..续本文上一页And many people with a lot of material wealth are extremely poor. The ones who never have enough: they”re the ones who always need more security, always need more to stash away. Those are the people who have to build walls around their houses, who have to live in gated communities for fear that other people will take away what they”ve got. That”s a very poor kind of life, a confined kind of life. But as you practice generosity, you realize that you can get by on less, and that there is a pleasure that comes with giving to people. Right there is a sense of wealth. You have more than enough.

　　At the same time you break down barriers. Monetary transactions create barriers. Somebody hands you something, you have to hand them money back, so there”s a barrier right there. Otherwise, if you didn”t pay, the object wouldn”t come to you. But if something is freely given, it breaks down a barrier. You become part of that person”s extended family. In Thailand the terms of address that monks use with their lay supporters are the same they use with relatives. The gift of support creates a sense of relatedness. The monastery where I stayed—and this includes the lay supporters as well as the monks—was like a large extended family. This is true of many of the monasteries in Thailand. There”s a sense of relatedness, a lack of boundary.

　　We hear so much of the talk on “interconnectedness.” Many times it”s explained in terms of the teaching on Dependent Co-arising, which is really an inappropriate use of the teaching. Dependent Co-arising teaches the connectedness of ignorance to suffering, the connectedness of craving to suffering. That”s a connectedness within the mind, and it”s a connectedness that we want to cut, because it keeps suffering going on and on and on, over and over again, in many, many cycles. But there”s another kind of connectedness, an intentional connectedness, which comes through our actions. These are karma connections. Now, we in the West often have problems with the teachings on karma, which may be why we want the teachings on connectedness without the karma and so go looking elsewhere in the Buddha”s teachings to find a rationale, or a basis for a teaching on connectedness. But the real basis for a sense of connectedness comes through karma. When you interact with another person, a connection is made.

　　Now it can be a positive or a negative connection, depending on the intention. With generosity you create a positive connection, a helpful connection, a connection where you”re glad that the boundary is down. A connection where good things can flow back and forth. If it”s unskillful karma, you”re creating a connection where you don”t really want it. You create an opening that sooner or later you”re going to regret. There”s a saying in the Dhammapada that a hand without a wound can hold poison and not be harmed. In other words, if you don”t have any bad karma, then the results of bad karma won”t come to you. But if you have a wound in the hand, then if you hold poison you”re going to be killed. The poison will seep through the wound. Unskillful karma is just that, a wound. It”s an opening for poisonous things to come in. The opposite principle also works. If there”s a connection of skillful behavior, a good connection is formed. This sort of positive connection starts with generosity, and then with the gift of virtue. As the Buddha said, when you hold to your precepts no matter what happens, it”s a gift of security to all beings. You give unlimited security to everyone, and so you have share in that unlimited security as well.

　　With the gift of meditation, you protect other people from the effects of your greed, anger, and delusion. And you get protected as well. So this is what generosity does. It makes your mind more spacious …

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