One of the highest and most cherished acts that someone can do for another is to give something to someone with their whole heart. Lately it has come to my attention of wondering if we as individuals often give from our entire heart. What I mean by this is that there seems to be in no shape or form, any expectation of an outcome or idea of the other person's response. It is just what it is, a gift.
This made me think, so I began to talk to others as I wanted to know what their take on the subject was. When I did this some interesting conversations began to surface on the whole thought. As I began to visit with others I found a pattern that ran in between the lines that that was often expressed in all the conversations. Everyone that I talked to was in agreement that it is always good to give from the heart but an underlying question that came out was that, were we responsible for the outcome of the gift?
Now I know that question seems to be silly when you first hear it but when you break it all down there seems to be a pattern that runs with this line of thinking. For instance what if we gave money to someone who lived on the street, were we responsible for them going to buy liqueur instead of food? Were we by trying to help actually contributing to their addiction or habit?
The other part of this line of thinking that was brought up was that there were people who didn't seem to recognize the actual sacrifice of a gift and often discarded it without really understanding what was given to them. I think the word in this case was appreciation. An example that was brought up was someone taking the extra time to be there for someone else who was going through a rough time and the other person seemed only to feel that they were entitled. As I continued to explore the conversation about giving I was surprised at all the pit falls that I found in the discussions about not giving or even being afraid to give. This made me wonder if we as a society had really come to that place where we no longer gave without any expectation because of fear?
As I searched last week I came upon a passage in a book that I just happen to be reading called The Magus of Strovolos, by Kyriacos C Markides. In it the famous healer Daskalos talks about giving from the entire heart and that a gift that is given this way, in no way has any expectations on the outcome of the gift or the person receiving the gift. It is given out of pure love and only pure love. In that we are not responsible for the other person and any of their actions. We are only responsible for giving something from the heart with the intention of it being unconditional, that is what makes the gift really valuable.
This made me think, so I began to talk to others as I wanted to know what their take on the subject was. When I did this some interesting conversations began to surface on the whole thought. As I began to visit with others I found a pattern that ran in between the lines that that was often expressed in all the conversations. Everyone that I talked to was in agreement that it is always good to give from the heart but an underlying question that came out was that, were we responsible for the outcome of the gift?Now I know that question seems to be silly when you first hear it but when you break it all down there seems to be a pattern that runs with this line of thinking. For instance what if we gave money to someone who lived on the street, were we responsible for them going to buy liqueur instead of food? Were we by trying to help actually contributing to their addiction or habit?
The other part of this line of thinking that was brought up was that there were people who didn't seem to recognize the actual sacrifice of a gift and often discarded it without really understanding what was given to them. I think the word in this case was appreciation. An example that was brought up was someone taking the extra time to be there for someone else who was going through a rough time and the other person seemed only to feel that they were entitled. As I continued to explore the conversation about giving I was surprised at all the pit falls that I found in the discussions about not giving or even being afraid to give. This made me wonder if we as a society had really come to that place where we no longer gave without any expectation because of fear?
As I searched last week I came upon a passage in a book that I just happen to be reading called The Magus of Strovolos, by Kyriacos C Markides. In it the famous healer Daskalos talks about giving from the entire heart and that a gift that is given this way, in no way has any expectations on the outcome of the gift or the person receiving the gift. It is given out of pure love and only pure love. In that we are not responsible for the other person and any of their actions. We are only responsible for giving something from the heart with the intention of it being unconditional, that is what makes the gift really valuable.
No comments:
Post a Comment