Giving mindfully

Spent Sunday sitting on my pillow meditating with my fundraising friends again. During the Dharma talk, my mentor shared with us a famous parable about washing dishes by Thich Nhat Hanh. As I sat listening, I found myself wondering what the story would have sounded like if it were about the act of giving? Perhaps it would have gone a little something like this:

There are two ways to give. The first is to give in order to change the world, while the second is give in order to give. If while giving, we think only of the new world which awaits us, thus hurrying get the giving out of the way as if it were a nuisance, then we are not truly “giving.” What’s more, we are not alive during the time we are giving. In fact we are completely incapable of realizing the miracle of life while giving away our time, talent and treasure. If we can’t give mindfully, the chances are we won’t be able to recieve the joys of life either. While living we will only be thinking of other things, barely aware of the abundance present in our lives. Thus we are sucked away into the future—and we are incapable of actually living one minute of life.