“Dana” is a Pali word that means “generosity.” Dana is the first one of the virtues, or perfections, that are known as the “Paramitas” in Buddhism. Dana is key to helping us release our attachments.
We all have something in common – we have chosen to heal from a toxic and limiting set of beliefs and values that were centered around “what is in it for me?” We are moving from a state of attachment and hoarding to an inner sense of abundance and trust. We recognize that selfless giving of our time, energy, and resources, instead of depleting us, actually fills us up and adds tremendous value and meaning to our lives.
The final sentence in the chapter of our book titled Service and Generosity (p. 67) reads: “What we learn as we continue to work with generosity is that the inner practice of recognizing the emptiness of our attachments and building up resilience is one and the same as the outer practice of giving and service.” One begets the other, and vice versa. There is no distinction between them. This is vital to our recovery!
How You Can Practice Dana
Our Chicago Intersangha has many opportunities for practicing Dana. If you are interested in helping our Treasurer with managing our intersangha’s Dana, contact Dan at daniel.ware@gmail.com.
At our June 2022 Intersangha meeting our Treasurer, Dan W., highlighted the fact that expenses for maintaining the website, Zoom accounts, donations of books to recovery facilities, and other ongoing commitments have been exceeding donations so far this year.
A New (and Easy!) Way to Donate
We encourage everyone to consider making a financial contribution as part of your regular Dana practice. The most cost-effective way to donate (because no fees are involved) is to use Zelle to zip your contribution from your bank account directly to ours. Use the email address: recoverydharmachicago@gmail.com. (Meeting facilitators: Please let your sangha know about this simple new option.) You can also use the “Donate” link on our local website. Donations through our website go through PayPal, which does deduct a transaction fee. To make sure we receive every penny of your Dana, please use Zelle.
At some point in July the Treasurer will create a report of financial activities for the first six months of 2022. Let’s see if we can erase the red ink by the end of this month!
Look for additional posts in the coming weeks about service opportunities in the Wise Speech (communications), Unity (events), and Outreach working groups that were highlighted during our Intersangha meeting. Thank you all for your service.
