Spirituality & Practice

By "not accepting invitations" we deprive others of the opportunity to practice generosity.

A Nigerian proverb says, "It is the heart that gives; the fingers just let go."

Opening Words: "For listening is the act of entering the skin of the other and wearing it for a time as if it were our own. Listening is the gateway to understanding." — David Spangler in Parent as Mystic, Mystic as Parent Check-in/Sharing Topic: In A Field Guide to the Soul, spiritual teacher James Thornton describes being at a retreat where he learned to be truly present to another person. He calls this practice deep listening. "For some years before the retreat, I was aware that the way I listened to other people was not what I wanted it to be. Though people regarded me as a good listener, I did not feel that I was. I felt unable to give the person who was speaking to me my undivided attention. While listening, I was working on my response. . . . "I was terribly tired of this way of speaking with others but had no real idea of how to go beyond it and become more spontaneous. The answer came at that picnic. When my friend spoke, I found myself staring into his eyes and just listening, as I had listened to the birds the entire week. Just listening. No thoughts of my own, just hearing the thoughts of my friend. There was a moment of panic. I thought, 'He's going to stop speaking any second now, and I've prepared nothing! I will have nothing ready to say!' "I let the panic go. I decided to see what would happen if I gave no thought at all to a response and just kept listening to my friend. As it happened, when he stopped speaking, I started speaking. I had no idea of what I would say, but I said something he accepted well enough. "From deep listening had come spontaneity, and it has stayed that way ever since." For Reflection/Journaling: Take a moment to assess how you listen: Who I Always Listen To. Who I Rarely Listen To. Who Listens To Me. Who I Want to Listen To Me. Practice listening deeply as each member of the group shares their insights into how they listen. Check-out/Likes and Wishes Closing Words: "God speaks to us every day only we don't know how to listen." — Mahatma Gandhi quoted in In the Middle of This Road We Call Our Life by James W. Jones To Practice This Thought: Be aware of how you listen to people; be conscious of just listening without thinking about what you might say in response.

Share with others the fullness of spirit that flows from your religious life. Give of yourself: give time, not just money; give directly, not just impersonally. Above all, give love.

Mother Teresa (1910-1997) founded the Missionaries of Charity in 1950 and was the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. She spent most of her life caring for abandoned children, mentally ill and handicapped individuals, lepers, the indigent, and the dying. With gentleness and humility, she and her co-workers demonstrated how the compassionate spirit of Jesus was meant to burn brightly against the staggering dimensions of pain, poverty, and human misery in the world. This card deck comes with a built-in frame for displaying the quotations or one of the nine duotone photographs of Mother Teresa printed on the back of the cards. The deck is organized into the following categories: Joy, Silence, Generosity, Faith, Sacrifice, Poverty, Prayer, and Love. A portion of the publisher's proceeds from this project will aid the Missionaries of Charity. New World Library has also released two collections of stories and quotations about Mother Teresa: Mother Teresa: In the Heart of the World and Mother Teresa: No Greater Love.

"Generosity is an activity that can change the world. It works its magic on one person at a time; then, almost effortlessly, its beautiful multiplying force animates families, friends, communities, cultures, and the world at large. "Unlike its close cousin, compassion, generosity requires action. To be a generous person, you must act. In many ways, generosity is compassion in action, and it is love in action. It's no surprise that generosity is at the very heart of all the world's major religions. "Generosity is a practice. And as with anything we practice, we get better at it over time. It's a muscle that needs exercise. Generous actions have impact on the beneficiaries, but they also change the lives of the generous in remarkable ways. Generosity can transform our place in the world and how we live our lives. Generosity can be revolutionary. "Generosity is often confused with giving. There are many ways to give. We all have something to give — our time, our caring and caretaking, a kind word, a smile, encouragement, material gifts of all kinds. But all giving does not necessarily fit my definition of generosity. You can give with the expectation of receiving acclaim for your gift. You can give to create a certain outcome that will benefit you personally. You can give in order to be in the company of people who will be impressed by your ability to give. And you can give from a generous place in your heart that propels you forward to provide what is needed, with little concern for applause and recognition for yourself. "Generosity is often quite bold, ignoring the advice of friends and family and moving forward with courage and conviction. Generosity is willing to take risks. In fact, risks have little constraint on a generous heart. "Generosity invites us to put ourselves in another's shoes, see and feel the existence of a pressing need, realize that it is within our power to help, and then act in whatever way we can. It's really as simple as that."

Tenzin Palmo was born in London in 1943, went to India in 1963, met her teacher, and a year later was one of the first Western women to be ordained as a Tibetan Buddhist nun. Her experiences during twelve years in solitude were charted in Cave in the Snow: A Western Woman's Quest for Enlightenment. In this thoughtful and well-organized paperback, the author answers questions that always come up as she travels around the world trying to gather support for the Dongyu Gatsal Ling Nunnery Project. Here young women are given the opportunity to develop their intellectual and spiritual potential through a balanced traning of study, meditation, and service. These talks were given in America and Australia. Some of the topics covered are ethics and the three trainings, the six realms, women and the path, calm abiding, awareness, difficult points for Westerners, the nature of mind, the role of the spiritual master, and visualizing the Deity. Tenzin Palmo has a lot to say about practice. For instance, in Buddhism, when a person does a good deed, she gives away the merit to others. Her explanation of this is very interesting: "We have a responsibility to do things not because we want to or because they will benefit us, but because many other people don't at this point know how to do these things. We must do them on their behalf. When we sit zazen, we're not just sitting for ourselves, we're sitting for all beings." The same focus on the welfare of the other is at the heart of the practice of generosity. "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 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." In this approach, homeless people looking for help are saints enabling us to tenderize our hearts and to move on our way toward prosperity. Maybe the hard times so many well-heeled Americans are now experiencing could be seen as evidence of a generosity shortage in their lives. Tenzin Palmo sheds light on many other Buddhist practices in this edifying work.

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."

"Today, many people can choose whether or not their organs will be donated to others after they die. What is the Buddhist position on organ donation? "Organ donation is about reusing available resources to extend life, and that is a manifestation of the oneness and coexistence of all life. In the Buddhist tradition, the body is not considered something that belongs to the self, but rather it is something that results from the illusionary synthesis of the four elements. It is like a hotel room that we rent for a temporary stay. "There is a famous parable relevant to this topic: Once there was a traveler who, having not found lodging along the way, ended up having to stay at the very remote and rustic temple of some local deity. In the middle of the night, a small ghost carrying a dead body suddenly appeared. Frightened, the traveler exclaimed, " 'I have seen a ghost!' "In that same moment, a large ghost appeared and pointing at the small ghost, said, 'Why are you carrying my corpse?' "The small ghost replied, 'This is mine. How can you say that it's yours?' "The two quarreled for quite some time, while the traveler trembled with fear. Then, the small ghost saw the terrified traveler and said, 'Hey, there's somebody in there hiding under the altar!' It called to him, 'Come out, come out. Don't be afraid. Please help us decide who the corpse belongs to.' "The traveler thought to himself, 'It seems like there's no escape and no matter what I do, I'm going to die. I may as well tell the truth.' With that, he said, 'This corpse belongs to the little ghost.' "As soon as the large ghost heard this, it became enraged. It rushed forward and tore off the traveler's left arm, and in two or three bites devoured it. When the small ghost saw this, it thought to itself, 'The traveler was only trying to help me, so how can I just stand by and watch?' With that, it tore the left arm off the corpse and stuck it on the traveler's body. In response, the large ghost became further incensed and bit into the traveler's right arm, consuming the whole thing in just a few bites. The small ghost tore the right arm off the corpse and again attached it to the traveler's body. The two ghosts repeated the same acts with the traveler's legs. After playing out this outrageous scene, the two ghosts walked away whistling, leaving the bewildered traveler to ask himself, 'Who am I?' "This parable is taken from a Buddhist sutra, and though it is meant to illustrate that 'the four elements are essentially empty and the five aggregates are without self,' doesn't it aptly reflect today's issue of organ transplantation? "There are four key ways in which organ donation is meaningful and useful for society: 1) "It extends lifespans: Life never ends! Though bodies grow old and die, life is eternal and without end like flame passing from one torch to another. Life is bound together by the force of karma, and the force of karma is like the thread that holds together a string of prayer beads through all time and space. When someone donates an organ, he or she is giving someone else a chance to live, while simultaneously allowing his own life to continue. 2) "It demonstrates inner generosity: There are three kinds of generosity in the Buddhist tradition — material generosity, Dharma generosity, and the generosity of fearlessness. Material generosity can be further divided into internal and external generosity. External generosity includes the giving of money, property, and other material things, while internal — or inner — generosity is the donation of organs and body parts. In former lives, the Buddha cut away some of his flesh to feed an eagle and sacrificed himself to feed a tiger. There is a Buddhist saying: 'Do that which is difficult to do, and bear that which is difficult to bear.' Over two thousand years ago, the Buddha provided us with the best example of this teaching. Following his example, the entire human race should be willing to open themselves by giving their organs freely in order to bestow compassion to humanity. 3) "It promotes the renewal of resources: In Taiwan, an organ donor may need to sign a donor's card in order to donate one's organs legally upon death. However, from the Buddhist practitioner's perspective, if there is the intention to donate an organ, then it is enough just to have family members sign on behalf of the deceased. The donation of organs is a renewal of resources, for it enables us to recycle usable parts of the body that would have otherwise been discarded. When you donate the cornea of your eye, you are giving the gift of sight. When you donate your heart, you are giving the vitality of life. Similarly, when you donate bone marrow, you are passing on the current of life to another person. 4) "It shows the oneness and coexistence of all life: All of the myriad dharmas in this world arise out of causes and conditions. Human relationships also depend on causes and conditions to exist. Each of us depends on farmers and professionals to supply us with the things that we need to survive. Because we rely on the conditions provided by others in order to live, we should also give others supportive causes and conditions. Donating organs is a good way to break down the distance between self and others and eliminate the superstition that a corpse must remain intact for the afterlife. It shows us a way to put a heart of compassion into action and to experience the coexistence of all life. If we have the will, all of us can become organ donors. Organ transplants allow us to assure the endless continuity and legacy of compassion and lovingkindness throughout the world! "In the past, the Chinese believed in the age-old notion of preserving the wholeness of a corpse, and that it should not be moved for at least eight hours after death. However, beliefs such as these no longer fit in the modern world. We must learn to adjust our thinking to keep up with the times. To support the cause of organ donation, I myself signed an organ donor agreement over thirty years ago. I hope that all people will respond to this dignified and noble endeavor, that society will continue to progress, and that all of us will build a beautiful world founded on oneness and coexistence. Embracing the benefits of organ donation "So how can we transcend the belief held by many that the corpse must remain intact such that everyone will value the sacredness of organ donation instead? "Organ transplantation is a great achievement of modern medical science and technology. It has enabled many dying people to continue with their lives, and it has also ensured that the legacy of the compassionate spirit of the organ donor is passed on. But there are many controversies sparked by organ transplants, which everyone in contemporary society is unanimously concerned about and trying to understand. "Regarding organ transplants in Taiwan, the 'Regulations Concerning Human Organ Transplants' were promulgated and implemented by the government as early as June 19, 1987, and some of these regulations were later amended in 1993. Among these, the sixth regulation stipulates that in order for doctors to remove organs from the deceased, one of the following three conditions must be met: "1) Before death, the deceased must have given written consent or left a will consenting to the procedure. "2) The closest relative of the deceased must have given written consent. "3) Before death, the deceased expressed willingness to be an organ donor, as certified in writing by two or more medical doctors. "When considering the issue of organ donation and transplantation, we need to realize that the body actually does not belong to the 'self.' The body is a temporary combination of the four elements, just as a hotel room is merely supplied for temporary residence. Therefore, when a person's life comes to an end it is better to donate one's organs and enable the life of another to continue living rather than allowing them to simply rot and decay. "An article entitled 'If You Want to Remember Me' said it best: 'There will come a day, when I will lie in the hospital beneath that white sheet; and there will come a time, when the doctors determine that my brain function has ceased. This shows that my life has already ended. At such a time, under no circumstances should you say that I am lying on my deathbed; rather, please call it my life-bed. This is because I want to offer my body as a way of helping others, so as to extend and enable their lives to become even richer. . .' "Organ donation encompasses such ideas as the extension of life, donating one's internal wealth, the resource for supporting rebirth, and living together as one. Therefore, true life cannot die! Though the body has its time for old age, sickness, and decay, life is a burning fire that is passed from torch to torch, eternal and unlimited. Giving others a chance to live by donating our organs also means that our own life will continue. "To be sure, advances in modern medical science have enabled many people on the verge of death to have an organ transplant and go on living their lives. However, it is important to remember that organ removal must occur during that short period of time after the declaration of brain death, but before the organs die. Yet many Chinese people today still maintain the outmoded belief that the corpse must remain intact and cannot be disturbed for an eight-hour period after death. For this reason, the idea of organ donation has never been widely popular among the Chinese, ensuring that demand for organs always outstrips supply. There are many people in desperate need of heart, liver, and kidney transplants, for example, who wait in vain for a kind soul to make a donation. This leads to all sorts of regret. "People should consider the generous spirit of people in Catalonia, Spain, which has the highest rate for organ donation in the world. Their citizens feel that if one donates his or her organs to others today, perhaps tomorrow when a relative or friend needs an organ transplant, other people will be similarly willing to donate theirs. One could say that this attitude is truly in accord with the idea of 'coexisting together as one,' and is worthy of our emulation.”

In this splendid collection of sermons, Ted Loder marvels at the resiliency of Christian faith and its "dancing partner" of imagination. The author has spent 45 years in the professional ministry of the United Methodist Church, 38 of them as Senior Pastor of the First United Methodist Church of Germantown in Philadelphia. Loder takes pride in the fact that a journalist once called his congregation "the oddball church." He leads a community of saints who have been at the creative edge of artistic endeavors, political activism, and social justice. This energetic preacher constantly comes up with fresh treatments of Scripture and adventuresome challenges for living out the vibrancies of the kingdom of God. We like it that Loder has a healthy respect for the spiritual practice of mystery: "Surely mystery is an essential ingredient, if not the essential of our common life and this earth in which we are all rooted. By mystery, I do not mean the vast oceans of knowledge in which we have not yet swum or not yet mapped. By mystery, I mean the infinite depths of being that we can never plumb, never know, never exhaust, given the limits of our mortality, our finitude, our creatureliness." Part of this mystery is the magnificence of divine grace which haunts us (hence the title of the book). According to the author, Charlotte Bronte once said that Christian faith changed the color of her mind, like wine in water. Loder is convinced that his faith has shaped the way he sees himself and the world around him. It is not so much assent to doctrines or to an institution but to a dynamic process that keeps expanding and deepening. Loder's faith is constantly foraging in new fields of wonder. It is animated by imagination. He agrees with Richard Feynman, Nobel Laureate in Physics, who said that this faculty is "stretched to the utmost . . . just to comprehend those things that really are." In various sermons, the author gives us much to ponder with his distinctive takes on divorce, gratitude, hope, learning to be loved, generosity, and much more. Loder speaks to the fears and the apprehensions afoot in the culture at the present time and urges Americans to move beyond a fear-based life. "Maybe we need to build an annex to our national heart so it will hold not only Americans but humanity." The war on terrorism as a crusade can only lead to more violence. Loder offers another option: "We need to raise our voices calling for the causes of terrorism to be addressed as well as its effects to be stemmed. More than one-third of the populations of the world's poorest countries, including Palestine, is under fifteen years old. They see a bleak future for themselves. That makes them easy recruits for suicide bombing missions. Terrorism is fed by poverty. It is fed by hunger, disease. It is fed by the despair of being marginalized, dehumanized, exploited." In the same sermon, Loder quotes theologian Reinhold Niebuhr: "The self-righteous are guilty of history's greatest cruelties. Most evil is done by good people who do not know they are not good." These words deserve serious and prayerful thought. We don't usually put fear and freedom together in our minds. But Loder helps us do just this with the following: "Freedom is indeed a precious gift. But freedom is more than having choices at the mall, or in the voting booth, or in the unbridled pursuit of personal pleasure. I passionately believe that our deepest longing is for the freedom Jesus spoke of, lived out, and calls us to share: the freedom not to be afraid. Even small doses of that freedom will enable us to live in the world differently." This preacher urges us to banish fear from our lives and step into that freedom. The Haunt of Grace by Ted Loder is an amazing collection of sermons that might just change the color of your mind.