Giving and Receiving

Giving and receiving is the basis of all transactions. No interaction can take place without these two. Nowadays, we are constantly trying to elevate one to a place of sanctity and the other to subordination. One is considered superior and the other inferior. Today, we feel we must emphasize the importance of giving only because taking happens in large volumes and giving has become scarce.

In reality, however, there is no giving or taking. With a little deeper perception of life, one can see that there is no such thing as giving and taking. It is just life rearranging itself constantly. Modern science agrees with this today. There is no giving and taking, no adding or subtracting, just a rearrangement of the same energy. If you see everything as yours, you just rearrange as necessary.

When you realize that the essential process of life is a constant transaction, you will realize that for an iota of offering that you make, there are a trillion things to receive all the time. Think of the forces of existence and the zillions of creatures working, knowingly or unknowingly, within your body and outside of it, to make life possible. Everything in the existence is somehow collaborating to keep you alive and well. Only a fool thinks of himself as a giver. Just to be alive is to receive in great abundance.

--Jaggi Vasudev, in Is Philanthropy Outdated