We often compare where we are now to some ideal state and get caught in the painful habit of rejecting our experience. How do we transform this habit in order to come into connection with the truth of the way things are.

Notice how frequently you second-guess your generosity. You may have the desire to be generous but you let it pass without acting. This week act upon any impulse to be generous: if you have the thought to give something to someone, do not delay or second-guess the impulse. Give. Each time you open the Internet this week begin by going to thehungersite.com and offer a free donation to all the similar sites listed on that web page. Say metta phrases to each disadvantaged group as you make the offering. May all being have sufficient food; may all beings be free of breast cancer.... Feel the pain associated with each category of people and wish them well. Explore the relationship between feeling pain for another and generosity. Does the pain motivate you to move towards or away from giving? Notice your meditative posture and see if the chest and shoulders are fully open when you sit. How does your posture affect your mind? As you move through the day notice your posture when you feel selfish or irritable. Notice it when you feel generous and confident. When you feel selfish and closed down to generosity adjust your posture to a more open stance and see if that has any effect on your state of mind.

As long as we are resideing and clinging to the realm of "I","ME","MINE", and other, we are residing somewhere next door to reality & it creates great suffering. We can look into the mirror of the dhamma and see the painful contraction that accompanies"ME"&"MINE"&"THEIR'S" and let go & come to know the truth of interconnectedness & the reality of no separate, no solid, no static "self", and take the great relief & ease in this truth.

Valuing the transformative power of opening to pain, suffering and aversion as a path to complete liberation and compassion.

GM2, MD218

This tape explores an introduction to the different ways that we solidify around our experience that creates the "I, me and mine" that is so painful. It ends with a guided meditation to aid this in being an experiential understanding.

The way out of pain is not in sense pleasure. But suffering can be a ticket to Nibbana – maybe not the one we asked for, but it's in our hands. So we try. Taste the moment just as it is. Choose love when there is every reason to hate. Trust when there is every reason to despair. Be patient when anger is burning within. Faced with terror or far from peace, let go. Being still in the very midst of fear, we can know non-fear. All is fleeting, not what we are, and nothing to hold onto. There, in the silent flow of the breath, the heart will soften in a tender wave of unconditional love.

Reflect on how generosity is related to equality. When you offer a gift to someone you perceive as unequal is that generosity or pity? Feel the difference between these two forms of giving. How does the heart feel and how does the mind hold the offering in a generous act and in pity? When you perceive someone as a human being regardless of their present condition you can only perceive them as equal. When you give to the less fortunate, you are lost in the pain of the circumstances. The generous heart feels that pain but gives to the human being. This week find several occasions to give something away to someone less privileged. Before you do, release the projections and allow equality to surface. One person giving to another. Look the person in the eye when you hand them the gift. Let your heart meet theirs. Feel the humility of true generosity. Feel the joy of release. Notice the qualitative difference between giving with humility and the self-importance of "helping the disadvantaged."

Forgiveness as a practice will often take us to the edge of what we can accept. Drawing upon qualities of lovingkindness, compassion and patience we can learn to open to our deepest pain.

The whole of desire must be understood—what it gives us and its inevitable pain—in order for it to be put to an end.