G

enerosity is often a natural outgrowth of compassion, though the
line between the two can be hard to distinguish. As Jinpa pointed
out, we don’t need to wait until the feelings of compassion arise before
we choose to be generous. Generosity is often something that we learn to
enjoy by doing. It is probably for this reason that charity is prescribed by
almost every religious tradition. It is one of the five pillars of Islam,
called zakat. In Judaism, it is called tzedakah, which literally means
“justice.” In Hinduism and Buddhism, it is called dana. And in
Christianity, it is charity.
Generosity is so important in all of the world’s religions because it no
doubt expresses a fundamental aspect of our interdependence and our
need for one another. Generosity was so important for our survival that
the reward centers of our brain light up as strongly when we give as when
we receive, sometimes even more so. As mentioned earlier, Richard
Davidson and his colleagues have identified that generosity is one of the
four fundamental brain circuits that map with long-term well-being. In
the 2015 World Happiness Report, Davidson and Brianna Schuyler
explained that one of the strongest predictors of well-being worldwide is
the quality of our relationships. Generous, pro-social behavior seems to
strengthen these relationships across cultures. Generosity is even
associated with better health and longer life expectancy. Generosity
seems to be so powerful that, according to researchers David McClelland
and Carol Kirshnit, just thinking about it “significantly increases the
protective antibody salivary immunoglobulin A, a protein used by the
immune system.”
So it seems that money can buy happiness, if we spend it on other
people. Researcher Elizabeth Dunn and her colleagues found that people
experience greater happiness when they spend money on others than
when they spend it on themselves. Dunn also found that older adults with
hypertension have decreased blood pressure when they are assigned to
spend money on others rather than themselves. As the Archbishop had
explained, we receive when we give.