T

filled with joy, so that others recognize that caring, that helping and being
generous are not a burden, they are a joy. Give the world your love, your
service, your healing, but you can also give it your joy. This, too, is a
great gift.”

•           •           •

he Archbishop and the Dalai Lama were describing a special kind of
generosity: the generosity of the spirit. The quality they both have,
perhaps more than any other, is this generosity of the spirit. They are big-
hearted, magnanimous, tolerant, broad-minded, patient, forgiving, and
kind. Maybe this generosity of the spirit is the truest expression of
spiritual development, of what the Archbishop had said it takes time to
become.
The Archbishop had used a beautiful phrase to describe this way of
being in the world: “becoming an oasis of peace, a pool of serenity that
ripples out to all of those around us.” When we have a generous spirit, we
are easy to be with and fun to be with. We radiate happiness, and our very
company can bring joy to others. This no doubt goes hand in hand with
the ability, as the Archbishop had pointed out repeatedly, to be less self-
centered, less self-regarding, and more self-forgetful. Then we are less
burdened by our self-agenda: We do not have anything to prove. We do
not need to be seen in a particular way. We can have less pretension and
more openness, more honesty. This naturally brings ease to those around
us, too; as we have accepted ourselves, our vulnerabilities, and our
humanity, we can accept the humanity of others. We can have
compassion for our faults and have compassion for those of others. We
can be generous and give our joy to others. In many ways, it is like the
Buddhist practice of tonglen, which the Dalai Lama had used on the day
he found out about the uprising and brutal crackdown in Tibet. We can
take in the suffering of others and give them back our joy.
When we practice a generosity of spirit, we are in many ways
practicing all the other pillars of joy. In generosity, there is a wider
perspective, in which we see our connection to all others. There is a