shocked by the size of her injury as well as the picture of her fully clothed, clearly better off relative. " So Mike and I are going to walk you to wherever it is you need to go- the bus station is only a few blocks away and you can catch the next bus out there but I want you to be safe." I could feel my jaw drop," "Thank you so much."  "Don't mention it we don't want you to get hurt."   I was blown away by their act of complete kindness and generosity. These were strangers who I had been afraid of but what I really learned instead, was that they were far better, stronger people than I had ever been. In this one moment of kindness these t... posted on Dec 30 2011 (12,449 reads)

his disease was in remission so his immune system wouldn’t attack his new kidney. Last August, when Taber’s mom stopped by to say hello when he was back for a checkup, Batson volunteered her kidney. “Sandra, you might think I’m weird, but you guys have really been heavy on my mind,” Batson told her. ”I just want you to know that I’m willing to step forward and be tested as a donor.” Clay Taber says he was “astounded” by her generosity. “I went back and gave her a big hug and told her how much it meant to me. I’ll be honest, I kind of broke down in front of her.” After tests ruled out the chance of a... posted on Jan 16 2012 (24,357 reads)

growth. Growing is good -- not growing is downright un-American. You didn't get a raise? You're not growing? Well then you must be no good. But why only 1 way to measure growth? If I get a 10 percent raise next year but eat less healthy food, spend less time with close and extended community, or do more self-serving work, did I really grow? Just because the number is easy to measure, is that all that matters? Here's a few other ways to grow besides financial: - Grow in generosity (give more of yourself)  - Grow in compassion (connect more deeply with people/planet)  - Grow in physical health (deeper care for 'lifestyle habits')  - Grow i... posted on Feb 10 2012 (15,799 reads)

it can be. Later that same evening Sachi slips a large envelope into my hand. “A gift from Ankur,” she says, “for you to pay-forward.” Inside were a stack of large prints of his photographs. Many of them featuring little monks in red robes, their faces animated, their gestures so alive. It is clear that their photographer is blessed with an ability to see through the surface contours of the moment straight to its heart. I am properly stunned by the unconditional generosity of the gift. Life is Magical Ten days from the day I met him, Ankur was back in Ladakh armed with his camera, a heart of service and his faith in the universe. I received a short em... posted on Mar 13 2012 (40,252 reads)

and one detaches from that. Wholesome states of detachment from self are those in which one is not bound or held by self-absorption. Therefore one is free -- not bound, not held -- to use one’s time, which is temporary and limited, to do wholesome things. Ultimately these wholesome things make one feel good, so there’s a selfishness involved, but also a selfless-ness in doing things that make others feel good. In this kind of detachment, there is a deep connection to compassion, generosity.   Sitting pushes me to the limit of my self-directed effort; it mobilizes my willed, committed direction, yet it also shatters my self-protective, self-defining maneuvers... posted on Mar 20 2012 (34,988 reads)

annoyance. Some even invited us to a drink or a meal, and sometimes to sleep in their homes, wanting to understand our intentions.  We would repeat over and again the words that to change the world, you must begin by changing yourself. Those words were usually met with curiosity and interest, very rarely with derision, and quite often with amusement at the two “hippies” that were walking along the side of the road speaking about creating world peace through inner peace. Their generosity and kindness, however, was universal, with some people even offering us money to help us on our way. And this did not only occur in Italy, but in every one of the thirteen countries in whic... posted on Jul 22 2012 (12,348 reads)

grandmothers are different from mine. My grandmother lived a mile away. I played under her bushes where spring violets grew. She baked a dollop of meringue on a saltine cracker as a treat for me—and prepared delicious Sunday dinners: chicken that my grandfather caught and vegetables that she grew in her garden. Her bathtub had feet and her phone had a party line. She folded Christmas wrappings to use again. She kept her money in a safe inside a kitchen cabinet. Coal was heaped high in the basement to heat her house. She wore housedresses and braided her hair into a pigtail she could sit on. Contrast a contemporary grandmother in Argentina who told m... posted on Dec 15 2012 (16,954 reads)

as diverse as the Association of Medical Ethics and the Council for a Parliament of the Worlds Religions. But he is no stranger to struggle.  He served as a caregiver in a family whose mother was an invalid and father suffered from alcoholism.  They were on public assistance all that time.  As he said, “At that age you feel like a leaf being blown by an ill wind.”  He witnessed the indifference of those with money and influence, but also the compassion and generosity of those with nothing, and it made an impact.  At age 13 he wandered into a magic store and had a serendipitous conversation with the mother of the owner who was there.  She took ... posted on Feb 22 2013 (21,454 reads)

required them to decide how much money to contribute to a common pool. In a blow to conventional wisdom, the researchers found that people who made their decision quickly—in less than 10 seconds—gave roughly 15 percent more to the pool than people who deliberated for more time. In a second study, the researchers instructed some people to make their decision in less than 10 seconds and other people to think for longer than that; again, they found that quick decisions led to more generosity while deliberating bred selfishness. “These studies provide strong evidence that people, on average, have an initial impulse to behave cooperatively—and with continued reaso... posted on Mar 13 2013 (19,641 reads)

spirit. This empowering shift in perspective helped him survive and then to inspire his fellow prisoners to take control of their own mindset. What is the fear, high desperation, that you are attempting to run away from? How do you pay attention to it so that you can walk through the other side of desperation and discover something very new? Act on inspiration from talks or books. The CEO of a well-known tech firm attended a talk on service-oriented organizations, including the generosity-driven Karma Kitchen, where your bill always reads $0 because the meal is a gift from people who came before you, and you are invited to pay-it-forward for those who come after. He was so i... posted on Apr 2 2013 (40,572 reads)

stand to see takers get ahead by taking advantage of other people. The data on this suggests that matchers will often go around trying to punish them, often by gossiping and spreading negative reputational information. Just as matchers hate seeing takers get away with exploitation, they also hate to see people act really generously and not get rewarded for it. Matchers will often go out of their way to promote and help and support givers, to make sure they actually do get rewarded for their generosity. That's one of the most powerful dynamics behind the rise of givers. Knowledge@Wharton: One of the things I found most fascinating about your book is the combination of very rig... posted on Apr 24 2013 (46,907 reads)

community, have no idea that by choosing to pay for services, they are indirectly contributing to someone else’s care. Aravind deliberately steers clear of advertising this pay-it-forward angle to its high-end customers. Touting charitable services can work against your reputation in a world where quality and charity are not necessarily linked, and Aravind leadership believes that when it comes to personal health, value for money and quality of care, are priorities that tend to outweigh generosity. “I would very much like to come to Aravind Eye Hospital to spend some time learning and to seek your advice” is a sentiment that Thulsi encounters in his inbox with incr... posted on Jun 10 2013 (48,681 reads)

restoration of India’s sacred Arunachala mountain. It dawned on me that there were groups all over the world creating organic models of rural development to turn barren land green again, and we could help weave them together. The campaign was becoming an interface for direct planetary action, an emergent network of global citizens. It was exhilarating, and also heartbreaking. There were the inevitable screw-ups. I was reminded how our grasping, aversion, and ignorance ever shadow our generosity and openheartedness. Philanthropy can be a competitive scrum where the most ringing declarations of we’re-all-in-this-together devolve into what’s-in-it-for-me. I... posted on Apr 13 2014 (13,499 reads)

curiosity, and love. The act itself is very important. You could say the work of Radical Joy for Hard Times is like the work of the Norns, the three women who stand at the Well of Destiny in the upper level of the Norse World Tree. Like our world, the Norse World Tree is constantly under attack. But the Norns keep on doing this act of healing. We can’t prevent every assault on the places we love and where we live, but we can offer these creative acts of repairing and beauty and generosity. RW:  Do you think the earth knows it’s receiving all this? TJ:  Some of the people who go on our trips and do these Earth Exchanges say they feel the earth is... posted on Jul 22 2013 (18,811 reads)

and practical applications of his findings with David DiSalvo. DISALVO: You have a book that was just released called Born to Be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life. What in a nutshell does the term “born to be good” mean to you, and what are you hoping people learn from reading the book? KELTNER: “Born to be good” for me means that our mammalian and hominid evolution have crafted a species—us—with remarkable tendencies toward kindness, play, generosity, reverence and self-sacrifice, which are vital to the classic tasks of evolution—survival, gene replication and smooth functioning groups. These tendencies are felt in the wonderful r... posted on Oct 19 2013 (27,088 reads)

contemplative practice for a while. And so my resilience in that time was emboldened enormously by my social network. And by the ability of that, to be honest with that network about what was going on. And to be clear to this, you know, the community I live with is, and then is a kind of a gift economy. And one of the most important sort of the first two rules of all social networks. The first one is you build them before you need them. And the second is you root them in an initial act of generosity. You give to them before you expect anything from them. Otherwise you're just inviting people over to paint your house and do your homework, and that's usually no fun. So we had ... posted on Dec 5 2013 (23,088 reads)

teachers and so do failed 'Easter Egg' radishes, crimson, white, and dark purple, laid out in worm-eaten decrepitude on a chipped platter. "Life is one continuous mistake," Shunryi Suzuki Roshi, the founder of the San Francisco Zen Center, used to remind his students. When he shopped he sought out the rattiest vegetables at market, all the discarded and maimed culls, and his meditation grew strong, nourished by the continuous mistakes of human life. My seventh principle is generosity with the harvest. In the biblical book of Leviticus, one of the laws of Jewish life was not to cut the corners of the fields after the main harvest but to leave them standing so there would... posted on Jan 30 2014 (21,055 reads)

has changed, in your mind, about this idea of saving the world? JN: When I first went to Africa, I thought that I was personally going to save the continent, if not the world. The only way we really create change is to enter any situation with the humility to listen and to recognize the world as it is, and then the audacity to dream what it could be, to have the patience to start and let the work teach you, to be willing to lead when you need to lead, and to listen. To have a sense of generosity and empathy, but not over-empathy, because accountability is so critical to building solutions that work. If there’s one value that is immutable, it’s integrity or respect, for ... posted on Feb 6 2014 (22,764 reads)

he ran on something that none of these theories seemed to factor in - an unextinguishable, un-definable and at times irrational value called Faith. At the age of 20, Raghu left home in his village to live a life of contribution. Armed with merely 300 rupees in his pocket, but loads of that faith. Through various serendipitous encounters, he found himself in the eco-system of the Gandhi ashram and eventually serving women and homes in the Slum community. Stories of his journey and acts of generosity are endless. But some of my most transformational moments with him came through the smallest conversations. Often, over the last few years there were times when I'd be feeling scarce. A... posted on Feb 10 2014 (35,751 reads)

good helped him to accept the tough stuff. The argument goes like this: Because life as a whole is as good as it can be, the parts of life are as good as they can be, so we should love, or at least accept, every part of life. But Aurelius took it even one step further, arguing that obstacles are actually our greatest opportunities for growth and advancement. They force us to re-examine our path, find a new way, and ultimately empower ourselves by practicing virtues like patience, generosity and courage. "The impediment to action advances action," he wrote. "What stands in the way becomes the way." There is good in everyone. Aurelius isn't e... posted on Mar 29 2014 (108,047 reads)