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Nelson Mandela, After the Ecstasy, The Laundry
Thinking too well of people often allows them to behave better than they otherwise would.
Behave better than they otherwise would
St. Ignatius of Loyola , The Secrets of Jesuit Breadmaking
Love consists in sharing
what one has
and what one is
with those one loves.
Love ought to show itself in deeds
more than in words.
Sharing with the one you love
Thich Nhat Hanh, Living Buddha, Living Christ
Mindful time spent with the person we love is the fullest expression of true love and real generosity.
Mindful time spent with the person we love
Norman Fischer, 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.
The practice of generosity
Geri Larkin, Love Dharma
Master Dogen taught that there are really four wisdoms: generosity, or giving without expecting anything in return; loving words; goodwill; and identifying with whatever the other person is going through.
There are really four wisdoms
Links between Individual Giving and Institutions
In an article appearing on the Greater Good website, Summer Allen reports on a research suggesting that our generosity might not only be shaped by the helper's high but also by our trust in the institutions governing our society — courts, police, schools, religious communities or political parties.
In an article appearing on the Greater Good website, Summer Allen reports on a research suggesting that our generosity might not only be shaped by the helper's high but also by our trust in the institutions governing our society — courts, police, schools, religious communities or political parties.
The Gospel According to Oprah
"Gratitude is said to be a virtue, but I find it helpful to think of it as a practice. Unlike playing the piano, meditating, or playing sports, the practice of gratitude is easy and painless. You practice it each time you thank someone. This is a courtesy Oprah observes as a talk show host. She invariably thanks each guest for his or her appearance and always closes the show with her thanks. Since she has spoken with and interviewed thousands of very different people in her career, Oprah has gotten extensive daily practice in gratitude.
"Gratitude is like a muscle that needs to be used often. Even if a feeling of gratitude isn't there, practice helps. Practice brings about the sentiment. "What we have to do is practice, and the feelings come afterward," says M.J. Ryan, author of Attitudes of Gratitude: How to Give and Receive Joy every Day of your Life.
"In Oprah's gospel, gratitude is a recognition of abundance, an acknowledgement of blessings. There is more than enough to go around, and getting a portion of that kindles gratitude. Gratitude measures the distance between have-not and have, and is a reminder of the journey, one that Oprah's own life exemplifies. 'I have been beyond blessed,' she told USA Today in 2004, when she opened her nineteenth television season by giving away 276 cars. 'Every time I pass the front of my house I sing "Jesus Loves Me," and the other day I remembered I was jogging past — and now it's like a superstition — I had gotten past without saying it and went back, "Jesus loves me! Jesus loves me!" '
"Oprah may have learned 'Jesus Loves Me' in the church where she grew up. But a religious basis for gratitude for undeserved love and grace won't school those whom organized religion doesn't reach. Ryan suggests that Oprah teaches some of what used to be learned in churches to people who don’t' necessarily have a formal religious practice or membership. 'People receive the message from her that they couldn't get from anywhere else,' Ryan says. The 'nones' — Americans who say they have no religious affiliation — are a large, and growing, group, measured in a 2004 National Opinion Research Center study at 14 percent of the population.
"Gratitude has been a repeated practice and subject on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Oprah has referred to the gratitude journal she keeps. In a gratitude journal, the writer lists five things each day to be grateful for. Keeping the journal provides daily practice. Oprah says he took the lesson of gratitude from the 1995 best-selling book Simple Abundance by Sarah ban Breathnach, who has appeared on a number of shows.
"The April 17, 2000, show, 'Gratitude Stories,' opens with Oprah's words, 'Thank you. Two words that can make miracles.' Ban Breathnach is a guest, and a number of other guests whose stories are featured discuss gratitude journals. Husband and wife John and Karen Calvin talk about Karen's recovery from a car accident in 1982 that left her paralyzed from the neck down and feeling depressed and suicidal. But the husband's steady support brought his wife around. Karen says, 'And I am so grateful to John for, once again, seeing in me what I didn't see in myself.' Karen, a nurse, went on to found the National Spinal Cord Injury Hotline.
"Later on the show, guests Jules and Jan Broom describe how their daughter Shannon inspired them through her gratitude journal, which they found and read after she was killed in an automobile accident. They used her art and words to make and give away 20,000 bookmarks, a process of 'bookmark therapy' for their grief. Oprah wraps up the show by saying, 'If you start being grateful for what you have, you will begin to see that you have more. That is how you increase abundance in your life, is by seeing what you already have.'
"On these as on other shows, life stories teach and testify. Like a preacher, Oprah asks for a witness and then presents guests how offer examples of how gratitude has benefited their lives. They function as encouraging role models of positive thinking, resilience, and gratitude. . . .
"Prayer also gives practice in Gratitude. A short article in the August 2004 issue of the magazine doesn't prescribe prayer or tell you to say grace before meals. Author Lauren F. Winner writes that saying grace transforms a meal into a celebration. You don't have to pray, but it will help you celebrate. The grateful person knows that she lives well. 'Saying grace suggests not only the grazie of thanksgiving but also the clam, gracious elegance of living fully and well,' Winner writes. Who doesn't want to live well, especially when it's only an acknowledgement of gratitude away? The 'should' stick has been replaced by the 'reward' carrot.
"M.J. Ryan counts gratitude among what she calls modern virtues. Modern virtues — qualities of heart and mind including patience, kindness, gratitude, and generosity — can be cultivated, she says. Gratitude is noticing what's right and cultivating that recognition often and regularly. 'Is it driving to work, saying something at the dinner table, keeping a journal? The trick is to find the one that you will do.'
"Like many, I keep a gratitude journal. I got the idea for keeping one from Oprah. I began it in 2004 when I was taking part in a spiritual formation group. We were asked to pick a discipline, something we would do each day that would serve to remind us of things of the spirit. I chose a gratitude journal because it seemed easy and natural rather than something I would have to force myself to do. I have written in it virtually every day since. I write in it even when I don't feel particularly grateful. It has given me insight into discipline as well as gratitude. Consistency is more important than my feeling of gratitude, which may be present on any given day or not. I have become grateful for the task. I have no sense of compulsion about the writing. It helps me not take things for granted, as so many guests on Oprah have affirmed from their experience. It shifts my focus to what has gone well, provided delight, or been a literal or figurative gift, sometimes long after I have received something. Along with scientists and Oprah guests, I have found the practice encourages satisfaction with what I have. Thanksgiving is less of an effort and more of a habit.
Marcia Z. Nelson on how Oprah Winfrey models the importance of practicing gratitude in all aspects of life.
The Holy Thursday Revolution
"The human being, God's partner in this great enterprise, can be viewed as a kind of lens that concentrates and focuses the Divine Light in the world. Creating in our world here is an ongoing joint effort. Jesus is represented as saying, 'My Father is still working, and I also am working' (John 5:17). His expectations for the rest of us were framed by the fourth evangelist as, "The works that I do you also shall do, and greater works than these shall you do." (John 14:12). If we read this in light of what we understand about cosmic evolution, what a vision opens! Creation isn't over. This isn't the peak. 'What we shall be has not yet appeared' (I John3:2). The sense of partnership with God, of being integrated into the creative act, is a powerful insight. Insight into God, insight into human nature.
"Despite our misgivings about our undoubtedly wayward behavior, the Western tradition persists in affirming that human nature is made in the 'image and likeness' of God (Gen.1:26). The stories in the Book of Genesis show human beings whose first strong desire is to be 'like God,' especially by being wise and knowing how to tell good from evil (Gen. 3:5-6). This encourages me to put forward the idea that the 'image and likeness' consist of the human being's central urge to be like God in being creative and generous. . . .
"Believe in God, and believe also in yourselves. Even a little sure confidence coupled with vision can perform miracles. Mustard-seed faith can move mountains. Understand how the divine energy works by constantly giving itself away. Tie into this energy with faith, hope, and imagination, and nothing will be impossible for you (Matt. 17: 20)."
On the human beings' urge to be like God in being creative and generous.
Becoming the Compassion Buddha
"A rich benefactor came to a monastery with an offering equivalent to thousands of dollars. In the temple sat a beggar who had nothing. When he saw the rich man make the offerings, he rejoiced with all his heart: 'What this rich man is doing is wonderful. I'm so poor. I wish I were rich so that I could make such offerings.' At the end of the ceremony, when the abbot, who was obviously clairvoyant, did the dedication of merit, he emphasized the beggar's merits, the virtue created in his mind by rejoicing, rather than the merit created by the benefactor. Why? Because the benefactor was proud and wanted people to think that he had done a fantastic thing. He came with expectations and ended up with nothing. The beggar, on the other hand, came with nothing and ended up with incredible merit and with the dedication.”
Lama Yeshe's teaching story on joy.
Every Day Hospitality
Thea Jarvis wrote for the Georgia Bulletin, Atlanta's Catholic weekly newspaper for 19 years and has also had articles in the Atlanta Constitution, America, Catholic Digest, and the Catholic News Service. In this sprightly paperback, she salutes the Christian virtue of hospitality which offers the modern world an alternative to human division, isolation, and enmity. She writes:
"Hospitality is the social staff of life, a starting point for discourse and interaction. Even when we're not conscious of its presence, hospitality stands by like a gracious host, discreetly ensuring friendly exchanges and peaceful outcomes. It's background music to the human dance, an old song that still rings true."
This virtue has always been important to indigenous cultures who place great value on kindness to strangers. Jarvis finds hospitality in the Bible in the actions of Abraham and Sarah, Jesus' feeding of the five thousand people, the wedding feast at Cana, and the many gatherings of the disciples after the departure of Jesus. Today, hospitality has become a part of the business world: Jarvis points to "lavish hotels, professional catering services, and exclusive vacation packages." But these have little to do with the virtue which is "the outward expression of an inner attitude, a virtue that erupts from the heart, spilling out toward others."
The author is inspired by the hospitality of Mother Teresa, Dorothy Day, Henri J. M. Nouwen, and others. They model for us the warmth and communal dimension of this element of spirituality:
"Hospitality is a natural outgrowth of my membership in the human family. It's a hand's-on, open-armed virtue rooted in an instinct to grow beyond my inner landscape, like a flower turning its face to the sun. It demands my availability and attention, my flexibility and spontaneity. Unpredictable, often capricious, hospitality may mean wiping my grandson's runny nose one day and babysitting for my daughter's golden retriever the next."
Jarvis explores five steps of hospitality and reveals its importantance as a Christian virtue. To practice it every day is to bring blessing and comfort to others and to make the world a better place.
Salutes the Christian spiritual practice of hospitality as a virtue that involves generosity and unselfishness.