Text below is provisional

Welcome to our Dana bowl

What’s Dana? It’s a Pali word, the language of the Buddha, for the practice of generosity, for giving. By learning to give, to let go of what we think of as ours and to offer to others, we weaken our identification with self and strengthen our practice. When you do, completely let go of whatever you are giving. Make sure there are no strings or expectations attached. It’s a practice we should develop in many forms, practising it readily, easily and frequently.

Dana can take many forms. In the right circumstances a smile is dana. Providing a needed service to someone is dana. A gift of money, food or shelter is dana. As in all things Buddhist, dana must be practised in the “middle way”, not going to extremes of too much or too little. You know you’ve given enough when giving up something pinches a little.

We do appreciate your gifts of service. Currently we need help with the graphic design and art for this site and we need help with its underlying coding. Contact us here about gifts of service.

Preparing and maintaining this site is very time consuming. Your gifts of money help with computers, software, books, service fees and give us more time to devote to the site’s creation. The decision on how much or how often to give (or not at all) is entirely yours.

Currently we accept credit cards via PayPal. (We plan on offering other options eventually.) Click on the PayPal icon to sign in to PayPal, and if you don’t have a PayPal account you will be prompted through the simple process to quickly create one. Your comments are most welcome.

PayPal icons (to come)

To be in a state of generosity is rewarding.

American novelist John Steinbeck made these observations on the dynamics of giving and its mate, receiving:

“Perhaps the most overrated virtue in our list of shoddy virtues is that of giving. Giving builds up the ego of the giver, makes him superior and higher and larger than the receiver… It is so easy to give, so exquisitely rewarding. Receiving, on the other hand, if it is well-done, requires a fine balance of self-knowledge and kindness. It requires humility and tact and great understanding of relationships. In receiving, you cannot appear, even to yourself, better or stronger or wiser than the giver, although you must be wiser to do it well.

“It requires self-esteem to receive — not self-love but just a pleasant acquaintance and liking for oneself.”1

Much metta.

1. John Steinbeck, The Log from the Sea of Cortez, Appendix, “About Ed Ricketts”, Penguin Books, 1951, pp. 272-3