Why I Donate to Charity
Serving others is an essential part of living a purposeful life. That’s why I’m building charitable giving into my business model and donating 10% of my after tax profits to Commit 2 Change, an organization that increases access to women’s education for orphan girls aged 13-18 in India.
How is service related to meditation?
I spent a lot of my life trying to craft “my” life story. What should my story look like? How will it reflect my ambitions? My desires?
To varying degrees, modern western culture conditions us to buy into that narrative. It’s a path that’s quite focused on glorification of the (small) self. That’s a path that’s not likely to lead you to a deep and lasting sense of purpose and happiness and fulfillment.
For the short time that we’re here on earth, we’re not here to perfect ourselves. We’re here to perfect our love.
Meditation can cultivate transformative qualities like love, kindness, joy, compassion, gratitude, and yes: generosity. The more that you give, the more that you will receive.
As the Buddha said: “If you knew what I knew about the power of generosity you would not let a single meal pass without sharing it in some way.”
Regardless of your religious views, generosity is a powerful practice. It’s transformative for the one who offering generosity.
An essential step to living a happy and fulfilling life is moving from a mindset of fear and scarcity to a mentality of love and abundance. All of us, deep down, are searching for love and connection. It’s our tendency to think that we must get love, and the sense of self worth and affirmation that it confers, from external circumstances, whether it be from relationships with other people or through recognition of our accomplishments.
But real love only comes through serving a cause that’s larger than yourself. It is not finite nor is it something that must be acquired from others.
Love is a state of being.
Yes, connection to others is essential. Humans are social primates. But love is something that you can cultivate through practice. Meditation is a powerful tool for tapping into this state of being. But there are other essential practices on the path as well, and two of those are devotion and service.
Service frees you from that small sense of “I”-ness, your ego, that keeps you feeling trapped, that makes you feel you’re unique in either your unworthiness or in your superiority. If either of these (totally normal) feelings morphs into a belief, particularly one that you buy into, then you’re caught in delusion.
All of us are a unique expression of the whole, but we are all part of the human condition and we both take joy in and suffer from a common set of life experiences. None of us are truly separate. Our joy and our suffering is inextricably connected to one another.