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Tara Brach

Gratitude and Generosity - Markings of Inner Freedom

Tara Brach

Tara Brach

Tara, Dharma, Selfhelp, Talks, Spiritual, Buddhist, Insight, Audio, Tarabrach, Mindfulness, Rain, Psychology, Compassion, Vipassana, Health & Fitness, Mental Health, Meditation, Guided, Brach, Buddhism, Religion & Spirituality

4.810.6K Ratings

🗓️ 21 November 2012

⏱️ 61 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

2012-11-21 - Gratitude and Generosity - Markings of Inner Freedom - Those who are genuinely happy, are also naturally grateful for life and generous in living. This Thanksgiving Eve talk explores key ways we block the arising of gratitude and generosity, and practices of mindful presence and direct cultivation that awaken these expressions of the liberated heart. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

Transcript

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0:00.0

One of the rituals of having a Wenzheni class each year is that we get to have a Thanksgiving

0:22.9

Eve kind of gathering here. And in this season the culture's sensitivities are a little

0:32.2

heightened to the qualities of heart. There's a little more of a tendency to remember, oh, it matters

0:39.4

to be giving, it matters to be grateful. So in the spirit of this season tonight will be exploring

0:46.1

gratitude and generosity. And I'd like to begin with a story that I read in a book called Tatus of the

0:57.0

Heart. And this is Gregory Boyle. He's a Catholic pastor of a church in an area most concentrated area in

1:06.2

LA for gang violence. And he's done miraculous things in terms of setting up business for the

1:13.0

homies, which are the younger people in these gangs and so on. And one of the stories he tells is

1:20.6

of the church they have there which became declared itself a sanctuary church in 1987. And it began

1:28.0

to house about 100 homeless people a night. And the challenge was that the next day people come to

1:36.0

the church and they start grumbling about the smell that was there. And they started talking about

1:40.3

church elsewhere. And they did everything they could. You know, they sprinkled and they put,

1:45.7

I love my carpet on all the rugs and potpourri and airwik around. But you know, 100 guys is a lot of

1:51.9

guys. So they decided, Gregory decided to address the discontent and a sermon and I want to tell you

1:59.2

what happened because I think it was so cool. So he said right out front, he says, okay, so what is

2:05.9

this church smell like? And of course the people were mortified and they didn't answer. And finally

2:11.4

someone booms out, it smells like feet. And he asked them, why does it smell like feet response?

2:19.5

Because many homeless men slept here last night. And he asked, well, why do we let that happen?

2:26.5

Then the response was, it's what we've committed to do. Well, why would anyone commit to do that?

2:34.0

Response, purge, es, lo que, haria, jesu. It's what Jesus would do. Forgive my way of speaking on this.

2:41.6

Not good accent. Well, then what does the church smell like now? A man stands and bellows.

2:47.7

It smells like commitment. The place cheers. The woman waves their arms wildly.

...

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