A talk focused on Dana Parami and its role in recognizing Nibbana. The discussion highlighted the importance of removing obscurations to reveal awareness, wisdom, and love. Devon explained how Paramis helped clear the way and emphasized the interdependence of giving and receiving. Practical aspects of generosity were addressed, including maintaining healthy boundaries and understanding motivations. Personal stories and reflections were shared to illustrate different types of giving and the long-term benefits of a generous mindset. Devon encouraged participants to practice generosity in daily life and highlighted the profound impact of living with an open heart.

Having achieved some calm, where do we go from there? Seeking experience is a matter for the measuring mind. This mind doesn’t experience fulfilment. Attuning to the heart, there is access to the richness of a generosity and a virtue that doesn’t need a point. It is innately enjoyable and frees us from measurement.

Looking at the common tendency to turn regular practice into a duty or chore, and the importance of appreciating the benefits that come from meditation using the criteria of the ten pāramī ie generosity, ethical integrity, renunciation, wisdom, energy, patience, truthfulness, resolve and determination, mettā and equanimity

Dana and Caga: how the quality of generosity can be seen to underlie the whole of our practice

How does the parami of generosity relate to our meditation?

"Your liberation is bound up with mine. Let us work together" and other thoughts on reciprocity.

The human realm is ever fraught with greed and delusion, conflicted and loud in its extremes. These violations are just that – destroyers of our spiritual verve. As pilgrims of peace, we disarm them in the interior silence of the heart. Courageous, we stand our moral ground, resolved to hold the bar. Our faith, generosity and discernment rescue us from the flames of sensory fears and infatuations. There is giving up and letting go but the Buddha’s promise is true. Where kindness and compassion prevail, the heart knows unshakeable peace.