Reading Archive (Giving)
The Act of Giving is the True Gift
Author Unknown
In an ancient Indian epic, Arjuna, a famed warrior questions his divine charioteer, Krishna, about the noblest giver in the land. "Karna is without doubt the finest example of generosity in ...
Beggarly, Friendly, And Kingly Giving
Stephen Levine
The greatest gift is the act of giving itself. Traditionally, three kinds of giving are spoken of. There is beggarly giving, which is when we give with only one hand, still holding onto wh...
Habits Of The Heart
Parker Palmer
“Habits of the heart” (a phrase coined by Alexis de Tocqueville) are deeply ingrained ways of seeing, being, and responding to life that involve our minds, our emotions, our self-images, o...
In Giving I Connect With Others
Isabel Allende
I have lived with passion and in a hurry, trying to accomplish too many things. I never had time to think about my beliefs until my 28-year-old daughter Paula fell ill. She was in a coma for a year an...
Giving Within For-Give-Ness
Michael Bernard Beckwith
People often say that Jesus taught, "You should turn the cheek if someone smites you; you should turn the other cheek if they wrong you." Many people interpret this as saying that if s...
The New And Ancient Story Of Interbeing
Charles Eisenstein
Why does the sun shine? A random result of coalescing gases igniting nuclear fusion? Or is it in order to give its light and warmth to Life? Why does the rain fall? Is it the senseless product of blin...
Returning the Gift
Robin Wall Kimmerer
In the teachings of my Potawatomi ancestors, responsibilities and gifts are understood as two sides of the same coin. The possession of a gift is coupled with a duty to use it for the benefit of all. ...
Organic Gift
Parker Palmer
Years ago, I heard Dorothy Day speak. Founder of the Catholic Worker movement, her long-term commitment to living among the poor on New York's Lower East Side - had made her one of my heroes. So i...
Be Not a Beggar
Swami Vivekananda
Ask nothing; want nothing in return. Give what you have to give; it will come back to you — but do not think of that now, it will come back multiplied a thousandfold — but the atte...
Make Your Life Into a Giving
Jaggi Vasudeva
Make your life into a giving. When I say a giving, it is not to be understood as an act. Giving as an act is a deception because, after all, what can you give? Everything that we have, including this ...
Universal Humans In Training
Gary Zukav
We are in the midst of an unprecedented transformation in human consciousness. Unprecedented. Our perception is expanding beyond the limitations of the five senses. Together, they form a single system...
Life Is Full But Not Overcrowded
Peace Pilgrim
In my mid life, I began to realize that it's as though we have two selves or two natures or two wills with two different viewpoints. Because the viewpoints were so different, I felt a struggle in ...
Generosity Helps Us Accept Change
Sharon Salzberg
The aim of practicing generosity is twofold, or else it’s an incomplete experience. The first aim is to free our minds from the conditioned forces that bind and limit us. Craving, clinging an...
Spiritual Life Begins Within The Heart
Joan Chittister
The truth is that we spend our lives in the centrifuge of paradox. What seems certainly true on the one hand seems just as false on the other. Life is made up of incongruities: Life ends in death; wha...
Giving Simply to Give
Kahlil Gibran
"There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward. And there are those who give with pain, and that pain is their baptism. And there are those who give and know not the pain i...