Welcome to the Buddhist Boot Camp Podcast. Our intention is to awaken, enlighten, enrich,
and inspire a simple and uncomplicated life.
Discover the benefits of mindful living with your host, Timber Hawkeye.
When I asked people online what comes to mind when they think of generosity,
thousands of people answered, and most of them referenced things
like generous donations, a generous job offer, or leaving a generous tip at a restaurant.
All the answers were money-related, and this is why the majority of people wouldn't
consider themselves generous, having never given a large sum of money to a nonprofit
organization, for example, or sponsored the arts in their town with annual contributions.
It reminded me of a roadblock I encountered when I first tried to raise funds for our
Books-to-Prisons Program a few years ago.
We needed to pay a $40,000 invoice for printing the books in paperback,
because prisons don't allow hard covers,
but a week into our campaign, three people donated a hundred dollars each,
but that was it. Everyone else saw that invoice
and immediately thought, "Well, I can't pay for that, so don't look at me."
That's when I decided to change my strategy and simply ask that people donate
only one dollar or maybe five dollars at most, and guess what happened?
Less than 24 hours later, we reached our $40,000 goal. That means almost 40,000
people had the opportunity to be generous, but by a whole new definition.
Not by donating a thousand dollars, but with just a buck. I think it was a
greater victory than getting 40 people to donate $1,000 each, if that makes sense.
It was empowering, mind-blowing, and extremely rewarding for everyone involved.
It got me thinking about how often we undermine our ability to be generous.
Generosity doesn't have to be monetary. Last month, I received an email from a sound
engineer in Texas who loves the Buddhist Boot Camp Podcast, but he was bothered
by the poor sound quality of the intro and outro tracks of each episode.
They were recorded a couple of years ago in a parked car by someone who had no idea
what they were doing: me.
He told me that if I send him the audio files, he would clean them up to the best
of his ability and send them right back to me to use in future episodes.
It was an extremely generous offer, took him less than ten minutes to complete,
and he is thrilled to have contributed to a worthy cause in such a meaningful way
that would go on to benefit many listeners from that day forward.
We can all be generous with our time, our skills, talent, and even space.
As many of you know, whenever I travel on a book tour, even when I was on the road for
three consecutive years across the U.S., UK, and Australia, not once did I stay in a hotel.
People all over the world offered me their couch to sleep on, or a guest bedroom
for a night or two. This is how I can continue being generous with my time, for example,
never charging a speaking fee, making the events free for all, and the proceeds
from book sales support our Books-to-Prisons and School Program
so I don't need to run fundraisers anymore.
You see, we're not talking about one random act of kindness, we're talking about
generosity as a sustainable business model. At the time of this recording,
I'm in a desperate need of a CPA to help with tax filing by the end of the year, for example.
So if you're a CPA in California, willing to help, please hit me up. What's funny is that
you wouldn't think this based on what I just shared, but asking for help is way outside of
my comfort zone even when I really need it.
But now I know that rejecting people's offer to help robs them of the opportunity
to be generous. We're all familiar with generous giving, but a friend recently
introduced me to the concept of generously receiving. What does that even mean?
Well, look at the 40,000 people who donated one dollar to help us reach our goal,
or all the people who support Buddhist Boot Camp on Patreon so the podcast
isn't interrupted by commercials for car insurance or whatever.
You see, Buddhist Boot Camp isn't mine alone; it's ours. We make it work by being generous
when we share the online posts with others, for example, or donate the book
to a local library after you read it.
When Buddhist Boot Camp was first incorporated in Oregon a few years ago,
it was a local attorney who loved my vision statement so much, she offered her services
for free to set it all up. And there's a woman who attends my monthly discussion circles
in California, who always brings fresh fruit from her yard. Do you see what I mean?
Generosity has many faces. One of the most common requests I get is to offer
a Buddhist Boot Camp smartphone App through which people can receive
daily inspiration, a meditation timer, access to the podcast, blog, video clips, et cetera,
but I don't know any App developers or programmers who are willing to donate
their time and precious skill to create it. Do you? I trust it will happen when all of those
elements come together. If you have good eyesight, for example, you can read
to the blind, or if you have a car, you can offer rides to the elderly so they can get
to the grocery store and back.
CouchSurfing.com was founded 15 years ago on the simple idea that almost everyone
has a couch that sleeps alone in the dark every night, and that couch could be a bed
for someone who is traveling the world on a budget for a night or two.
I've had a wonderful experience as both a guest and a host to Couchsurfers
from all over the world when I lived in Hawaii and at the base of Mount Whitney
in the East Sierras. In fact, just last month, we hosted a Couchsurfer who is a firefighter
in France, who took a year and a half off from work to ride a bicycle from South America
all the way to Canada. When we hosted him, he was already a year and three months
into his journey, having clocked more than 20,000 miles on his bike, and just needed
a place to stay for the night, a warm shower, and to do his laundry.
Why in the world would we say No to that?
What I'm saying is that we need to change the way we think of generosity as a strictly
financial transaction, and see the numerous ways in which we can enrich the lives
of others. Doing that automatically enriches our own lives as well!
One of the oldest Buddhist traditions is one of lay practitioners offering alms to the monks
who spent all day in meditation in the mountains. The monks would come
into the village with their bowls, just once a day, to receive whatever the townspeople
had to offer; sometimes only the white water saved after washing rice.
At the monastery, even today, our meal chant before eating anything includes the phrase
"We reflect on our virtue and whether we are worthy of this offering," because as monks,
we must hold up our end of the deal, so to speak, and stay committed to our practice.
The lay practitioners and the towns benefited from the wisdom the monks shared,
and the monks regarded their offering as good medicine to sustain life.
As the prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi goes: It's in giving that we receive,
and I truly believe it to be true.
Start considering yourself generous, and you will find many ways to make it so.
Never think that the little you have to offer isn't enough, for it's a fortune
in the eyes of those who have none.
Timber Hawkeye is the bestselling author of Faithfully Religionless
and Buddhist Boot Camp.
For additional information, please visit BuddhistBootCamp.com,
where you can order autographed books to support the Prison Library Project,
watch Timber's inspiring TED Talk, and join our monthly mailing list.
We hope you have enjoyed this episode,
and invite you to subscribe for more thought-provoking discussions.
Thank you for being a Soldier of Peace in the Army of Love. 🙏🏼