Generosity in Action
The 17th Annual Lion’s Roar Auction,
our biggest fundraising event of the year, is in full swing. As an
independent non-profit foundation, Lion’s Roar relies on the support of
our community to continue publishing and communicating Buddhist wisdom.
Our annual auction donors are a great part of that support. Lorne
Riddel, a boat captain and donor, is emblematic of what makes the
auction such a success and such fun. Many years ago, he wrote to say
he’d like to donate a three-day sailing trip in the San Juan Islands on
his sailboat. It was a departure from our regular collection of books,
retreat programs, and zafus. “Yes,” I said, “let’s do it!”
Year after year, Lorne’s donation has continued to be one of the auction’s most popular items.
When I spoke with Nancy, last year’s successful bidder for the trip,
she said, “We had so much fun with Captain Lorne as we created lifelong
memories, sharing stories and laughs, and delighting in his on board
cuisine… we hope that others will be able to share this wonderful
experience.” I marvel at this example of connection and the small piece
of community it weaves, alongside all the small pieces woven together by
the auction — all the bidders and donors that come together and do the
good they do.
My office mates at Lion’s Roar know when it’s auction season because I
start talking to my laptop. Every time another donor writes to say “Yes,
count me in!” I emit a chirp of delight and feel my heart swell,
thinking of how amazing it is to see thousands of people coming together
from myriad and far-flung places to make the auction happen. None of
them know one another, and yet all of them unite each year around a
single cause, this business of propagating the dharma for the benefit of
all.
The auction is a group effort, made up of the hundreds of donors you’ll find in our catalogue
and bidders like Nancy, the newly minted sailor, who comes back each
year to shop in a way that sustains and has meaning. We are a pop-up,
united by dharma, acting in support of the dharma, contributing to its
continuation into the future and to the possibility of more community
and connections like us. This week’s readings are a celebration of the
power of generosity, in honor of our own generous community.
—Cindy Littlefair, Operations & Human Resources, Lion’s Roar
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Giving up, giving in, just plain giving — Sharon Salzberg says that’s
the truly transformative experience. Generosity opens our heart, frees
us from attachment and is the basis of all good qualities. It’s the
foundation of the Buddhist path.
In an act of giving we’re aligning ourselves with certain values. We
develop love, compassion, sympathetic joy and equanimity. We let go of
grasping, aversion and delusion in a single act of giving. That’s why
the Buddha said that if we knew as he did the power of giving, we
wouldn’t let a single meal pass without sharing something. You can even
do it mentally if you don’t actually hand something over to the person
sitting next to you, which might not be very wise. To create
spaciousness all of the time, over and over again, is what giving is all
about.
If we give a gift with this kind of motivation, without attachment to a
certain result, without expectation of what will come back to us, it’s
like a celebration. It’s celebrating freedom within ourselves as a giver
and also freedom within the receiver. In that moment, we’re not
relating to each other in terms of roles or differences. There’s no
hierarchy. In a moment of pure giving, we become one.
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In any presentation of the paramitas, dana, or generosity, always comes first — Nikki Mirghafori explains why.
Generosity does not and cannot come into its full fruition with an
attitude of grim duty. The attitude of “I should be generous” or “I
should let go” is one of forced expectation, and it works as well as
hitting a donkey with a stick. The poor animal will move a few paces,
then stop. Offering carrots, in contrast, can provide aspiration, where
we take on a practice as a training with curiosity, interest, perhaps
even zest, giving it our heart. We each know this from our own lived
experience: when we feel bright with inspiration, we want to offer our
time, skills, and resources for the benefit of another. Our hearts are
uplifted in the celebration of release, relishing the goodness cocreated
when another being benefits from our goodness.
In the Dana Sutta, the Buddha instructed his followers to pay attention
to the joy of generosity: “In this world…there are three things of value
for one who gives. What are these things? Before giving, the mind of
the giver is happy. While giving, the mind of the giver is made
peaceful. After having given, the mind of the giver is uplifted.”
Before, during, and after!
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We all have an attitude, says Zen teacher Norman Fischer, our own way of
approaching life. You can start to take a bodhisattva’s attitude toward
life by practicing generosity and appreciation.
The perfection of generosity confronts and softens our basic attitudes.
To practice it is to appreciate the natural abundance of being, the
inherent generosity of time and space, and the ongoing unfolding of
life. These are exquisite gifts. Life itself is generous. Life is always
making more life. Life is abundant and expansive, never stingy or
small-minded. It keeps on going, bubbling up and expanding wherever it
has a chance.
You don’t need to create life; you just have to let it in. The grasses
on the hillside are ready to burst out green as soon as a little rain
falls and a little sunlight peeps through. Weeds and vines tangle all
over the place. Life stopped in one place pops up somewhere else. Nature
is prolific. Even the falling apart of things is generous: big trees
topple willingly in heavy winds; they provide food for insects,
bacteria, fungi, and other trees and plants
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