Generosity

Awakenings - as Witness and Big Mind - appears to lead to generosity in several ways.

First, there is the generosity of allowing whatever is to be. There is the ground from and as everything happens, and there is whatever happens - as it is. It all comes and goes as guests. I am free from being caught up in pushing away or holding onto anything. And at the same time, I am free to fully engage in whatever is happening.

Then, there is the more conventional forms of generosity as well.

There is the generosity of seeing the validity in any view. It grows out of the unique experiences of the person, and does have validity to it. Also, any opposite view also has validity to it, so even that is included in this generosity. The question is not if a particular view is valid, but how. Life is beyond and includes any and all polarities, and with this generosity we align ourselves more with this through a deepening transdual view.

There is the generosity of seeing in myself what I see out there, on two levels. As a human being, I have any and all of the qualities I see in the outer world. And as Big Mind, I am whatever happens.

There is the generosity of rejoicing in other's good fortune and happiness. This is a never ending source of happiness for myself.

There is the generosity of giving away my own appearance and taking on other's appearance, as Douglas Harding's experiments shows us clearly. In my own experience, I do not look anything like my human self - I am whatever is happening, the room, other people and so on. And the same is true for others. When I meet them, they take on - they become - the appearance of my human self. I freely give my appearance away, and others do the same, all the time. It is just that we sometimes don't notice, we don't trust our immediate experience of it.

There is the generosity of being free to engage with and focus in whatever happens in the present, whether it is in/related to my own human self or someone or something else. I am not stuck in any of these.

There is the generosity of empathy, of recognizing in my human self what I see in others, and in seeing it as I as Big Mind.

There is the generosity of having nothing to protect. I see any quality out there (including any statements about my human self) also as in my human self. And as Big Mind, I am anything and everything happening. There is no fixed or limited identity to protect.

There is the generosity of seeing the whole world of phenomena as my body. As my human self, I am intimately connected with it all - it is all temporary expressions of a seamless process. As Big Mind and Big Heart, it is all I. Taking care of it, to the best of my ability, becomes as natural as taking care of my left arm.

There is the generosity of including all beings and all of Existence in my circle of care. I recognize in my human self whatever qualities I see in other beings. I recognize the intimate connections among all aspects of the world of form, as temporary expressions of one fluid process. I am it all, as Big Mind and Big Heart. Caring for any aspect of it, and the whole, is as effortless as caring for the body of my human self.