"The real issue in life is not how many blessings we have, but what we do with our blessings. Some people have many blessings and hoard them. Some have few and give everything away."

Fred Rogers

We typically understand generosity through giving material things. Especially at this time of year, many people follow cultural, spiritual and family traditions of gift giving or donating money to the requests from those organizations and causes that we hold dear. Sometimes these gifting traditions can leave us feeling a little overwhelmed. There can be a sense that there's not enough to go around - the feeling of scarcity.

But we can remember that without that pressure, as Sharon Salzberg reminds us, "generosity allies itself with an inner feeling of abundance — the feeling that we have enough to share.” So, how do we keep our hearts open in times when there are more competing priorities? One way the Buddhist teachings provide guidance comes from the Five Precepts. Those teachings speak to not harming others, not taking what is not given freely, avoiding sexual misconduct, not lying but being wise with our speech and not misusing mind-altering substances. Using these guiding principles, we can be open-hearted and know we are being authentically generous because we are not contributing to the fear and suffering of others or ourselves.

True generosity is spontaneous and expects nothing in return, and in this way we can look at it as the epitome of "letting go." If we attach conditions to our generosity, our underlying motivations will reveal that we are still attached and clinging to the gift itself. But, when we can remember there is abundance and that everything comes and goes, we can let go and share with gratitude and joy.

Another important way we can give from our generous and open heart is to respond skillfully when we are the recipient of kindnesses from others. We can remember that we are being generous when we don't deny anyone the opportunity of sharing their own open heart.