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Welcome to the Buddhist Boot Camp Podcast. Our intention is to awaken, enlighten, enrich,

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and inspire a simple and uncomplicated life.

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Discover the benefits of mindful living with your host, Timber Hawkeye. 

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When I asked people online what comes to mind when they think of generosity,

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thousands of people answered, and most of them referenced things

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like generous donations, a generous job offer, or leaving a generous tip at a restaurant.

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All the answers were money-related, and this is why the majority of people wouldn't

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consider themselves generous, having never given a large sum of money to a nonprofit 

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organization, for example, or sponsored the arts in their town with annual contributions.

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It reminded me of a roadblock I encountered when I first tried to raise funds for our

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Books-to-Prisons Program a few years ago. 

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We needed to pay a $40,000 invoice for printing the books in paperback,

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because prisons don't allow hard covers,

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but a week into our campaign, three people donated a hundred dollars each,

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but that was it. Everyone else saw that invoice

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and immediately thought, "Well, I can't pay for that, so don't look at me."

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That's when I decided to change my strategy and simply ask that people donate 

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only one dollar or maybe five dollars at most, and guess what happened?

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Less than 24 hours later, we reached our $40,000 goal. That means almost 40,000

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people had the opportunity to be generous, but by a whole new definition.

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Not by donating a thousand dollars, but with just a buck. I think it was a 

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greater victory than getting 40 people to donate $1,000 each, if that makes sense.

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It was empowering, mind-blowing, and extremely rewarding for everyone involved.

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It got me thinking about how often we undermine our ability to be generous.

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Generosity doesn't have to be monetary. Last month, I received an email from a sound

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engineer in Texas who loves the Buddhist Boot Camp Podcast, but he was bothered 

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by the poor sound quality of the intro and outro tracks of each episode.

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They were recorded a couple of years ago in a parked car by someone who had no idea 

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what they were doing: me.

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He told me that if I send him the audio files, he would clean them up to the best

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of his ability and send them right back to me to use in future episodes.

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It was an extremely generous offer, took him less than ten minutes to complete,

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and he is thrilled to have contributed to a worthy cause in such a meaningful way

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that would go on to benefit many listeners from that day forward.

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We can all be generous with our time, our skills, talent, and even space.

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As many of you know, whenever I travel on a book tour, even when I was on the road for

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three consecutive years across the U.S., UK, and Australia, not once did I stay in a hotel.

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People all over the world offered me their couch to sleep on, or a guest bedroom

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for a night or two. This is how I can continue being generous with my time, for example,

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never charging a speaking fee, making the events free for all, and the proceeds

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from book sales support our Books-to-Prisons and School Program

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so I don't need to run fundraisers anymore.

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You see, we're not talking about one random act of kindness, we're talking about 

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generosity as a sustainable business model. At the time of this recording,

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I'm in a desperate need of a CPA to help with tax filing by the end of the year, for example.

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So if you're a CPA in California, willing to help, please hit me up. What's funny is that

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you wouldn't think this based on what I just shared, but asking for help is way outside of

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my comfort zone even when I really need it.

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But now I know that rejecting people's offer to help robs them of the opportunity

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to be generous. We're all familiar with generous giving, but a friend recently 

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introduced me to the concept of generously receiving. What does that even mean?

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Well, look at the 40,000 people who donated one dollar to help us reach our goal, 

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or all the people who support Buddhist Boot Camp on Patreon so the podcast

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isn't interrupted by commercials for car insurance or whatever.

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You see, Buddhist Boot Camp isn't mine alone; it's ours. We make it work by being generous

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when we share the online posts with others, for example, or donate the book 

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to a local library after you read it.

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When Buddhist Boot Camp was first incorporated in Oregon a few years ago, 

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it was a local attorney who loved my vision statement so much, she offered her services

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for free to set it all up. And there's a woman who attends my monthly discussion circles 

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in California, who always brings fresh fruit from her yard. Do you see what I mean?

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Generosity has many faces. One of the most common requests I get is to offer 

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a Buddhist Boot Camp smartphone App through which people can receive

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daily inspiration, a meditation timer, access to the podcast, blog, video clips, et cetera,

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but I don't know any App developers or programmers who are willing to donate 

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their time and precious skill to create it. Do you? I trust it will happen when all of those

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elements come together. If you have good eyesight, for example, you can read 

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to the blind, or if you have a car, you can offer rides to the elderly so they can get 

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to the grocery store and back. 

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CouchSurfing.com was founded 15 years ago on the simple idea that almost everyone 

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has a couch that sleeps alone in the dark every night, and that couch could be a bed 

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for someone who is traveling the world on a budget for a night or two.

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I've had a wonderful experience as both a guest and a host to Couchsurfers 

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from all over the world when I lived in Hawaii and at the base of Mount Whitney

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in the East Sierras. In fact, just last month, we hosted a Couchsurfer who is a firefighter 

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in France, who took a year and a half off from work to ride a bicycle from South America

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all the way to Canada. When we hosted him, he was already a year and three months 

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into his journey, having clocked more than 20,000 miles on his bike, and just needed 

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a place to stay for the night, a warm shower, and to do his laundry.

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Why in the world would we say No to that?

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What I'm saying is that we need to change the way we think of generosity as a strictly

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financial transaction, and see the numerous ways in which we can enrich the lives

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of others. Doing that automatically enriches our own lives as well!

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One of the oldest Buddhist traditions is one of lay practitioners offering alms to the monks

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who spent all day in meditation in the mountains. The monks would come

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into the village with their bowls, just once a day, to receive whatever the townspeople 

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had to offer; sometimes only the white water saved after washing rice. 

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At the monastery, even today, our meal chant before eating anything includes the phrase 

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"We reflect on our virtue and whether we are worthy of this offering," because as monks,

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we must hold up our end of the deal, so to speak, and stay committed to our practice.

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The lay practitioners and the towns benefited from the wisdom the monks shared,

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and the monks regarded their offering as good medicine to sustain life.

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As the prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi goes: It's in giving that we receive,

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and I truly believe it to be true.

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Start considering yourself generous, and you will find many ways to make it so.

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Never think that the little you have to offer isn't enough, for it's a fortune 

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in the eyes of those who have none.

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Timber Hawkeye is the bestselling author of Faithfully Religionless 

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and Buddhist Boot Camp. 

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For additional information, please visit BuddhistBootCamp.com,

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where you can order autographed books to support the Prison Library Project,

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watch Timber's inspiring TED Talk, and join our monthly mailing list. 

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We hope you have enjoyed this episode, 

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and invite you to subscribe for more thought-provoking discussions.

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Thank you for being a Soldier of Peace in the Army of Love. 🙏🏼