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Guided Meditation: The Gift of Awareness; Dharmette: Generosity - Liz Powell

The following talk was given by Liz Powell at Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, CA on December 25, 2023. Please visit the website www.audiodharma.org for more information.

Guided Meditation: The Gift of Awareness

Good morning, good day, everyone. Could you type in the chat if you can hear me okay? I'm wondering if the sound is coming through alright. Yes, thank you very much.

I'm so delighted that I can be with this wonderful Sangha¹ every morning this week. I have to say it is so delightful to read the messages coming through chat. Thank you so much for those. I'm especially happy to be doing this since this week falls between the holidays. It is such a great time of year for reflection and for witnessing acts of generosity and kindness, as well as the overwhelming need of all of humanity for compassion.

For these reasons, and following Gil's beautiful talks last week about thinking, I thought this week we could focus on qualities of heart and mind that are called the Brahma-viharas², which are often translated as divine abodes or heavenly abodes. An abode, of course, is a place to dwell. I think of the Brahma-viharas as very wholesome places for the mind to dwell, to hang out, to live in a way. The Brahma-viharas are goodwill, compassion, appreciative joy, and equanimity. Of course, wholesome states of mind are not limited to the list that I just gave, and there are so many others, which is wonderful.

Another wholesome state that I want to particularly focus on today is generosity, the virtue of giving. It seems to underlie each of the other divine abodes and our practice in so many different ways. In fact, sitting here and reading the chats is like opening gifts, and in a great form of generosity. These beautiful states of mind, these divine abodes, and the state of generosity don't happen by accident, of course. They come through taking care of one's mental state. Through the meditations we do, through mindfulness, we have this opportunity to cultivate and reinforce helpful qualities of mind. I think meditating in a supportive group like this one that's so friendly to one another is a generous act of mutual support. So with that as an introduction, let's settle into our meditation.

Beginning with giving yourself the time you need to settle in. Taking your time for settling into the posture. Finding the state of alertness and relaxation that can be supportive. Offering care for this body, this heart, and this mind, and how they are right in this moment. Starting with knowing exactly how we are right here and right now. Feeling the gift of breath. Breathing in and breathing out of all parts of yourself as you're here. The nourishment of kind attention to soothe and feed all parts of the body, heart, and mind.

Perhaps gradually scanning the body from head to toe. Give some ease to each part of the body that would benefit from ease. Perhaps spending more time in any area that seems to need your attention or benefit from some extra breath in and breath out. Releasing any extra tension that can be released. Anything extra that you're carrying around, allowing the out-breath to carry that away. And respecting any part of the body that cannot be eased. Respecting and giving it the attention of accepting it just as it is.

The body, heart, and mind offer us this record of conditions and how they've been. They show up in this moment, perhaps reflecting some of the things that have gone before. And as we give kind acknowledgment to that, often those areas can then feel the ease of settling into what's happening now. Perhaps feeling the aliveness of the entire body as it sits here and now, or lies down, or stands. And recognizing with kindness any moods or emotions that are present.

Allowing each thing that comes to awareness its time to be known, to be felt, to be seen, and heard. Offering all emotions and moods that are here your goodwill. Receiving messages from the heart in the same way that you would receive a dear friend, whether the friend is in a great mood or the friend is facing challenges. In the same way, gently attending to the activity of the mind as you would listen to the thoughts of a friend. Accepting every experience without joining them in those thoughts, but respecting what they have to say. Having some generosity for how they are, for how this mind is.

Offering the gift of mindful attention to each thing that comes to awareness as phenomena come and go throughout the meditation. Everything included, nothing left out. There is no right or wrong meditation. There's only kind awareness for what is present in each moment that arises.

Dharmette: Generosity

It's so delightful to be with you all, and there is so much generosity that is inextricably part of Buddhist practice. As you give your time and attention to the body, the heart, and the mind, this awareness, this gift of mindfulness, allows what is arising some time and mental space to be known. That gift of attention is one of the keys to discovering and uprooting what causes dissatisfaction, stress, and suffering. By giving ourselves the time to get to know the mind deeply, we gradually learn how to find sustainable happiness.

This all started with an act of generosity, and that was the Buddha's conscious decision to teach. According to one sutta³ that I was reading, when the Buddha was newly self-awakened, he was said to have been thinking something like this: "This Dharma that I have attained is deep, hard to see, hard to realize, peaceful, refined, beyond the scope of conjecture, subtle, to be experienced by the wise. But this generation delights in attachment, is excited by attachment, enjoys attachment. For a generation delighting in attachment, excited by attachment, enjoying attachment..." Then he goes on to name these things that are going to be really hard for people to understand when they're so into attachment, such as conditionality: "This, if this, then that," dependent co-arising, the resolution of all fabrications, the relinquishment of all acquisitions, the end of craving, dispassion, cessation, unbinding.

Apparently, the thought was, "If I were to teach the Dharma and others would not understand me, that would be tiresome and troublesome for me." So as he entertained these thoughts, the story goes that his mind was inclined instead to just dwelling at ease and not to teaching the Dharma. But this particular sutta recounts that a Brahma⁴ implored and persuaded him to teach by telling him that there were people who would be able to understand. After that, the Buddha apparently decided that he would teach those who could hear the Dharma and had conviction. He went on to dedicate the remaining decades of his life to teaching. It's one thing to teach a few classes, but imagine the generosity it takes to spend every day, every decade of one's adult life, teaching what is hard to convey and hard for others to understand. So that's a pretty amazing act of generosity. He didn't just discover this for himself; he then passed it on.

The next enormous act of generosity, to which we owe the practices we learn, was the generations of monastics who first memorized and recited the teachings of the Buddha to anyone wanting to hear the Dharma, and then later recorded them in writing. And then we're fortunate enough in our lifetime that they've been translated into languages that we speak. These weren't people who were setting out to make a fortune from what they knew; it was freely offered, passed from one warm hand to the next for the past 2,500 years. When we take in that fact—2,500 years of people generously offering this—it really registers with a sense of amazement and gratitude.

If we dedicate ourselves regularly to this practice, we start to feel the ways in which generosity grows inside. For me, realizing that I'm coming up on the 20th year since I sat at Insight Meditation Center with Gil twenty years ago, and have been doing so ever since—and now online—the generosity of the people who developed these tools that enable us to come from all over the world to gather and meditate together... One way it manifests is in an attitude of goodwill towards others. I can see that going on in the chat for someone who's going through things, and the care that people are sending. That's pretty wonderful.

We can feel goodwill towards each other and also towards experience itself. This practice makes us increasingly able to meet every kind of experience and every kind of relationship with some goodwill, some fundamental friendliness or kindness, and willingness to open to what's happening instead of being in conflict with it. When that goodwill encounters suffering, we respond with another form of generosity, and that is compassion. Goodwill wants to see suffering come to an end, and it's an inclination of mind that knows that given exactly the same conditions, we would suffer in exactly the same way. Not only that, when generosity encounters someone who's experiencing good fortune, instead of being envious or competitive, the heart responds with appreciative joy, feeling good for the other person. Devoted practice develops this capacity not only to feel compassion, to come from a quality of goodwill, but also to radiate good wishes towards someone for whom things are going well.

There are so many forms of generosity that surround us. It lightens the heart and it develops goodwill further to begin to look around you and discover generosity everywhere. Dāna⁵ is the ancient Pali word for generosity, and it's named in the Buddhist texts as the first of the ten paramis⁶, or perfections of virtue. So the first perfection of virtue is generosity. Ajahn Sucitto⁷ wrote a book about paramis that I'm sure many of you know, and in that book, he points out something pretty interesting. In order for our minds to be ready to take in the teachings of the Buddha, to really be ready for liberation, the mind needs preparation. The specific preparation that Ajahn Sucitto cites is to access and take in the validity, the real value of generosity, and also virtue and renunciation. These three together are practiced as a beginning of being able to come to freedom from suffering. They're practiced not only for oneself but for the welfare of others, and they're said to lead to peace.

Virtue and renunciation, which are named in this trio with generosity, to me actually come from generosity as well. If you think about practicing virtue, which you could also say is ethical conduct or morality, that's another gift that we give each other. That's the way we create safety, honesty, trust, and reliability in our relationships, and those things are so fundamental to harmony and ultimately happiness. It brings peace to your own mind, because the conscience knows when it's behaving unethically, and it will never come to peace when that's running under conscious awareness. It will continue to cause someone to act out, cause entire groups of people to act out in some form of discomfort or suffering, although it wears a lot of different guises.

Renunciation is another act of generosity. When you think of letting go of an unwholesome habit in favor of a more wholesome way of being, we are not only benefiting ourselves, but we're benefiting other people. Giving up unwholesome behavior, unwholesome speech, and unwholesome thoughts, we get a lot easier to live around, and we become less harmful to others. When we're practicing renunciation, often we're giving up our greed for something that we previously craved as if it were going to be the source of sustainable happiness. When we give up on that greed, again, we're doing something that benefits others—our cravings and by using only what we need.

As you've been listening to the various ways generosity presents itself in these foundations for the practice of generosity, virtue, and renunciation, as well as in the practice of mindfulness itself, maybe some of the ways you experience generosity are coming to mind. What are some of the simple ways that generosity shows up in your practice, in your life? If you'd like, I'd love it if you want to type some of them into the chat. Examples of generosity that you value. The generosity of sharing it with each other in the chat will inspire others to see more forms of generosity in their life.

Some of the things that are coming to mind for me are the really kind way that when you're riding a bicycle, cars will give you a wide berth as they pass. Or the generosity of actually talking to someone who's a clerk at a store that you're shopping in, instead of just treating them anonymously. So presence is one that I see. I see warm hugs being sent, that's generosity. What else inspires you as generosity that you see in daily life?

The kindness of strangers, letting go of taking credit, a meal prepared with love—these are beautiful. Spending time listening to others, cooking for others, smiling at strangers. Forgiveness is a huge form of generosity. Smiles, even to people you don't know. Encouraging people to go ahead of me in line. The generosity of a willingness to receive help. Warmth. Sharing food with friends. My son-in-law getting sober, yes. People being kind, thank you Melody. This talk right now. Distributing food, yeah. Acknowledging generous behaviors from others—it's so helpful when people are thanked for what they're doing, they do more of the same. Cooking for friends in need, definitely. Reaching out to our elderly neighbors and listening to their stories. Empathy. Bringing my nine dogs inside when it's 20 degrees outside—yes, it's currently 11 where I live and there's snow on the ground. The friendliness of others. This is beautiful: sitting still with a child, just sitting and listening to anyone, saying hello to others when you're hiking. Help—this is powerful—helping someone die, yes. People giving each other space in lines. Listening with an open heart. Listening and sharing. Christmas Day Sangha. Radical acceptance. Someone offering Sarah her presence. Community service.

Thank you all for these beautiful, beautiful examples of generosity. I want to invite you, for those of you who would like to make this week a retreat of sorts, to continue to notice throughout your day—this is a really fun practice—all of the beautiful examples of generosity that you see around you. It really lifts and warms the heart. Thank you so much. Sending metta⁸ to all of you, sending very fond wishes for a happy day.