Getting is good but giving is greater. “As you give so shall you receive tenfold” is a truism that’s wisely awash throughout all cultures upon the planet!

Giving is about living plentifully. Factually most gift giving will cost you in various combinations of cash, time, and energy. When you give of these good things it confirms in your psyche that you do have a great deal.

Generosity is an affirmation that you exist in manifest wealth which in turn is increasingly experienced as apparent.

The opposite is also true. If you hold to yourself all your resources you’re affirming in your mind an existential poverty. To live in love requires that you give in love. Selfishness reflects an embittered loneliness.

Would you see loved ones struggle whilst you sit upon your treasures? What pleasure is there in gaoling your jewels behind dark lock and key? Surely it’s better to share them so they might more often see the sun?

Keep in mind some errors that could confound your kindness.

One error is giving the shirt off your back and then finding yourself in the cold. If you only have one shirt for your back, don’t give it away!

Another error is giving to a person who won’t appreciate the offering. Saving someone from their opportunity to learn for example, isn’t an act of kindness rather it could reinforce their failure to grow.

Another classic error is in turning a gift into a negotiation by requiring reciprocation. Gifts are by definition free of strings. A gift not given freely is in fact not a gift at all!

This ancient Hindu poem simply sums the idea:

The open handed have the tighter fist:

They take their hoarded merits when they go.

The mean man is your true philanthropist:

When dead, he leaves his total wealth below.

Sudraka (circa 700 AD)

In giving do we greatly get!