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Introduction

Greetings, Sangha. Greetings from Mountain View, California—unceded Ohlone land—where I am, to all of you all over the world, as I see from the beautiful hellos and good mornings, good afternoons, good evenings coming in.

This week we are exploring together the inner dimensions and the outer dimensions of the practice of generosity as a support for liberation, and also as a basis for compassion. Generosity is both a basis for compassion and liberation, a necessary building block of both.

As we've been building these practices and exploring different aspects, today what we'll explore in the guided meditation is the aspect of bringing mindfulness to this letting go, to this component of generosity which is the release. I'll say more about the different aspects in the Dharma in terms of bringing mindfulness and different ways of cultivation. Without further ado, let us begin our practice together.

Guided Meditation: Loving Awareness of Relinquishment

Landing in our chair, landing in our cushion, in our bodies. Greeting ourselves. Greeting this body in this moment, noticing what it needs. How can we be generous to ourselves in this moment? Does generosity mean a shift in posture? Maybe getting a shawl or a blanket? Or landing with a deep breath in our sit bones.

Appreciating the sensations, the feelings of connection of our feet on the earth. Noticing, yes, feet, legs, sit bones connecting to the floor, to the cushion. Standing for the earth, yes.

Appreciating the connection, the holding, the support. In the same way that a newborn is cradled and held, held and supported in the arms of a parent, we are held. Held by the earth.

Appreciating the connection, letting go. Trusting that we are held. Gravity is not going to change its mind. Letting go of the weight of the body, the limbs, the muscles. Trusting the earth with its gravity holding, connecting. Ah.

The delight of this heaviness, which also has an aspect of lightness. Uplift, felt in our aspiration, in our breath. Our bodies supported, connected, grounded into the earth. And our breath filling, lightening every nook and cranny. Now this body breathing in life, breathing in aliveness. Waking us up. Waking each cell up.

As if this body were a beach ball getting inflated, more full. Or a pop-up doll, with each inhale and exhale breathing life to all the areas that are contracted, crinkly, deflated. Feeling this body come alive, fill out from the inside.

Mindfully, with loving-kindness, with loving awareness, with the breath. Allowing it to happen on its own. There is no doing for you to do. Just notice that it's happening on its own already, with each breath.

Receiving each breath with a little appreciation. Lowering our center of gravity so we're not in our heads, but the center of gravity of awareness is low, in our lower abdomen, our sit bones. Not in the control tower of the head. As if your mind was in your belly. Receiving the sensations, the breath in the belly.

Allowing mindfulness, awareness to be spacious. Loving awareness. Lovingly aware. Let it be spacious. As if we are sitting in this container, this supportive container. Spacious, wide, gracious. The body can relax. The mind and heart can relax into the spaciousness of awareness.

Whatever arises and passes in this sphere of loving awareness, it gets known effortlessly, non-judgmentally. Landing, relaxing in this space of loving awareness with the body.

If and when it is noticed that there is an entanglement that has arisen, which is not helpful in this moment, knowing the entanglement non-judgmentally: "Oh, this is what the mind is resting on now." Celebrating the moment of awareness. Then, as the mind inclines, opens its fist, its hand to let go, to relinquish—this movement of the mind letting go.

Bringing mindfulness, even more awareness to what is present. The intention around it. How it is done, the attitude of the mind. Yesterday I invited you to notice if there was joy in letting go. Notice if that's present, or any other attitude or intention in the mind in the moment surrounding this relinquishing, letting go. And returning to rest in the spacious awareness of all things, including the breath and sensations coming and going.

Is there anything, any attitude that blocks a sense of generosity to ourselves? Generosity to the mind and heart. Not to go looking for it, but if it presents itself, to see. See clearly.

Infusing this loving awareness as if dropping a little drop of color to your awareness. The drop of color being the question, the curiosity: "What blocks generosity to myself, the heart, and mind?" Generosity in the form of love, compassion, or wisdom in the way of letting go, relinquishing. If any. There may not be anything revealing itself. Relishing the peace and joy of this moment.

Can there be a sense of trust in the abundance in this heart and mind?

And as we approach the end of the sitting together, inviting loving awareness to hold, to be aware of what's good, of the goodness that we have showed up. We've practiced as well as we were able to. Not attaching to the outcome, we did our best. If it could have been any different, it would have been, given all the causes and conditions. We have done our best. To trust, and not judge it for it to be of lesser value. To appreciate the goodness, the beauty, the merit generated from our wholesome intention.

And from this sense of appreciation, gratitude, feeling the abundance of our hearts for this opportunity, to practice and share the goodness freely, generously, with all beings everywhere. May all beings everywhere, including ourselves, may we benefit in ways unfathomable from the goodness of our intentions and actions. May all beings be free. May all beings be happy. Thank you for your practice.

Generosity (4/5) Intention & Cultivation

Greetings, dear Sangha. So for today, the fourth day of our exploration with this beautiful and important theme of practice, generosity. Not as a moralistic vow—"Thou shalt be generous"—but as a movement of the heart. As a beautiful, lovely, gracious movement of the heart towards ourselves and towards others.

As I invited us at some point to bring loving interest, gentle curiosity to the intention, and if there is a lack of generosity at any point in our practice, I wanted to talk today about some things that might block or not support generosity. Or our attitudes, or our own judgments about it. Just to bring loving awareness. It's not a moralistic practice. It's just to know it's a practice like anything else.

The same way that with mindfulness, we cultivate awareness and we don't judge ourselves—"Ouch, bad, you were bad, you are not mindful"—it's not about that. It's just, "Oh, yeah, mindfulness is lacking right now. Okay, how can I support it? Maybe I'll sit upright a little more. Maybe I'll breathe a little more deeply if I'm sleepy. Oh, yeah, that's how I can support it." It's a way of understanding the system, and how we can support ourselves on the path to liberation. How can we support ourselves for our hearts to be free? It's just about that. And the moralistic "should," or judgment, does not support our hearts in freedom. It contracts it.

One quote I wanted to share from the Buddha, which I find so inspiring, is from the Itivuttaka^[1] 18. The Buddha says, "Practitioners, if people knew, as I know, the fruits of sharing gifts, they would not enjoy their use without sharing them, nor would the taint of stinginess obsess the heart. Even if it were their last bite, their last morsel of food, they would not enjoy its use without sharing it, if there was someone else to share it with."

He's pointing to: If people knew as I know. If people knew as I know, then they would not enjoy its use without sharing it, even if it were their last morsel of food. They would enjoy sharing it even more. Trusting the Buddha's wisdom, and also looking into our own experience, generosity frees our own heart. It brings us joy. It's a deep goodness. Really, the Buddha here is inviting us: "If people knew as I know." Ehipassiko^[2]—come and see for yourself. Come experience for yourself. Not just trusting the words of the Buddha, but come see for yourself. Explore it for yourself.

Similarly, when they asked Gandhi, "Why do you give so much? Why do you serve all these people?" Gandhi answered, "I don't give to anyone. I do it all for myself." That's interesting, right? "I do it all for myself," which really points to, again similarly, the aim and the fruit of generosity. Dāna^[3] as a practice is twofold: We give to help and free others, but we're giving to help and free ourselves. That's the beautiful dimension, the twofold dimension of dāna. We're doing it to free ourselves.

With this spirit, with this setup, now let's bring our awareness to this process, to the internal process. Is there joy in giving? As I was inviting you to tune into that, because there can be joy. There is joy in generosity. Also to notice what happens in the body, what happens in the mind. Is there sometimes perhaps a sense of a lack, that there isn't enough, that the heart feels contracted? Sometimes in thinking about giving, thinking about relinquishing, is there a sense of ease and openness and loving-kindness and compassion in the heart, mind, and body? Sometimes there might be. Sometimes maybe there's a feeling of depletion, weakness, fear, anger, or confusion in the body and mind. Be curious about this all. Do not be ashamed of it. Just be a scientist of your own mind. What is going on? What is happening with generosity? What's happening in my mind? What's happening in my body?

Are there stories? Do I have stories, ideals, or beliefs as to how it should be? How giving should be, how it's supposed to be, how it's not supposed to be? Seeing both those stories as well as seeing our own intentions. And again, here, be generous with yourself when you're seeing your own intentions, because our intentions can be mixed. And it's okay. It's perfectly okay. Just see. Just see. There could be this beautiful intention of, "Oh yes, I want you to be happy. I would like to give this to you. May you be well." In some cases, say we're giving a big gift, there might be a thought like, "Oh, I want you to like me also," or "I want you to see me as generous," or "I want you to give me a bigger gift." It's okay. See those. It's all right. We are mixed bags as human beings. Get to see. Don't be ashamed to see what comes up. But get to know, with mindfulness, with loving awareness. Get to know yourself.

And trust that generosity is a purifying practice over time. As you get to see the intentions, as you get to see what is arising in the heart and mind, it gets purified. It's a practice like anything else. We're not supposed to be born perfectly generous people. It's a practice.

A couple of practices to support this cultivation: One is, as I mentioned yesterday, gratitude. Gratitude supports generosity. The more grateful we are, the more we feel the abundance of our life, of our heart, the more our hearts want to release and let go of everything. Let go of grudges, let go of a lack of generosity of spirit, and be more generous. So cultivating gratitude cultivates generosity.

Also, what cultivates generosity—again, as a way of letting go, as a way of freeing our hearts—is the practice itself. It's said that the more we practice generosity, the more generous we become. And the more generous we become, the more we practice generosity. It's a virtuous cycle. It is said that in the Tibetan culture, there is this practice where you give a potato from one hand to the other. You give yourself a potato, one hand giving something to the other, so that you practice letting go from one hand to the other. Then, apparently, as I've heard this practice, you practice with more and more precious objects. One hand gives it to the other, so you get the sense of, "Yes, this is what it means to let go of. This is what it's like to let go," really feeling it. Similarly, cultivating this relinquishment and tuning into the joy, tuning into the lightness that it brings. Tomorrow I'll talk more, given that it's our last day and it's the culmination of four days of practice, I'd like to talk more tomorrow about the practice of generosity as a liberative practice. We talked about it before, but I want to talk more about generosity and generosity of spirit tomorrow.

One last thing I want to bring in today before we close is another quote from the Buddha, from AN 5.148^[4], which is how a person of integrity gives a gift. The Buddha says, "There are these five. What are a person of integrity's gifts? Which five?

1. A person of integrity gives a gift with a sense of conviction.
2. A person of integrity gives a gift attentively.
3. A person of integrity gives a gift in season.
4. A person of integrity gives a gift with an empathetic heart, with a loving heart.
5. A person of integrity gives a gift without adversely affecting themselves or others."

The last one—the person of integrity gives the gift without adversely affecting themselves or others—is important. Not giving too little, not giving too much. The act of giving, mindfully, needs to be supportive of others, supportive of ourselves. Generosity goes in both directions. It's not just about completely giving everything and feeling, as I mentioned, weakness or depletion. It needs to really work both ways.

So the five again, in case you missed it:

1. A sense of conviction.
2. Attentively giving the gift.
3. Giving a gift that is in season, that the person needs. It's not something you're just trying to get rid of; it's a gift that's appropriate.
4. Giving the gift with an empathetic, loving heart—a heart with mettā^[5].
5. Giving a gift without adversely affecting oneself and others.

So thank you all for the gift of your attention and your practice. I look forward to being with you tomorrow and concluding this lovely series together, which I've just so appreciated. Generosity is such a lovely practice, a liberative practice. More tomorrow. Thank you all, take good care of yourselves.