The Pinch of True Giving and Devotion
True giving and devotion require feeling a 'pinch' of discomfort, pushing beyond our comfort zones to genuinely serve God and others, thereby deepening our spirituality and overcoming pride.
Very beautiful. That's why I feel like one of the—maybe an ancient sage or a saint said—he said, if you're giving something and something is not feeling a bit of a pinch, then it's not really giving. Huh? That's a useful thing. That if you're giving something and you're just like, 'I can really do without it, that's why I'm giving,' then it's not really giving. So just push your boundaries little, little, little, little, then your boundaries will expand. You also saying you should be able to feel the pinch, that's the test. What will be given if it was meaningless to us anyway? Then it's not really giving.
That also applies to our time, also applies to our prayer. Yes, yes, yes. Anything we do for God. So that also alludes to everything that we do in the service of God. Alludes to our prayers—it should pinch. We allude to staying in the heart, alludes to gratitude, alludes to meekness, alludes to humbleness, alludes to patience. The pinch—the pinch is our aversion to discomfort. It prevents us from truly ever carrying the cross. So we may be very far from carrying the cross, but at least let's push our boundaries a little bit in service to God.
So what is very useful, this point is very effective to shut the mind off. And the understanding the pinch is necessary. If it is so easy, then there's no way of finding God. But his point is very good. No, I feel like that's great maturity to see that we give that which we don't really care about, and secondly, we feel pride about that. That's a pure one-two punch from the mind, you see? Because you feel like, 'Oh, this means nothing to me, but these poor people, it should matter a lot to them.' This is just so much pride. You must not get stuck in these things. You must learn to see God's light in all our brothers and sisters in the world. Otherwise, our spirituality will get stuck at an intellectual lip service, armchair spirituality, not really deepening in our heart. Our mind will not fully fall into our heart. We will not live in our heart temple if we make these boundaries.
Key Teachings
- True giving involves feeling a 'pinch' or discomfort, pushing beyond what is easy or meaningless to us.
- This principle applies to all acts of service to God, including prayer, gratitude, and humility.
- Our aversion to discomfort (the 'pinch') prevents us from fully serving God and carrying our spiritual 'cross'.
- Giving only what we don't care about, and then feeling proud, is a trap of the mind that hinders genuine spiritual deepening and seeing God in others.
From: You Cannot Be Proud and Love at the Same Time - 25th March 2024