Generosity of Mind ( 30 dec 2006)

Generosity of the Heart Is the Beginning of Meditation
----------------------------------------------------------
We are going to talk about something that needs a mind that can penetrate very
profoundly. We must begin very near because we cannot go very far if we do not know
how to begin very close, if we do not know how to take the first step. The flowering
of meditation is goodness, and the generosity of the heart is the beginning of
meditation. We have talked about many things concerning life, authority, ambition,
fear, greed, envy, death, time; we have talked about many things. If you observe, if
you have gone into it, if you have listened rightly, those are all the foundation
for a mind that is capable of meditating. You cannot meditate if you are ambitious -
you may play with the idea of meditation. If your mind is authority-ridden, bound by
tradition, accepting, following, you will never know what it is to meditate on this
extraordinary beauty....

It is the pursuit of its own fulfillment through time that prevents generosity. And
you need a generous mind - not only a wide mind, a mind that is full of space, but
also a heart that gives without thought, without a motive, and that does not seek
any reward in return. But to give whatever little one has or however much one has -
that quality of spontaneity of outgoing, without any restriction, without any
withholding, is necessary. There can be no meditation without generosity, without
goodness - which is to be free from pride, never to climb the ladder of success,
never to know what it is to be famous; which is to die to whatever has been
achieved, every minute of the day. It is only in such fertile ground that goodness
can grow, can flower. And meditation is the flowering of goodness.

The Book of Life - December 30
_______________________________________________