Give & Take

Give & Take
The Spiritual High

Autumn is the season for gathering and storing, collecting and hoarding, yet this is only intended in the most practical sense. Food and shelter being top of the list.

These days everyone is an economics expert, a financial whizz kid and a value for money bargain junkie. When we give of our hard earned currency we expect to receive. Two for the price of one, goody bags, bargain rails and endless sales overwhelm the consumer landscape. The people skills of customer service, sports and social events and education also have a value. We expect to be waited upon, served, amused, entertained, enlightened and educated. Often we expect to receive all of these simultaneously.

Corporate giants so confident in their product and services promote themselves as ‘exceeding our expectations’. We have learned to be a culture of expectant takers. Even in our quest for spiritual enlightenment we are waiting for the presenter’s magic tricks. The quick fix answers to all our deepest darkest questions on the meaning of life. The spiritual event thus becomes a quest to uncover the ‘added value’.

The spiritual equation is in fact a much more simple formula than that:
Give = Receive

In our conditioning of ‘more is more’ and ‘buy now pay later’ we have lost the currency of the heart. The sharing of hearts and minds is the true priceless riches in life. We give of ourselves, openly and honestly. Attending a prayer meeting , a satsang, a music concert or cultural event is enriched by our own participation. Joining the spiritual, emotional and mental conversation rather than standing by as disappointed customers. In the melodic lyrics of the great Lou Reid ‘you’re gonna reap just what you sow’. True enlightenment is about what we scatter not what we hoard.


Patricia Murphy
nutrishon@gmail.com
086 6482651