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Thich Nhat Hanh, Living Buddha, Living Christ
When you hammer a nail into a board and accidentally strike your finger, you take care of the injury immediately. The right hand never says to the left hand, "I am doing charitable work for you." It just does whatever it can to help — giving first aid, compassion, and concern. In the Mahayana Buddhist tradition, the practice of dana, generosity, is like this. We do whatever we can to benefit others without seeing ourselves as helpers and the others as the helped. This is the spirit of non-self.
We do whatever we can to benefit others
Thea Jarvis, Every Day Hospitality
True hospitality . . . is unpretentious and warm, generous and encouraging — a natural manifestation of inner unselfishness. One of the simplest, most basic of disciplines, hospitality asks only that I be open to and accepting of others, willing to move over and make space for someone else at the table of life.
True hospitality is unpretentious and warm
Jan Carlsson-Bull, We Pledge Our Hearts
Love is knotted and gnarled, like an old tree fighting with the wind, like branches too brittle for their own good, like roots that relentlessly inform how deeply we can trust and how freely we can forgive.
Love is knotted and gnarled
Joseph Goldstein, A Heart Full of Peace
The Sanskrit word maitri and the Pali word metta both mean "loving-kindness" or "loving care," and refer to an attitude of friendliness, good will, and generosity of heart. When we are filled with loving-kindness and a sense of loving care, we have a very simple wish: May all beings be happy.
When we are filled with loving-kindness
Thea Jarvis, Every Day Hospitality
The God of my understanding is a hospitable God — welcoming, accepting, generous, forgiving. There is compassion in God's face, eagerness in God's open arms, affection in God's smile, and music in God's voice.
There is eagerness in God's open arms
Wayne Simsic, Living the Wisdom of St. Francis
As the spiritual leader of a brotherhood, Francis retranslated courtesy. Because all creation was interwoven, a divine family — a family that included even inanimate elements — each part of it deserved love and respect form another. He counseled his friars to be courteous to each other, to the poor, to people of every kind — and to all creation. After all, a courteous Creator gave us life; should we not show the same generosity by treating others, whether people or creatures, with reverence?
Be courteous to each other, to the poor, to people of every kind and to all creation.
Lewis Richmond, Work as a Spiritual Practice
Generosity is the classic expression of the accomplished spirit, when the self is open and unguarded and can freely share with others.
Generosity is the classic expression
Lama Surya Das, Awakening to the Sacred
We improve our karma whenever we restrain our unwholesome or bad habits; we improve our karma every time we are materially, emotionally, or spiritually generous with others; we improve our karma every time we cherish and preserve life. We feel the results immediately by the way we feel about ourselves.
We improve our karma whenever we restrain
Islam Is . . . An Experience of Dialogue and Devotion
"The third pillar of Islam involves a serious redistribution of wealth. Since all is given by God, then nothing of what I own is mine, unless it is shared according to God's will. Muslims traditionally give 2.5 percent of their wealth to the poor, although this tithing sometimes has taken the form of a tax if the government is Muslim. Nevertheless, the intent remains the same: to give to the poor and to be a just and peace-filled society.
"The principle of almsgiving stems from Muhammad's alarm at the sight of the poor during his early days as a traveling merchant. He witnessed the unjust burden of the masses and the opulence of the ruling families and decided that he and his followers would make sure that the poor had food, clothing and shelter. He saw that all creatures belong to God and that Allah would repay each according to their good deeds on Earth and in heaven. . . .
"The revelation in the Qur'an is that in this world the rich must give to the poor to guarantee a place in heaven with the angels and Allah. In practice, therefore almsgiving is an insurance policy to be entitled to heaven. The gathering of alms also exemplifies to Muslims that they are an umma, a community.
"Such generosity is based on two teachings. First, as we have seen, all goods are gifts of God and God has told us to share them. Secondly, these gifts are blessings and rewards from God and will be taken away if not used rightly. For Muslims, giving to the poor is not optional; it is the duty of bowing with one's goods. There are no exceptions — all are expected to give annually. In practice, this means that a Muslim who makes $40,000 gives about $1,000 off the net income. . . .
For the Muslim, God does not plan for his creatures to be poor. A Muslim feels blessed for being alive and understands that he is created by God and so surrenders his life to God. As part of his surrender, islam, the Muslim provides for the poor and thus receives God's mercy and goodness through economic prosperity. This instills more gratitude as well as salvation in the hereafter, which stimulates still further surrender. In this way, Islam is firm, dynamic and actual — a universal pattern that God first set in motion at Creation."
Mary Margaret Funk on the spiritual riches of Islam in the spiritual practice of justice.
The Deeper Dimension of Yoga
"1. We admit the fact that our ordinary human condition, based on the dualistic perception of life, is a stubborn habit that we normally conceal from ourselves through denial.
2. We begin to look and ask for guidance in our effort to cultivate a new outlook that embraces the spiritual vision of the interconnectedness of all existence. The means of doing so are varied from supportive spiritual environments to uplifting books.
3. We initiate positive changes in our behavior, which affirm that new outlook. It is not enough to read and talk about spiritual principles. Spirituality is intrinsically a practical affair.
4. We practice self-understanding; that is, we accept conscious responsibility for noticing our automatic programs and where they fall short of our new understanding of life.
5. We make a commitment to undergoing the catharsis, or purification, necessary to change our old cognitive and emotional patterns and stabilize the new outlook and disposition, replacing the egoic habit of splitting everything into irreconcilable opposites with an integrative attitude.
6. We learn to be flexible and open to life so that we can continue to learn and grow on the basis of our new outlook.
7. We practice humility in the midst of our endeavors to mature spiritually. In this way we avoid the danger of psychic inflation.
8. We assume responsibility for what we have understood about life and the principles of spiritual recovery, applying our understanding to all our relationships so that we can be a benign influence in the world.
9. Guided by our new outlook, we work on the integration of our multiple divided psyche.
10. We cultivate real self-discipline in all matters, great and small.
11. We increasingly practice spiritual communion, which opens us to that dimension of existence where we are all connected. Through such communion and through continued growth in self-understanding, we become transparent to ourselves.
12. We open ourselves to the possibility of bliss, the breakthrough of the transcendental reality into our consciousness, whereby the ego principle is unhinged and we fully recover our spiritual identity. Through this awakening the world becomes transparent to us and we are made whole."
A delineation of the meaning of spiritual recovery and transformation through Yoga.