Breathing out and breathing in—neither is possible without the other. We can’t just decide that we only want to breathe in. If we tried, the breath (and our lives) would end. So it is with the teachings. It is always a giving and receiving. The Buddha set it up that way. The teachers give to the students the teachings, but they also receive from the students—inspiration and support; and the students receive the teachings, but they also support in gladness the teachers and the Center. We are dependent upon each other in our dancing in the Dharma together. And we are very fortunate to recognize this interrelationship and to actively cultivate the development of a generous nature. The Buddha taught this development as the basis of happiness and freedom. We have the opportunity to allow a spontaneous movement of the generous heart, an expression of gratitude and appreciation for these beautiful and unexcelled teachings that nurture our lives. At New York Insight events, we continue this cultivation of dana and offer the opportunity to share in the joyful cultivation of generosity through practice, manifesting the resulting freedom in offerings to the teachers and to the Center as well as in countless other ways.

The Buddha said:
A bikkhu, thinking ‘I am one who engages in generosity gains inspiration in the meaning, gains inspiration in the Dhamma, gains gladness connected with the Dhamma. It is that gladness connected with the wholesome that I call an equipment of the mind. That is, for developing a mind that is without hostility and without ill will.’

My sincere and compassionate wish is that we all consciously cultivate this gladness, this opening our hearts to the needs of others. As a community, we can develop a practice of deep generosity and gratitude as a basis of our journey to freedom.