Aloha, Noah Markus here!
Greetings from the island paradise of Maui, where I’m one of the extremely lucky people to be attending the 2018 “Open Your Heart in Paradise” Retreat.
As the theme of the retreat is true generosity, I wanted to share some of my experience here with everyone, because it’s a truly amazing place to be. I’m hoping to post something for you every day, including a couple interviews with some of the unique characters we have around here.
If you see this early enough, you also still might have the chance to sign up for the free online retreat experience and catch the wisdom of teachers like Be Here Now Network’s Sharon Salzberg, Jack Kornfield, Joseph Goldstein, and Krishna Das. And, of course, Mr. Ram Dass, also known as the reason we’re all here.
Nuggets of Generosity
As tonight was the opening ceremony, here’s just a few quick hits from the start of the conversation around generosity:
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Ram Dass explored the need to go beyond our roles that we so easily play to the next plane of consciousness, which is the place he calls “Soul Land.” This is the place where true generosity can take place.
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Sharon Salzberg talked about how the best kind of generosity comes from a sense of inner abundance, inner, sufficiency, a true love for oneself (not in any kind of narcissistic way, of course).
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Trudy Goodman talked about developing an inner trust fund of generosity.
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Joseph Goldstein broke things down very simply, saying, “No self, no problem.” This strikes at the very heart of what Ram Dass was saying.
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Finally, Mirabai Bush shared my favorite line of the evening, “Aloha is generosity.” This world is full of so much beauty, so much spirit, how can we not share it all with each other?
On that note, aloha to everyone. We’ll talk again soon…
– Noah Markus
Noah Markus is a contributing writer for the Be Here Now Network. More blogs from Noah: Satsang: A Community of the Heart | Puppy Is My Guru