The Art of Giving Series

The Art of Giving series begins by discussing the principles constituting the Art of Giving: Respect, Appreciation, Gratitude and Value. The series centers around a discussion on giving between my teacher (Sensei) and me.

The series discusses the importance of processing the principles in the correct order, giving back to the source, static versus dynamic giving and superconductive giving. One of the essential points made is that we need to give in a manner the supports the source. Without an understanding of this we don’t have the tools to center ourselves ever more deeply in awareness.

We have long embraced the concept of finding ways to apply our understandings in our everyday life applications. Mental understandings alone won’t cut it. We can’t ‘get it’ through intellectual study and research alone. Finding ways to cross relate our understandings into experience is a necessity. Put another way, we need to experience the deeper experience itself. In this regard, a teacher is always needed as a guide to help show us these normally out-of-reach inner places, including their life changing impacts. Just as we can’t perform surgery on our own body, so the teacher is needed for major movements inward. In this context, the teacher performs the major surgery that we can’t perform for our self.

Find ways to practice. Try not to make the mistake I made for so many years (and still do) of trying to ‘get it’ by reading or attending lectures. Similarly, we can make the mistake of trying to ‘give it’ by only writing or talking about it. In practical terms, we have to learn to apply the Art of Giving by becoming immersed in the simplicity and power of its experience, finding ways to consistently and frequently apply it in our everyday lives.

The Lessons/Posts

Lesson 1: Giving

Lesson 2: Why Blogs Don’t Work

Lesson 3: Giving Back to the Source

Lesson 4: Questions on Giving

Lesson 5: Hurting the Giver

Lesson 6: Giving and its Principles

Lesson 7: Upstream Clarity

Lesson 8: Incoming Value

Lesson 9: Lessons on Giving Back to the Source

Lesson 10: Reverence

About the Lessons

The lessons begin with a series of posts, that culminate in some questions asked in Questions on Giving . If you are new to the discussion, it would be better to first read the three posts that preceded Questions on Giving, beginning with Giving.

The post Giving and its Principles includes a paper from my teacher, titled the same. His paper is not my notes, but rather his word-for-word teaching.

You may find that Sensei’s teaching has a certain flow and rhythm, making it easy and natural to read and follow. You may want to consider, however, not being lulled into its flow too easily - there is a depth occurring that can be difficult to understand, which can lead us to prematurely saying, “I get it.” Giving and its Principles, for example, has years of study available in it. Consider that each lesson is laying groundwork, and can be opened up into a comprehensive course of study.

You may see future posts emerging as I study and work to deepen and improve my own understandings and applications. Hopefully you will find some value in that.

The comment section that follows Giving and its Principles is continuously open. Feel free to write at length.

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Note: Sensei’s work is copyrighted, all rights reserved. Use by permission only; short excerpts may be used by crediting the source.

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