Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Generosity and mindfulness

Perhaps if we cultivate the discipline of being generous with ourselves, as Jon Kabat-Zinn suggests, we will find it easier and more appealing to be generous with others:

Generosity is another quality which, like patience, letting go, non-judging, and trust, provides a solid foundation for mindfulness practice. You might experiment with using the cultivation of generosity as a vehicle for deep self-observation and inquiry as well as an exercise in giving. A good place to start is with yourself. See if you can give yourself gifts that may be true blessings, such as self-acceptance, or some time each day with no purpose. Practice feeling deserving enough to accept these gifts without obligation-to simply receive from yourself, and from the universe.

- Jon Kabat-Zinn

2 comments:

  1. Ellie, I really needed to read this!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous6:34 PM

    I give myself lots of good laughs by visiting websites run by the "progressive" left who believe in fairies (both with wings and with condos in Provincetown); the Fundiegelicals were just a warmup, being too obvious to be truly interesting.
    But watching someone who lives in a 98% White suburb and goes to a 98% White denomination preach on diversity, and expects to be taken seriously? You can't make that stuff up!

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