Generosity 

I have been re-reading a book of Ajahn Chah’s talks entitled Food for the Heart. Ajahn Chah (d. 1992), associated with the Thai Forest Tradition, was the teacher of the well-known Jack Kornfield. 

In a talk involving, partly, helpful aids in meditation, Ajahn Chah stresses the importance of generosity. He advises “doing away with. . .greed, through giving.”[1]] 

This advice reminded me of talks I heard by Sufi teachers when I was a member of a Sufi order between 1970 and 1985. We were urged to give money away as a way of training ourselves in generosity. Especially, we were advised to look at how we felt when we parted with money. 

I followed this advice. When driving, if I saw someone begging on a street corner, I would make a point of giving him or her money, sometimes having to make a U-turn to do so. When I began to do this, I could see the resistance or resentment I experienced as I gave the money away. 

To see this resistance was the purpose of the giving exercise. In bonafide spiritual traditions, the goal of spiritual practice is to diminish the role of ego in our lives. In the Theravadan tradition, Ajahn Chah says, “We uproot views stemming from self-importance. We uproot the very essence of our sense of self.”[2] In the Mahayanist Zen tradition, Suzuki Roshi says that the goal of practice “means to die as a small being, moment after moment.”[3] 

A characteristic of the ego is clinging, as in clinging to money.  Every time a person sees this clinging, he or she makes some headway in eroding ego.  No doubt many zazen practitioners do give money and experience this benefit.

   

Footnotes