charity

1. A miser can donate, giving charity, but he is giving with calculation. His miserliness is there. Now he is opening a bank account in the other world. He wants to have a bank balance there too.
2. You can donate a little bit to the church, to some charitable institution, you can give some money to the poor people. These are the consolations. And a place for you will be reserved in heaven. Don’t be such a fool — heaven is not so cheap. In fact, there is no place like heaven anywhere; it is something inside you. No charity can lead you there, but if you reach there your whole life becomes a charity; that is a totally different phenomenon. If you reach there, your whole life becomes compassion.
3. Sitting silently, doing nothing, the spring comes and the grass grows by itself. Sit silently, doing nothing, and wait for the spring. It comes, it always comes, and when it comes, the grass grows by itself. You will see great joy arising in you for no reason at all. Then share it, then give it to people! Then your charity will be inner. Then it will not be just a means to attain to some goal; then it will have intrinsic value.
4. When Buddha talks about a poor man, he does not mean a man without money. When Buddha talks about a poor man, he means a man who is not rich inside… a loveless man. How can he share? How can he become a tremendous sharing? No, charity is not possible. Charity is possible only when you are overflowing. Overflowing is charity.
5. All that you can contribute is your own being. Hence, Bodhidharma is absolutely right that there is only one charity and that is to give yourself without regret, in fact with great joy and rejoicing, to existence. Become part of the whole.
6. It is beautiful to share whatever you have. Even if you don’t have anything, you can find something in your nothing, also to share. Charity is sharing.
7. Charity simply means an unconditional sharing. It has nothing to do with the eyes and nothing to do with the visual world and its abandonment. It simply means you have something; you should enjoy to share it. Don’t be a miser. Don’t hold on to it because this whole life is going to end one day and you will not be able to take anything with you. So while you are alive, why not share as much as you can? Things which can be taken away any moment …it is better that you share them. And it is a great joy to share. The man who learns the art of sharing is the richest man in the world. He may be poor, but his inner being has a quality of richness that even emperors may feel jealous of.
8. Great donation to the church has nothing to do with religion, it has nothing to do with charity; it is business, pure business. And that’s what people are doing. They donate to the poor, they serve the poor, to go to heaven. It is an investment, it is not service. Unless you are conscious, whatsoever you do is going to be wrong. In Buddha’s definition, wrong means a thing done unconsciously and right means a thing done consciously. It has nothing to do with the thing itself but with the quality of consciousness through which it is done.
9. Whenever you are unable to share, whenever you are unable to practise charity, note down — you must be poor. You may have much in the eyes of others, but deep down you must be poor if you cannot share.
10. Charity is to unburden you from your guilt, so you say, “I am doing something: I going to open a hospital, going to open a college. I give money to this charity fund, to that trust….” You feel a little happier. The world has lived in poverty, the world has lived in scarcity, ninety-nine percent of people have lived a poor life, almost starving and dying, and only one percent of people have lived with richness, with money — they have always felt guilty. To help them, the religions developed the idea of charity. It is to rid them of their guilt.
11. The first thing I would like to say is: Charity is not a virtue; it is just a help to keep your sanity intact, otherwise you will go insane. Charity is not a virtue — it is not a PUNYA. It is not that you have done something good when you do charity. It is only that you repent for all the bad that you have done in accumulating the money. To me, charity is not a great quality — it is repentance, you are repenting. One hundred rupees you have earned, ten rupees you give in charity — it is a repentance. You feel a little good; you don’t feel THAT bad; your ego feels a little more protected. You can say to God, “Not only was I exploiting, I was also helping poor people.” But what type of help is this? On one hand you snatch one hundred rupees, and on the other hand you give ten rupees — not even the interest! This is a trick that was invented by the so-called religious people to help NOT THE POOR BUT THE RICH. Let it be absolutely clear: this is MY attitude — it has been a trick to help the rich not the poor. If the poor were helped, that was just a consequence of it, a by-product, but that was not the goal of it. What do I say to my sannyasins? I don’t talk about charity. That word seems ugly to me. I talk about sharing — and with a totally different quality in it: sharing. If you have, you share. Not because by sharing you will be helping others, no, but by sharing you will be growing. The more you share, the more you grow.
12. Charity is a beautiful flowering of one who has, one who is in possession of his being; one who is not poor, one who is rich. This man may be a beggar on the streets. It has nothing to do with your bank balance. The rich man may be a beggar, but if he has his being, authentic being, if he can love, if he can sing, if he can dance, if he can see poetry in the world, he is rich. He may not have anything at all. As far as material things go, he may not have anything. But he has something of the spiritual… something which cannot be taken away from him.
13. Love’s nature is to share; hoarding is difficult for love. The man who hoards does so because he does not have the courage to share. He has no heart, no feeling for sharing. Love is giving away; love is charity itself. Love means sharing with all.
14. Let me repeat it: whatever an asleep man does is wrong. He may be doing virtuous acts: charity to the poor, opening hospitals, schools, colleges, universities; educating people, donating to every cause, helping in every calamity — but I still say whatever he does is wrong, because he is asleep. He cannot do right. In sleep it has never been possible to do right.
15. Understand the meaning of dana, charity. You too give in charity, but behind your gift hides some desire. If you give two paise to a beggar you do so with the hope of a return in heaven — if not in heaven, at least your neighbors or your friends should be watching so that you rise in their esteem, or gain some respect from them.
16. As far as I am concerned this is the only real charity, to share your innermost treasure with people, familiar or strangers, and to turn their eyes also inwards. Because seeing your treasure, they will be reminded of their own treasures. Experiencing your fragrance, you will be putting them on the search of how they can also be so fresh, so fragrant, so graceful. From where can they get this beauty that does not belong to the world, this music without instruments, and this poetic atmosphere without words? Sharing with people is putting them on the right way: in search. And if they know what happens to the real seeker, they will not go on any wrong path.
17. Many people–the so-called religious persons–are satisfied with small attempts at spiritual awakening. Some count beads, some say a few ‘shlokas’ (Hymns in the morning, some go to temples, some offer charity. These short-cuts do not deceive God. There are no short-cuts to true spiritual awakening in its fullest magnitude. The search must go on until the goal is reached.
18. To transform life into a celebration is the only authentic science of religion. I celebrate myself and I want you to learn the art of celebrating yourself — for no reason, for no cause. Just to be is enough, more than enough. To be part of the whole is such a great metamorphosis that you cannot resist — you have to dance, you have to sing, you have to express your joy, your blissfulness. You have to share it.
    Sharing your blissfulness is the only charity.
    Sharing your joy is the only gratitude.
    Existence has given you too much, share it.
    The more you share the more you will have it
    The less you share the less you will have it.
    If you don’t share it you won’t have it at all.