"Giving Makes Us Human..."

... Because We Are Only Real in Relationship.

People find ways to give, of course, because giving makes us human, because we are only real in relationship. The best of relationships, even market relationships, include something human, a generosity of spirit, perhaps, ethics and honesty, giving your best work rather than the minimum. — Shodo Spring

In her book Open Reality: Meeting the Polycrisis Together With All Beings, Zen priest and teacher Shodo Spring invites us to imagine new possibilities for humanity as we meet the many challenges of our time — by inviting us to step out of the dysfunctional limitations of our dualistic, technological society, opting instead for a more reciprocal and nature-centered way of organizing our social lives.

Certainly one way we can move toward a more holistic society would be through cultivating (or restoring) what has been called the “gift economy.” Imagine measuring wealth not by how much money we control, but by how much we share with others. The richest, most admired people would not be those with bloated bank accounts, but those who so freely share their affluence with others.

We’re at the end of the season of Christmas — a time when our culture has created a kind of toxic parody of the gift economy, by linking generosity for our children with the gluttony of modern consumerism. But can we recall that, at its heart, Christmas remains the celebration of a baby, and that the gifts of the Magi are meant to symbolize for us the gifts that any generous soul might want to bring to the very incarnation of divine love?

You and I might not be able to control the frenzied shopping that has come to characterize our secularized Christmas. But we can look for ways to be more generous in our own lives. When we give, lavishly, abundantly, joyfully — we are mimicking the very generosity of God. That seems to be very much a way of entering into the mystical life: for what better way to experience the presence of God than by lavishly sharing that presence with others?

Quotation source: Shodo Spring, Open Reality: Meeting the Polycrisis Together With All Beings (Kindle Edition), p. 55.