In regard to generosity,
For those of us in recovery,
We must first choose to give ourselves a chance to live,
To learn,
To thrive,
To grow,
To develop,
To be useful in the world.
Without giving ourselves these things,
In addition to a chance to live a purposeful life,
We will not find self-love,
Or self-acceptance,
Or self-compassion,
And we will not be able to give love,
Or acceptance,
Or compassion to others,
Which is our true purpose,
To generously offer love,
Acceptance,
And compassion to all living beings.
Additionally,
We must freely and generously give ourselves forgiveness for the things we thought and said and did in active addiction.
We must forgive ourselves generously.
We must give ourselves forgiveness for how we treated the mind,
The body,
And the spirit,
Or soul,
Or our Buddha nature,
If we are to find peace and freedom,
If we are to create a beautiful future.
In regard to generosity,
When we have given ourselves all of these things,
Love,
Acceptance,
Compassion,
And forgiveness,
As well as opportunities to grow and develop,
To be useful in the world,
We can truly give to others everything that we have within our heart.
Let's take a breath together.
Deep inhale,
And exhale,
Release the breath.
Again,
Deep inhale,
Generous breath.
Exhale,
Let it go.
Last time,
Deep inhale,
Give fresh oxygen to the lungs.
Exhale,
Give the breath to the world.
What other types of special things do we give to others?
Generously,
In recovery.
Simply,
We give what we have to give.
Our skills,
Our time,
Our presence,
Our understanding and wisdom,
Our friendship,
Our trust,
And our kindness.
Since we cannot give to others what we do not possess,
Buddhism teaches us how to cultivate fundamental qualities within ourselves first,
To recognize our own suffering first,
To transform our own suffering,
In order to find our own personal path to happiness or liberation.
As the result of this type of inner work,
We will have much to offer the world.
The Buddhist traditions offer many types of meditations,
Many sutras and scriptures that can be studied.
Buddhist philosophy and psychology can truly help people in recovery figure out causes and conditions for happiness and liberation.
Buddhist psychology can truly help people in recovery figure out causes and conditions,
Triggers and traumas.
These traditions are rich with self-exploration tools,
Different techniques to help us figure out who we are and why we're here and what our purpose is.
These practices help us truly give ourselves a sense of self-worth,
Self-esteem,
Self-confidence,
And these practices help us give all that we feel,
All that we know,
To anyone in need.
There is a popular saying in 12-step recovery that we must give it away if we wish to keep it.
What must we give away?
Everything.
What are we to keep?
The freedom that we find in recovery,
The peace,
The happiness.
How are we to give everything away?
As the saying goes,
For fun and for free.
This seems to be a universal law,
No matter what tradition,
Similar to the golden rule.
To be of service,
To give away things,
And generosity in the Buddhist tradition,
We should expect nothing in return,
No acknowledgement,
No reward.
We are to give of ourselves anonymously and humbly.
We are to give what we have to give,
Nothing more,
Nothing less.
We are to teach what we know,
Nothing more,
Nothing less.
Riches in recovery are not measured in quantity,
Rather quality.
The quality of the work that we do,
The inner work,
The degree of inner peace,
Equanimity,
Serenity that we find in our lives,
And how we offer these things to others,
This amounts to a very rich recovery.
In active addiction,
Many of us do the opposite of giving.
When we drank alcohol or used drugs or depended on other substances or behaviors,
We actually stole.
We took from ourselves.
We took our vitality.
We depleted our life force.
We stole from our future.
So now,
In recovery,
It is only natural we give back what we stole from ourselves.
We gift ourselves security,
Sobriety,
Sanity,
And serenity.
And it is also only natural that we contribute to the world.
And it is also only natural that we contribute to society.
We give generously and freely everything that was given to us in recovery,
Everything that we found that's worth anything.
We give these things to ourselves,
And then we think about others.
With others,
In active addiction,
Many of us were likely stingy or miserly with our time and our love and our resources.
We most likely hoarded our compassion.
Our patience was very limited.
We likely did not contribute much to society.
So,
If you possess the miracle,
The gift of recovery today,
Be generous with it.
Whoever needs it,
Make an offering.
Let others know that it is possible to live a purposeful life in recovery.
Be generous.
