As the weather cools and the leaves fall, we enter the Season of Gratitude and Giving. When the Buddha taught, he always began with the teachings on dana (“generosity” or “giving”) because without an open and generous heart, the teachings cannot be received.
A Thai forest master who visited the West questioned the sequence of teachings we typically follow here. In Asia, he said, the teachings proceed from  generosity to morality, and  then after establishing these in daily life, to meditation practices . But here we usually start with meditation; sometimes saying something about morality as a basis for the teachings, and only after some time, as a kind of appendix, teach about generosity, often in the form of a “dana talk.”  The master was pointing to our having lost something valuable in this altered sequence of practices. We desire transformative, transcendental meditative states, and we are willing to put our effort into that. However, the foundation for genuine transformation through meditation is the cultivation of generosity and morality. (Morality is sometimes called “the gift of fearlessness” because that is what we offer to our community when we lead a life of integrity). Generosity has tremendous power because it arises from  letting go. Being able to let go, to give up, to renounce, and to give generously, all spring from the same source. When we cultivate dana we open up these Buddha-like qualities within ourselves. Letting go gives us profound freedom and generosity offers many loving ways to express that freedom.
How will you cultivate generosity now, in this season?