Be Generous or Thirsty

Anyone that wishes to be released from the clutches of fear, addiction, anxiety, lust, anger or obsession would do well to listen closely.  Generosity must be your foundation.  We must live as if life depends on skillful acts of kindness.  Our happiness depends on it.  Begin with generosity towards others, and then take joy in those acts.

The main problem we face is our own stinginess.  We swim in a cesspool of greed.  Then we wonder why we can’t see, or how we got to smell so foul.  Perhaps we don’t like ourselves, or worse, we’ve convinced ourselves that our stinginess is agreeable, or we simply think there is no other way.  OH!  But there is always another way.

I see this in myself.  Subtle forms of stinginess hide within me and it's even encouraged by our greedy culture.  My mind uses its own intelligence as a tool to do itself harm.  How often do we stop, pause and reflect to see just what it is we are holding?

I also see this in spiritual communities.  So many opportunities to be generous and kind go unnoticed, if not avoided all together.  I can always measure how much I’m suffering by how little I donate in terms of resources, time, or service.  How ironic, that this happens even among those spiritually thirsty “you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make her drink.”