This is an AI-generated transcript from auto-generated subtitles for the video above. It likely contains inaccuracies, especially with speaker attribution if there are multiple speakers.

Generosity as Letting Go

Welcome, a really warm welcome to everybody. It's a delight to be here. Somehow I feel a little bit more present after that sit. Hopefully you do too. Hopefully, you feel a little bit more collected or grounded in some kind of way.

Do What You Can

So I'd like to build on just a little bit of the talk that Gil^[1] gave yesterday. He gave a talk in response to all these incredible fires we have going on here. Yeah, it's quite something. Not only is there, of course, just the knowledge that places I've seen—some place really dear to me, Big Basin, I think it's a state park or a national park, I'm not sure, a beautiful, beautiful place—that the headquarters burned down. Just feeling the heartbreak of that and some of those beautiful, magnificent trees, and not to say all the families who have had to evacuate and lost their homes. It's quite something.

So with some heavy-heartedness recognizing what's happening right now, and for those of you in the Bay Area, know that it's not only news, but we experience it with the ash falling from the sky and the air quality being so poor. And Gil talked about this a little bit yesterday, with the theme of "do what you can." Do what you can.

So I'd like to just build on this a little bit and come from a different area. But this idea that, how can we show up and make a difference, and support not only ourselves of course, but others? There are so many others that are in need. It's not just the fires here in the Bay Area; there are certainly fires further north and in Southern California, and all the other things that are happening right now. And I'd like to link this idea of "do what you can" with the movement of the heart or the movement of the mind that is this kind of leaning forward in some kind of way. This openness, this generosity, this engagement that's the opposite of grabbing, clinging, or stinginess—the opposite movement of that.

A Field of Generosity

And I'm reminded that quite a few years ago, right after IRC^[2] opened, there was a time when I was doing a lot of retreat practice. And for me, it was kind of a big deal to go on retreat. At least for me, it certainly was then. I would spend a lot of time planning exactly what I'm going to bring, because you don't want to bring too much because it just clutters up your room and clutters up your mind. You want to keep things simple while you're on retreat, but you don't want to bring too little so that you feel like you don't have what you need, or that you feel deprived in some kind of way. Just the minimum amount to have some comfort and some ease, and to have your belongings and your stuff just not be an issue. So I used to think about this days before: "Okay, what am I going to bring?"

And then one time I was on retreat down at IRC, and I ran out of dental floss. It's hard to tell with those little containers how much more is in there, and how much do you use in a week or two weeks? I knew that there was what's called a "yogi needs closet." That is a closet where there are some toiletries and things if you run out or forgot to bring them, you could go to this closet.

I thought, "Okay, I'll just go down there and get some more dental floss." I opened up the closet and I found myself staring at the contents, and my heart kind of welling up with the generosity of IRC. Everything that a person might need was there. Not only was there dental floss, but toothpaste and a toothbrush just in case you forgot it, Band-Aids, and some over-the-counter medicine for your belly if you're having some trouble. There was aspirin or heating pads if you're having some discomfort while sitting, cough drops, soap, razors—all kinds of things, just freely offered. You just go to the closet.

And this feeling that I had—I'm just now bringing it to mind, I can still feel it—of the respect and the care, and this wish to support my practice. That IRC is freely providing all these things to support one's practice. And some of the thoughts that I had, of course, were like, "Oh, I want to support an organization like this, just like I'm being supported in this particular way. I want to give support, having been supported."

So some of you have seen, I think sometimes in the newsletter that goes out, there's a little saying about the dharma unfolding in a field of generosity. And I think that's what's being pointed to here, this idea of a field of generosity. That is this movement of opening my hands, this movement of letting go. This non-stingy—you know, it's not grasping and holding on, but instead offering and giving with respect and with care. Not because "Oh, I feel sorry for you, here, let me give this to you," but like, "Oh, this might support you. It might not, but if you find it will be helpful, you're welcome to it." This kind of gesture of the heart.

Generosity as Sharing and Letting Go

So in this way, there's this idea that we can think of generosity as a sense of openness. I like this expression "non-stinginess" because stinginess implies a real tightness, right? Kind of a holding on, grasping for dear life kind of sensation or experience. We could also define generosity as a type of sharing. Generosity doesn't mean that we have to give one hundred percent of what we own and therefore we don't have anything left. But maybe it's sharing, and somehow that makes my heart sing, this idea of sharing. We all learned this back in kindergarten.

So this is the role of generosity in Buddhist practice. It is actually foundational to the practice, but part of the role is just to help create the conditions in which there is this sense of delight, in which there is this sense of happiness when we share. When we stop being stingy, there's this openness. It also points specifically to letting go. And you might say that the entire Buddhist practice—the whole path to freedom, to awakening, as well as a path to just greater well-being—all involves letting go. So generosity is just one particular movement, or maybe one particular flavor of that letting go.

And the Buddha talked about this a lot actually, that being generous brings happiness, that it brings a sense of delight. Think of when you bring a gift to somebody, and how that's this feeling of, you know, unwrapping and opening up the gift (or even if it's not wrapped, of course), just the feeling that you have of, "Yes, I thought about you. With a little bit less self-centeredness for me, I'd like to offer this to you."

So in this way, generosity is not a business transaction. It's not one in which I give and I expect to receive something of equal or greater value in return, or trying to get a profit out of this gesture. Instead, it's this feeling of open-heartedness, of sharing, and this recognition that all of our actions, all the things that we say, and all the things that we have in the mind have consequences.

And so, of course, I've been talking about how being generous has some uplift in the heart, maybe some delight in the mind. But also, we are often generous—not always, but often—when we have a feeling of abundance, when we have a feeling of "I have enough," a little bit of wealth, and "Here, let me share and let me give this." Sometimes we're generous when that isn't our predominant feeling, but often this feeling of having a certain type of wealth is underlying this feeling of generosity.

What's really interesting, and we find this with practice so often, is that if there's a relationship where this feeling of abundance leads to generosity, it works in the opposite way too. When we're generous, in that moment we feel a certain type of wealth, a certain absence of a lack. We feel like there's enough, "I have enough, there is enough," in that moment. If there isn't enough, if you don't have that feeling when you're being generous or sharing, maybe it's an opportunity to examine your generosity. I'll talk about that a little bit more in a moment.

The Path of Dana, Sila, and Bhavana

But first, I wanted to point out that the Buddha did talk about generosity a lot. Very often, classically, certainly here in the Vipassana scene, we talk about the path of practice towards greater and greater freedom. To be with this movement, we use these three categories: sīla^[3], samādhi^[4], paññā^[5]—ethical behavior, mental development, and wisdom. That's one way we could translate that.

But there's another path of practice. There's another three ways of practicing, and it starts with generosity (dāna^[6]), then it goes to sīla, and then bhāvanā^[7]. For the first step of generosity, the Buddha recognized that for some people, that's where they start. Not with a meditation practice, not with practice in ethics, but to start with this movement of giving, in a way that makes sense for them and is appropriate for them. In a way that enables them to maybe broaden their area of concern, or to consider what might be helpful or beneficial for others, not only for themselves. This undermines some of the self-centeredness or obsession we sometimes have with "more, more, and more." We're certainly encouraged to acquire and attain.

And so this can be quite a practice, just to start with this letting go. The opposite of acquiring is instead sharing and being non-stingy. So the Buddha would start by talking about the importance and benefits of practicing generosity, with this recognition that it can take some practice. And this is a fantastic place to start; it's just with this movement of softening any holding that we're doing.

And then, based on this foundation, he talked about the importance and benefits of the practice of ethics. Because one of the greatest gifts we can give to others is this gift of fearlessness, the gift of feeling safe around us. Knowing that we're not going to harm them because we have a commitment to behaving ethically, because we have a commitment to behaving in a way that's wholesome and helpful and healthy. So we can give to others the freedom from fear, freedom from feelings of hostility, or freedom from oppression by the way that we behave. Classically, this is with the Five Precepts^[8]: giving up killing, stealing, false speech, sexual misconduct, and intoxicants. By abstaining from those, we are able to give the gift of safety to others.

And we shouldn't underestimate how powerful this can be. I remember that when I was early in my practice, there was somebody that I would spend time with who was further along the path than I, who had been practicing for much longer than me. I didn't notice this at first, but when I heard this idea of giving this gift of fearlessness, I started to reflect: where do I feel the most safe in my life? And I discovered that it was with practitioners who had undertaken this practice of behaving ethically. This had a big impact on me, for it allowed me to relax, to open up, and to really touch into the experience of just being present, knowing that I didn't have to protect myself. That allowed my practice to go deeper, as I recognized, yes, there are others out there that are trustworthy. We shouldn't underestimate how powerful this is. Of course, behaving ethically benefits ourselves, but it can also benefit others.

So the Buddha taught dāna (generosity), sīla (ethics), and bhāvanā. Bhāvanā means cultivating or developing, and usually we talk about it as developing the mind, and in this context, developing inner mental states. So in some ways, we could talk about the practice of calming and quieting the mind so that we might begin to see, we might get to notice, and we might begin to feel all the ways in which we are not letting go. What does it feel like to be holding on so tightly, whether it's an idea, an actual object, or an experience?

As we calm and quiet the mind, we start to feel the suffering that's associated with holding tightly. We might feel this pinch of stinginess or tight grasping. And also with bhāvanā, with mental development, we might have some insights too. As the mind settles down and we can see more clearly, there might be a number of insights.

The Illusion of Ownership

And one insight we can point to here is the idea that ownership is a useful social construct, but we don't really own things in the way that we think we do. That is, things aren't inherently "mine" or inherently "yours"; they just are what they are. Your car would be just as happy if somebody else started to drive it, right? If you sell your car, it's no longer yours. It's the same car, but now it's somebody else's responsibility. So we may be like stewards of objects, but we don't own them. They aren't "mine" in the way that we think, that we have complete control over them.

So as the mind starts to quiet and we start to feel the pinch of stinginess, we also start to see that this activity of making things "me," owning this experience, or making objects "mine," isn't what we initially think it is at first blush or upon first examination. And of course, these insights supported by a calm and stable mind lead to deeper and deeper levels of freedom, all the way to complete awakening. But they also lead to just some general increase in a sense of well-being, a sense of happiness, as we stop trying to own everything and stop trying to make these objects behave in a way that we want them to—trying to make them not change, not go away, or feeling we have to protect them.

To be sure, we should protect those things for which we are stewards, our belongings. I'm not saying to give away everything, but it's really quite something to just examine this idea of ownership. I recognize that it is a belief, and it's a very useful one. It's a social convention that we've all bought into, so it has value, but it can be useful to get a little bit curious about it. What is that experience like?

And then, of course, once a person is awakened, they continue to be generous. They are generous with service, by supporting others in the practice, or supporting others in whatever way seems like the right thing to do with wisdom. There might be a story in Gil's book, A Monastery Within, I'm not sure, but I remember either hearing or reading a story that was meaningful for me. It was this question: "How can you tell who are those individuals who have the most freedom, or who are awakened?" And the answer was: those who are serving others. Those who are helping others, who are giving of their resources or time or energy.

So in this way, generosity—this letting go, this giving—is cyclic and is present throughout the whole path of practice. And then, after awakening, there's not only helping in whatever way is appropriate, but also this idea of giving the gift of the teachings of the dharma, to support others in their practice and their understanding of the dharma. Not that we have to go out and be evangelical, but I think all of us who have the opportunity to talk about the dharma with others recognize that it's really supportive to explore dharma concepts or meditation experiences. To explore our questions, our doubts, the things we're confused about, and the things that we are not confused about—it really makes a difference to share, so that not only do we support others, but we feel supported too.

Right Giving and Wrong Giving

Generosity, of course, not unlike loving-kindness or compassion, is something that we can practice and gain greater facility and strength with. It might be that from your cultural background, your family background, social background—whatever background you have—maybe being generous isn't so easy. Maybe it's not the way that comes naturally, or it only comes with a certain amount of effort. That's okay. We all start where we are, and we can practice. We can practice with this act of being generous, recognizing that it's an expression of non-stinginess, but also non-greed.

So each time we are generous, that movement of the heart, that movement of the mind, is strengthened. Whether it's letting the person in traffic go in front of you, or whether it's really making sure with social distancing and mask-wearing that people feel safe—I mean, that is a kind of generous gesture. Or maybe it's just being generous with our attention when we're with somebody; we're listening to them, we're not holding back, we're just fully with them. Or maybe it's being generous with money, like donations, but also with skills that we have. Anytime, whether it's a small movement or a large movement, a small gesture or a big gesture, it can really support this practice or this experience of generosity.

It's easy to romanticize this idea of generosity, having this feeling that it should always be perfectly delightful and easy. But there might be some times in which there is a little bit of discomfort, or a little hesitation. And that's an invitation to just examine: what is this hesitation about? It might become clear, like, "Okay, maybe I shouldn't be generous here." This hesitation is telling me that I'm giving away something that I'm actually going to start resenting having given away, or something that's precious to me, and then I'm just going to feel a great sense of lack.

So if we feel some of that uncomfortableness, it's just an invitation to gain some better self-understanding, to do some examination. To give some spaciousness to ourselves so that we can explore and see what that's about, and maybe we decide not to act generously in that moment.

So we can differentiate between what we might call "right giving" and "wrong giving"—right generosity and wrong generosity. Wrong generosity is if we're giving because we have some moralistic sense of "should": "I should donate," "I should give." We want to be cultivating this openness of heart, this activity of letting go, and the sense of "should" is a tight and collapsed feeling that's the opposite of cultivating a wholesome, open-hearted experience.

If the sense of giving is accompanied by resentment or anger, that's also not the direction we want to go. Instead, what if there's some delight, happiness, or spaciousness with the giving? And then some recognition that this is a practice, so we stretch ourselves a little bit. Not so much that it feels really uncomfortable, but enough that our generosity can grow, this letting go can grow and can support us in so many ways.

So when we are discerning right or wrong generosity, there are some questions we can ask ourselves to help us discern this and have some wisdom in the way that we are generous. One question is: How does it feel? How does it feel in the body? How does it feel in the mind? Is there a sense of openness, or is there a sense of collapsing and shutting down? Is there a sense of fear? Is there a feeling of depletion, anger, confusion, or contraction? If so, take some more time. Maybe you aren't generous right there, but you take the opportunity to learn something.

Another question is: What stories or beliefs are underneath my giving? Do I have this idea that if I give this, then I'm going to get this in return, so it's some type of transactional activity? Or if I give this, then everybody's going to think that I'm such a generous person? Do we want to be seen a particular way? What are the beliefs or ideas that are underneath it, and can we go underneath them? Can we recognize when they are there, and maybe find the impulse of generosity that's underneath them? And just feel into: if I'm going to be generous, does this support some openness and delight or not?

And then one last question we could ask ourselves, and maybe I'll end here, is: Is what I'm giving appropriate? Are we giving lots of bread to somebody who's gluten intolerant? I just made up this example, but it's this idea of just being aware of the context. Is what we're giving or offering what's needed and useful and beneficial, or will it be burdensome for whomever receives it? Are we giving because we want to get rid of it, or are we giving so it might support somebody else?

Conclusion

So coming back to this idea with the fires and with all the difficulties, we do what we can. And in some ways, that might mean to be generous, and to recognize that generosity is this idea of letting go. Letting go is integral to the entire path of practice in Buddhism, and very simply, letting go just brings greater happiness and greater well-being, not to mention the way that we might support others with our generosity.

May your generosity bring you delight and support, and may you experience the benefits of other people's generosity. In this way, there can be this field of generosity in which the dharma can freely flow for the benefit of all beings everywhere. Thank you.