【Description】
A man who was once unsympathetic and reluctant to help those in need experienced a major transformation. After an act of giving bread, his heart and mind expanded. Not only has he become a generous soul with a broad mindset, he has also become a successful businessman.
This is the power of generosity. To find out how generosity could benefit your life and take it to another level, watch this video by Grandmaster JinBodhi. You will find the key to changing your fate and moving towards a more exciting and broader life.
【You will learn】
- The best way to deepen your understanding of life
- The benefits of being grateful and generous
- Ways to obtain happiness
【Featured aphorisms】
- The best way to improve your understanding of life is to be grateful and generous.
- Generosity is about sharing what you have, such as money, possessions, skills, knowledge, time, etc.
- Always be grateful and remember those who have helped you.
- To be happy, think about the help you have received.
- Those who have a sense of gratitude are happy.
- Gratitude and generosity lower the chance of falling sick, while pettiness increases it. If you want to be immune to illness, you must think and act with gratitude and generosity.
- Only when you are calm can compassion and tolerance spread to every part of your body; this is how you reap the most benefit.
- Your charisma increases when your compassion reaches a certain level. This kind of charisma is unstoppable and produces countless abilities such as attractiveness, magnetism and creativity.
【Content】
Hello everyone. (Hello Master!) Please have a seat. (Thank you Master.) By studying meditation with me, I hope everyone will slowly improve their understanding of life. The best way to start is by giving and having gratitude.
If we are narrow-minded, stingy or nitpicky, that is often a sign of not being able to let go. Years ago, I had a young student. Once, when I said there was someone in need of our help, he said “Master, why should we help?” He was actually being considerate of me. “Everyone suffers all the same, that is how we grow, just leave him be.” I said, “We can’t just leave him be, we should lend a hand.””Don’t help him, we have all suffered.” The young student felt it was unfair if suffering wasn’t equal.
So he said to leave the person alone, questioning why should we help. “It’s not easy to earn money, why should we share it with him? I bought this with my own money, why should I just give it to others?” I said, “You have your own point of view”, but I of course didn’t share his beliefs. I couldn’t convince him in the moment, but that was ok. I said, “The person is having difficult times, we can extend a hand and help him.” Others also said I shouldn’t help him. I used this chance to experience the process thoroughly.
A year later, I took the young student with me to give bread to the homeless. I said, “Even though I bought it, we can say you did. If you want, just give me $5 or treat me to some bread later.” He didn’t have to spend the money so he agreed readily. “So Master, I will go and give out the bread then?” I agreed, saying I would drive. Afterwards, he came back smiling, I asked him why. He said, “After giving them bread, they were very grateful to me. I feel happier than I did at my wedding.” We left, but before we went our separate ways, he said “Master, can you to bring me along next time?” I agreed.
Next time, he said, “Let’s go buy the bread together.” When buying the bread, I said, “I’ll wait in the car, you get the bread.” He came back with two loaves. “Here Master, this one is yours, for last time. The other I bought for myself.” After giving away his bread, he said, “Master, please don’t forget about me the next time you help people. Let’s go together, I have never been so happy.” He had changed from a self-involved, selfish person, although not a bad person, just average, to someone with a broadened mind and heart.
Giving allows us to broaden the horizons of our mind and heart. It elevates our outlook on life so quickly that it’s like riding an elevator. Later, the student and I discussed how we could help people around the world. That was about 3 months after we handed out bread. I was actually very disappointed by his selfish thoughts in the very beginning, but his quick change of heart truly amazed me. His change was directly related to the first time he handed out bread.
Now his business is doing very well and making a profit. He studied compassion and tolerance with me. Originally he would say, “Why should I sell at a lower price? I need to be more aggressive.” In the past, he’d always felt resentful towards society. After studying with me, he began to forgive and lower his prices when possible. His business is doing very well now, nothing grand. He owns a supermarket and it is very prosperous. He earns much more now that he is not working for someone else. He operates his business the same way, a very flexible style, unlike what he previously did.
So just this small act of giving was able to transform his level of tolerance. His heart and mind opened with more sympathy and empathy. All of these qualities combined together is kindness. He stopped being ruthless and became more forgiving. When he is generous towards his customers, his profits increase. His business will continue to grow. So compassion can bring about great changes in a person.
With a compassionate and tolerant heart, will he be in a good mood? (Yes.) He smiles at his customers from his heart. He is happy and feels that each customer is his friend. He often has kind thoughts, and no blockages in his heart. He can see through and past many of his problems. His business plan is simple, to make money. He makes less profit per transaction, but the sales never end. This enabled him to become a successful businessman. So his mood is good, and everyone knows a good mood is good for health.
Compassion is beneficial for physical and emotional health.
As for gratitude, always maintain a grateful heart. Start with those closest to us, our parents, brothers, sisters, relatives and friends. Remember the things they did for you. Then you’ll be happier. You keep thinking about how your mother scolded you, but she was just concerned for you, so when she spoke, her voice was a little loud. If she spoke too softly, you would just ignore her. She raised her voice and you thought she was scolding you, so you would ignore her for 3 days.
Right, so we start with gratitude. If you want to truly become a person with a broadened heart and mind, have gratitude, it can give rise to happiness, because there’s a sense of contentment. Another way is to give more. Those who are always angry have narrow mindsets, or limited knowledge. So to broaden our mind and heart, start by giving.
Some might ask what is “giving”. It is when you give what you have to others, such as money, things, skills, time or services, right? Say you can fix computers and your neighbor or friend’s computer crashes. I suggest, if you can ask for little or no compensation, say you don’t need to buy new parts, then don’t ask for compensation. Next time round, say your bed breaks and your friend helps fix it, he won’t ask you for compensation. It not because you can’t afford it, it is the friendship and bond, that makes it unlike a business transaction and a happier experience. If you accept money, then your service becomes an expectation, and there are no feelings involved, right?
In the entirety of our lives, we fall sick many times. If we give more, we may be able to change the frequency of illnesses. A narrow mind will continuously cause more illnesses, so we need to change this cause and effect. We start with our thoughts, then actions, to change the chance of illness. To change, we must start from two points. The first is to have gratitude, the second is giving. There are benefits to this, as these 2 qualities will decrease the chance of falling sick, not completely though, because there are many causes for illness. We can also gain virtues and merits at the same time.
Give more: Say you are well-off and you see a lady with 10 kids, who she is not using to get money, so you know things must be hard. Life just turned out like that for her. She has a lot of financial struggles. After learning about her situation, you help the best you can – that is gaining merits. When you helped her, it was just an act of kindness. You weren’t thinking about virtues or merits, but they are still there. The benefit of this is, say in your genetics you were to die from cancer at 51. Because of this merit, it helped your life energy delay that till 61. You are of course unaware of this and continue helping others, so the time extends and you live to 120 years old, which is normal.