The Buddha said sangha and spiritual friendship is the holy life. This practice involves learning to experience our own beauty and Buddha nature, and through this, the beauty of others.

looking at our willingness to use everything that comes our way as part of our spiritual practice

We have a tendency to see the world through success-failure, enemy-friend, good-bad. It is also possible to hold, with love, the ambiguity of life and our own ambivalence. Without splitting, we are able to live within the ethical guidelines given by the Buddha’s teachings.

Reflect on how generosity is related to equality. When you offer a gift to someone you perceive as unequal is that generosity or pity? Feel the difference between these two forms of giving. How does the heart feel and how does the mind hold the offering in a generous act and in pity? When you perceive someone as a human being regardless of their present condition you can only perceive them as equal. When you give to the less fortunate, you are lost in the pain of the circumstances. The generous heart feels that pain but gives to the human being. This week find several occasions to give something away to someone less privileged. Before you do, release the projections and allow equality to surface. One person giving to another. Look the person in the eye when you hand them the gift. Let your heart meet theirs. Feel the humility of true generosity. Feel the joy of release. Notice the qualitative difference between giving with humility and the self-importance of "helping the disadvantaged."