Tara Brach
For Tara Brach, generosity can come as spontaneously as our breath; it is the natural outflow from receiving, from being grateful. Brach is an author, a Buddhist meditation teacher, and leader of the Insight Meditation Community of Washington (DC). She guides her students to use meditation, their acute sensory awareness, and to cultivate a consciousness of the present moment — which she calls Natural Presence.
On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving in 2007, Brach gave a talk called Gratitude and Generosity. In it she pointed out that breath can become a guide to living life fully; that you can breathe in, let the breath come in fully and deeply, and understand the experience as an expression of receptivity. Then breathing out and really letting go of the breath, surrendering it, can be understood as an expression of generosity, of offering into the world.
Gratitude has everything to do with happiness.
- Tara Brach
For Brach, gratitude is a recognition and appreciation, which confirms a sense of abundance in the world. This leads naturally to generosity. She notes that people who are happy are appreciating life and that their happiness flows out naturally into the world, as a gift. However this recognition and appreciation, which precedes gratitude, is only possible by being truly present in the moment and place we inhabit, by seeing things as they are, and by letting reality as it is flow through us. She contrasts this with being caught up in our thoughts, memories, and judgments about the present reality, which distracts us from what actually is.
Since she lives near a river, Brach uses the river metaphor to deepen her explanation of being in natural presence. She says that similar to when we are standing in a river, if we allow the water to flow through and around us rather than trying to fight the current or control the flow of the water, we are more stable and secure. With our consciousness, if we allow the flow of life we are more present and free, and giving also flows more naturally. In this way generosity is an expression of inner freedom.
Brach believes that the basic way of expressing our abundance, freedom, and generosity is to give our blessings to other people, to give our love. She tells a tale from Rachel Naomi Remen’s book, My Grandfather’s Blessings. When Remen was young her grandfather would spend time and tell her about her goodness. He gave her a name, Neshumela, which means little beloved soul. After his death, Remen realized that she had learned to see herself through his eyes, as blessed. She says, “Once blessed we are blessed forever.”
So breathe in as a practice of receiving, practice meditation as a way to cultivate natural presence, as a way to feel the abundance of the world. And breathe out, giving your presence as a gift. Brach exhorts us to then: tell the people in your life about their goodness, bless them, and let them know your love – out loud.
Gratefulness is flowing from my heart.
- Hezekiah Walker
Listen to the Gospel song Grateful by Hezekiah Walker: