My Thoughts on Giving...

Happy Holidays Everyone!!! 

Giving is only True if accompanied by letting go.  If I give you a lift to work and expect something in return from you, then I haven't really let go.  I'm giving, but I'm expecting you or the universe to pay me back somehow.  I'm clinging to what I've really just pretended to give.  The reason true givers become free and infinite isn't because they have received so much in return from others that they are built up to infinity, it is because they have let go of all attachments to the egoic self.  So, nothing is left.  And this no-thing is infinitely expansive and all-embracing... emptiness, by any other name.  Notice what happens to the self-contraction when you give without expectation... it loosens up a little, doesn't it?  That expectation of return automatically causes a tightening reaction and closes you off to the expansiveness that is trying to come out of you.  Let go of that expectation and see what happens.  "But I deserve a return, or the system is unbalanced.  It's not fair."  Observe that thought.  Why did it appear?  Has the past taught you that life isn't fair?  Have you given only to be left lacking?  Perhaps when you were a small child, you gave the last piece of chocolate cake to your brother thinking your mom would reward you by baking an entire chocolate cake of your own.  But she just said, "Don't be silly."  And you can probably think of countless other examples that would justify you in believing that you will be best served if you maintain a healthy dose of reciprocity expectance.  And that's fine, as far as it goes.  But don't call it giving.  It's really just emotional-egoic-body-self maintenance.  Truly giving = Truly letting go = Truly loving.  Let observation of the self-contracting thoughts heal you of them.

When I take the position that giving without expectation of return will throw off the balance, I don't mean that it will throw the universe off balance.  What I mean is it will throw my ego off balance.  It will challenge my identity to the positions my egoic mind has constructed.  And I've worked very hard at constructing my current belief system.  And hell, it's gotten me this far, hasn't it?  But what does that mean?  What does it mean to be "this far"?  When am I further from?  And where am I going?  If my identity is with the egoic I, then death is the final resolution.  My body will die and along with it will go the ego that was attached to it.  If my identity is with the soul, then I do not fear the death of my body, but as one body dies, I may have to hop from one to another to another to another, evolving deeper with each jump, until I reach Spirit.  If my identity is with Spirit, then there is only One with no Other; there is only suchness, isness, this moment, this moment, this moment. 

If life is a movie, then the ego is the character; her time is up when the movie is over.  The soul is the actor; she can play many parts, but needn't really identify with any of the characters she plays.  And Spirit is both the screen on which the movie is projected and the observer of the movie.  No matter where the character goes, Spirit has not moved; It has always been.  The movie doesn't exist without Spirit.

"The world is illusory
Brahman alone is real
Brahman is the world"
-Ramana Maharshi

"The movie is illusory
The movie screen alone is real
The movie screen is the movie"
-Matthew Mogen