cannot come from guilt or pity. It has to come from hearts that are fearless and free and are willing to share abundantly all that is given to us." Buddhist teacher Jack Kornfield, quoted in The Faces of Buddhism in America, says: "To cultivate generosity directly is another fundamental part of living a spiritual life. Like the training precepts and like our inner meditations, generosity can actually be practiced. With practice, its spirit forms our actions, and our hearts will grow stronger and lighter. It can lead to new levels of letting go and great happiness." Buddhist Christina Feldman in Heart of Wisdom, Mind of Calm observes: "Generosity lies at the heart of spiritual practice. Extending generosity to ourselves and others gladdens our heart, is a direct way of healing division, and brings joy." In Love Dharma, Geri Larkin states: "The Buddha taught, over and over, that generosity is the first door we walk through if we are serious about our spiritual work. Without generosity enlightenment is flat-out impossible. We're too self-centered. Unless our relationships are bathed in generosity they don't have a chance. At the other extreme, generosity can buttress a faltering relationship, giving other paramitas time to work their magic. It fuels the little extras, the surprise moments that keep us fresh and interesting." In Hooked! edited by Stephanie Kaza, Buddhist writer Joseph Goldstein looks at the relationship between generosity and consumerism. "The practice of generosity can serve as a corrective to addictive consumerism. Generosity enacts the quality of nongreed; it is a willingness to share, to let go. It may be giving of time, energy, resources, love, and even in rare cases, one's own life for the benefit and welfare of others. Generosity weakens the tendency of attachment and grasping and is intimately connected with the feeling of lovingkindness. People who experience the power and joy of generosity will also experience its effect on consuming. The cultivation of generosity offers a very strong antidote to the wanting mind and would be a powerful corrective if taken up in a widespread way across our culture." Ringu Tulku, a Tibetan Buddhist teacher, in Path to Buddhahood states: "According to the Buddha, if we are rich in this life, it is because we've been generous in previous lives. If we want to be rich in the future, we must learn to give now." Catherine Ingram, a co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society, writes in Passionate Presence: "The Buddha spoke about three kinds of giving: beggarly giving, friendly giving and kingly giving. Beggarly giving is when we give the least of what we have. We give what we don't really need, what we would never miss, what we might have otherwise thrown away. Friendly giving is when we give what we use and like — not our very best — but what we can afford and might appreciate having as a gift ourselves. Kingly giving is of a different order altogether. It is when we give the very best of what we have, when we give more than we keep for ourselves, when we give more than we can afford, when we give with no expectation of reciprocity. In awakened awareness we give because the joy of generosity far exceeds the paltry satisfaction of hoarding or displaying wealth. We give because this very life is a gift itself and wants to be completely used up, wants to spread perfume around everyone it meets." Donald Altman in Living Kindness writes about Jewish concepts of generosity: "In Judaism, the concept of giving is essential through what is known as tzedakah, or charity. Actually, the roots of the word stand for justice, righteousness, or fairness. It was in the twelfth century that the Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides compiled his 'eight levels of charity' as a kind of guide to enlightened living. The levels, starting from the lowest to highest, are as follows: l. Giving unwillingly. 2. Giving willingly but giving less than you could. 3. Giving only after being asked. 4. Giving without being asked. 5. Giving to a recipient you do not know, but who knows you. 6. Giving to a recipient you know, but who does not know you. 7. Giving when both parties are anonymous to each other. 8. Giving that enables self-reliance." Rami Shapiro in Hasidic Tales observes: "Acts of generosity are essential to the spiritual life, reflecting as they do an awareness of the interconnectedness of all beings. Judaism sets a minimum standard for giving: ten percent of your earnings. But the Hasid, the compassionate disciple of God, goes beyond the letter of the law." Rabbi Jonathan Sacks in Celebrating Life notes: "Happiness is not made by what we own. It is what we share." Dean Brackley in The Call to Discernment in Troubled Times writes: "The great challenges of our time — poverty, the environment, war — should inspire humility, but also creativity and bold action. They cry out for large-minded generosity — that is, the magnanimity that springs from wholesome self-esteem. Without humility, we elbow others aside. But without magnanimity, we bury our talent in a napkin." In Celebrating Silence, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, founder of The Art of Living Foundation, says: "Poor people fight for food. Rich people share their food. Richer are those who share power. Richer still are those who share fame. Richest of all are those who share themselves. A person's wealth is measured by his ability to share and not by what he hoards." Joseph Bruchac in Our Stories Remember states: "The potlatch ceremonies found among many of the Native peoples of the Pacific Northwest have been referred to as "fighting with wealth" by anthropologists who describe them as ceremonies in which a prominent figure tries to outdo a rival by either giving away or destroying vast amounts of personal possessions. . . . It could be said that while the accumulation of personal wealth is a desirable social norm in mainstream American culture, just the opposite is true in American Indian cultures. . . . At its best, a potlatch was a way to redistribute material wealth rather than leaving it in the hands of a few." Buddhist teacher Norman Fischer writes in Taking Our Places: "The practice of generosity is a good way to counteract whatever tendency to stealing we might have. To practice generosity is to make a conscious effort to give away whatever we can — money, time, food, feeling — as a way of realizing that generosity is perfectly safe and it's even a relief to give things away." In Running the Spiritual Path, Roger Joslin recommends a simple practice for when you are exercising: "Running with alms involves carrying a few dollars with you on the run with the intention of giving it away. Holding money in your pocket, expecting to offer it to another, serves as a reminder to give of yourself." Franz Metcalf in Just Add Buddha states: "When someone asks you for a favor, just say 'yes' without hesitating and without thinking. Don't make any room for equivocation or evaluation. Say yes and think later. . . . It's a wonderful practice to do every now and then. With repetition, you'll break down the tension between giving and paying that taints ordinary giving. You'll slowly approach the freedom of pure giving." Brother David Steindl-Rast in Music of Silence marvels at the thought that something as simple as a tip "can lighten someone else's day and maybe even turn it around. Generosity can be contagious in a healthy way."

When I was six or seven years old, growing up in Pittsburgh, I used to take a precious penny of my own and hide it for someone else to find. I was greatly excited ... at the thought of the first lucky passerby who would receive in this way, regardless of merit, a free gift from the universe.... I've been thinking about seeing. There are lots of things to see, unwrapped gifts and free surprises. The world is fairly studded and strewn with pennies cast broadside from a generous hand.

People understand about generosity in the East. They believe that everything that comes about happens due to causes and conditions, so if they want to be prosperous, they have to create the causes for future prosperity. The cause of prosperity is generosity. Knowing this, they are very happy to give and very grateful to the recipient for enabling them to accumulate this good karma. Not only does it help them to open up their hearts, but it also plants seeds for their future prosperity. For this reason, when a person gives something, the recipient doesn't say "thank you," because it is the giver who should give thanks for the opportunity to manifest generosity.

"A precept can be thought of as a beacon of light, much like a lighthouse beacon that warns sailors that they are entering dangerous waters and guides them on course. It can show us the way but also warns us to Pay Attention! Look! Listen! Sometimes we will change course, other times, if we must reach shore, we will proceed with caution," writes Diane Rizzetto, the Abbess and Guiding Teacher of the Bay Zen Center in Oakland, California. A dharma heir of Charlotte Joko Beck, she teaches extensively in Europe, as well as in the San Francisco Bay area and elsewhere throughout the United States. In this edifying work, which focuses on eight of the ten precepts, Rizzetto shows how these Buddhist principles can be used as tools to help liberate us from our thoughts, feelings, and sensations; bring down the walls of separation which keep us isolated and alienated from others and from the world; and reveal the ways in which our reactive behavior causes great unrest and suffering in our lives. The precepts help us recognize the importance of choice, responsibility, and the consequences of our actions. There are chapters on each of the precepts: I take up the way of speaking truthfully. I take up the way of speaking of others with openness and possibility. I take up the way of meeting others on equal ground. I take up the way of cultivating a clear mind. I take up the way of taking only what is freely given and giving freely of all that I can. I take up the way of engaging in sexual intimacy respectfully and with an open heart. I take up the way of letting go of anger. I take up the way of supporting life. In her discussion of "Speaking of Others," Rizzetto writes: "Studying the ways in which we discuss the faults of others can reveal much about the ways in which we place walls between ourselves and the world in general. When even the more subtle self-serving intentions are added onto the words we convey about other people, we distance ourselves both from them and ourselves. By creating this separation, we encourage the specialness of me. Feelings of inadequacy, imperfection, fear, and shame may be temporarily assuaged, but they are only pushed aside to reappear at another time. We deeply harm them when we speak of others in degrading ways, and we harm ourselves as well because we deny acceptance, compassion, and generosity as part of the fullness of life." So much precious time and energy is expended in the ego's efforts to rise above others by putting them down. An antidote to this behavior is to take a hard look at our own behavior whenever we criticize another or speak poorly of them. Looking down on others or feeling morally superior to them is often a challenge for those of us involved in antiwar activities. The author observes: "During the Vietnam war, the Vietnamese Zen teacher Thich Nhat Hanh spoke before a liberal, politically active audience in Berkeley, California. When asked about taking political action, he told the audience that taking action was important, but more important was to try to remember that they are not helping bring peace as long as they place themselves in a morally superior position. He reminded us that we can be very good at writing letters but very poor at opening our hearts and minds to those who oppose us." Good advice and very hard to practice, given the deep feelings we have on these highly charged political issues. Rizzetto does a fine job explaining the precepts in the Buddhist tradition and makes it clear that they are important guidelines for all of us.

Rabbi Rami M. Shapiro is currently the president of Metivta, a center for contemplative Judaism in Los Angeles and director of the Simply Jewish Foundation. His most recent book is The Way of Solomon: Finding Joy and Contentment in the Wisdom of Ecclesiastes. Now he has given us a fluid and very fine translation of Proverbs. He reveals how the edifying aphorisms and folk wisdom of Solomon's time, especially the advocacy of overcoming ignorance, practicing self-discipline, and having personal integrity, speak to some of the central challenges of our era. Shapiro states at the outset: "To benefit from reading Solomon's proverbs you have to have the courage to see the world as he does: simply, and without the smoke and mirrors of our rationalizations and excuses." In other words, slow down and be fully present with this "three-thousand year old how-to manual." Read it in small doses. Let its fragrances surround you and abound in you. "Begin with this: the foundation of wisdom is the selfless love of God." Proceeding from there we see that wisdom can be found everywhere: "Not everything that happens will be enjoyable, and not every word you hear will be kind, yet receive everything as a gift and a teaching." Solomon has gathered a lot of aphorisms about the value of silence, patience, kindness, generosity, and honesty. He knows that gossip, impatience, selfishness, greed, and dishonesty diminish us. At one point, we read that "the way to wisdom is through wonder." At another juncture, the words jar us: "Wonder enhances life; worry shortens it." This little book contains page after page of proverbs to take to heart and practice in your daily life. Here's a gem to act upon: "When you give to the poor, imagine you are giving to God; your reward will be instantaneous."

The Seventh Dalai Lama (1708-1757) calls this collection of over a hundred spontaneous short verses illustrating the essential ingredients of the enlightenment tradition "a string of precious gems" for spiritual knowledge. Glenn H. Mullin, who studied Tantric Buddhism in the Himalayas for twelve years, presents thought-provoking commentary on each of these four-line verses. The Dalai Lama opens up a portal into the Buddha's teachings about generosity, compassion, the problems that affect the mind, the inner distortions that affect the mind, and the rewards of the enlightenment path. This brief volume is brimming over with ethical insights into various spiritual practices. And all of these are amazingly relevant to our contemporary situation. Take for example, the following observation on wealth: "Who are the most poor / of all beings in this world? Those so attached to their wealth / that they know no satisfaction." That's poignant enough to appear on a billboard in Times Square. And check this one, which reveals the Dalai Lama's sense of humor: "What is the body odor / easy to acquire but hard to lose? / Habits picked up from people / whose lives are far from spiritual ways." Those on the path of enlightenment eschew the norms of society whether in the eighteenth or twenty-first century.

"Be generous with time, particularly when the consequences to the other person are significant. I remember reading a comment of Simone Weil (a philosopher and member of the French resistance) that during the Nazi occupation of France, she knew many people who would willingly have stood on line for hours to procure rationed eggs, but who would not have done so to save the life of someone unrelated to them. In contrast, Yitta Halberstam Mandelbaum relates an incident about the late rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, the great Jewish spiritual teacher, songwriter, and performer, told to her by a woman who was waiting to board a plane from Toronto to New York. The rabbi's flight was fully booked and about to be boarded when an airline representative made an announcement: 'There are two people who have medical emergencies and desperately need to get back to New York. We're asking for two volunteers to give up their seats for the sake of these people. The next flight to New York is in three hours. We know it's a great sacrifice and we're sorry to put you in this position. Is there anybody here willing to extend themselves to help these people?' One hand in the crowd immediately shot up. 'I'm ready,' shouted Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach. A man known to be extraordinarily busy, Carlebach was constantly traveling from concert to concert, and then meeting with and counseling people late into the night. The woman who was present at the airport that morning told Yitta: 'Of all of us gathered there that morning, it was Shlomo who probably had the most compelling need to get back fast. He had the least time to spare. But miraculously, he also had the most time to give.' "

"Our willingness to bring forth the subtle fields of our deepest hopes and inspirations links our lives to those of the mystics of all ages who have chosen the same course. And our belief in the price of imagination and in the daring of the human heart can and does literally rearrange the physical world, making everyday life a mystical process," writes David La Chapelle, a contributor to the Institute of Noetic Sciences Magazine, a healer for 25 years, a teacher at the Naropa Institute, and a leader of Wilderness Quest groups. If we listen to the voice of the world, we hear the painful cries of species facing extinction and trees succumbing to disease and stress. If we look at the scientific evidence, we notice the decline in herring and ocean perch and all the dire effects of global warming on food production and distribution. La Chapelle is convinced that we can navigate the tides of change swirling all around us if we have vision. He turns to the wisdom of indigenous peoples: the courage of moral mentors such as Harriet Tubman, Jane Adams, Florence Nightingale, Black Elk, Teilhard de Chardin, and others; and the premier agents of change in our time — the mystics of the world. He says of the last group: "The stories of the mystics are shells we pick up along the shore of the spiritual ocean; hold them to our ears and we will hear the roar of the sea. I must warn you that contemplating the lives of these beings is fundamentally dangerous." La Chapelle himself is a mystic who enables us to imagine the power of love to have a formidable impact upon the course of the future. He writes poetically about the ties that bind us together with all people, the generosity that is at the heart of nature's bounties, the firepower of intuition, and the compassion that animates us to becoming caring human beings. This author is a visionary who deserves a wide hearing.

Mu Soeng is the author of Heart Sutra: Ancient Buddhist Wisdom in the Light of Quantum Reality and co-director of the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies in Massachusetts. He sees the Buddha as "a person of great shamanic powers" who has given us keen insights into the primacy of intention, the value of personal and social ethics, and the phenomenology of mental processes. Soeng presents a series of chapters on early Buddhism, the Mahayana Sutras, and the literary and social conventions of the Diamond Sutra. He then proceeds to his commentary on the latter, a religious classic of 32 short chapters containing a dialogue between the Buddha and one of his disciples on the themes of emptiness, compassion, and the path of the Bodhisattva. Soeng believes that the Diamond Sutra foreshadows the koan method of practice in the Zen tradition. The Buddha's teachings here are not doctrinal but experiential. Each person must discover for himself or herself the truth about impermanence, the cultivation of patience, and the value of generosity.