Power of generosity and receiving it humbly

Generous giver and humble receiver: While an entire book can be written in this context, this is the most propound of principles one can observe for life. The act of existence includes giving and receiving, be it resources or emotions, words or food, wealth or charity. This is where being a generous giver and a humble receiver will make all the difference to enhancing life purpose and enjoying lasting relationships. Most often than not, we are misers while giving and critical in our acceptance of others generosity.

Consider the simple offer of advice; it is often taken as an unnecessary generosity on the part of the giver simply because the receiver is often not humble enough to receive something offered for free. Even when accepting something against a payment, if the humility within us makes us offer a gratuitous ‘thank you’ to the giver as the source of offering, why shouldn’t we behave the same while being granted free advice?

Practicing being a generous giver and a humble receiver is an uphill task. This is where our sense of entitlement and self-ego makes us unconscious of the giver’s generosity and the taker’s need to bow with humility while accepting the offerings. There are times when the giver becomes too conscious of their capacity to offer and expects a return, turning the act into a transaction rather than an offering. After all, what can we create with all our own generosity without that of Mother earth and fellow humans, plants and animals? We are too incomplete and hence humility is prime to sustain as a species or as an individual. Finally, it also enhances our relationships by making the other person conscious of how generous we are as a giver or our humble nature as a glad receiver even as we accept what we treat as rightfully ours as per legal and social constructs.

Power will be almost always misused: Everyone enjoys power over one’s own choices for actives and electives. In the expression of reputation, creativity, adventure or safety, one uses power without the conscious admission that it would be misused after a point of providing for its basic purpose. Let us understand this from a simpler anecdote; if you have the power to do good to someone, one takes it up so seriously that any counter objection to it would be met with forceful objection. While one may counter that training someone towards adapting or skilling rather than charity to ensure objectivity, our human nature propels us towards doing more than the core purpose and sometimes taking it to the form of activism, aided with the power to do more almost always. When I add the almost always caveat, let me keep it clear that everyone almost always falls into the trap to do more simply because they have the power to do so. People who gain power rarely want to give it up, ending up making promises towards all sort of alternatives rather than giving it up; such is the nature of both kids and emperors.

As they say, success comes to those who know not how to play their hands, but when to quit and move ahead. It is very difficult quitting, because the addiction toward any vice of living combined with the power to continue a bit further is both the disease and its cure.

Consider the power of praise. Praising people for substandard levels across any field of skill or ability makes good shy away from being great. However, the misuse of the power to praise often makes us misuse its core purpose of providing enthusiasm and falseflags’ abilities to underline the full scale of potential.

So here we land at the paradox; on one hand, we are advising being utmost generous; so why not with power of giving or sharing? Well, being generous also means giving those who deserve it and giving what one deserves, not just whatever is available. Within the ability of giving also lies the responsibility of using the power to give away with the knowledge that it contains the judicious understanding of what needs to be given and the quantity of offering to ensure one doesn’t misuse the power of generosity. Add to it the humility of the receiver to accept it as offered by the provider without critical judgment of the time, place and quantity.

That’s for the first part, and let me provide more as we progress digesting this knowledge within ourselves first.