The concept of generosity. What is the generosity of the soul? "Attraction of unheard of generosity"

Generosity- the property of the generous; significant, extensive financial assistance, gift.

Generosity- a quality denoting a morally perfect measure in the treatment of personal property that is of value to others.
Dictionary of modern Russian literary language

Stinginess | total lack of generosity.

Generosity

Extravagance | an unnecessary excess of generosity, bordering on disrespect for oneself.

Popular expressions about generosity

Generosity knows no bounds. - Cicero - A generous person is one who gives the right person the right thing at the right time. - Aristotle - One should be respected who is generous, not the one who can be generous. - Machiavelli - Generosity, especially when accompanied by humility, wins hearts. - Goethe - Income makes a person generous. - Persian proverb - Nikolaeva I., Karnachuk N. / The culture of the chivalrous environment"Wealth and generosity in the mind of a knight" - a chapter from the book, recommended for study. You will learn that even feasts and the rich decoration of castles were a reflection of the virtue of generosity, which prescribes wastefulness and obligatory periods of asceticism, abstinence. Jean Flory / Daily life of knights in the Middle Ages A curious book that destroys the myth of ideal, virtuous chivalry, plunges the reader into the prose of medieval life, in order to then ... bring him to the level of conscious admiration for the real life exploits of people who despised power and wealth for the sake of spiritual ideals.

Generosity is something that is remembered forever. The one who was treated generously will remember this for the rest of his life. And remember with the same surprise, and sometimes with tears: it happens! This is rare. The world of everyday life is very far from generosity.

In everyday life, other things are at work: an exchange, not a gift; caution, not self-forgetfulness; sober calculation and thought about the consequences (so I will give him this, and what will he do with it? or: what will I have left?); a sense of duty, not a sense of beauty; a relationship of power-submission, or equality with others, rather than sudden intimacy and a feeling of instant omnipotence. Ordinary is governed by the law of self-preservation, and generosity is not afraid to lose and forget. “It is very common for a generous person to even go beyond the limit in giving, so that he leaves less for himself [than he should]. The fact is that not taking oneself into account is the property of a generous person, ”says Aristotle (“Nicomachean Ethics”).

In generosity - the immortality of this, only this moment, as if no other will follow it.

Like a man came out
And he took out and opened the ark,
And he gave everything to the thread.
(B.Pasternak)

Generosity is joyful. He who gives without joy is not generous. “The one who, while giving, suffers does not deserve this name. After all, he would willingly prefer property to a fine deed, but this is alien to a generous one ”(Aristotle).

The ability to give joyfully, carelessly, and free of charge is not an ordinary virtue. This is a holiday in the midst of everyday life. Generosity appears in our world as a reminder of a completely different world.

The soul of generosity is freedom and courage. Only a free man can be generous. latin liberalis means both "free from birth" and "generous". The Greek name for generosity is also associated with nobility, that is, innate freedom. And a completely free person is rare. We can be generous by inspiration. Because of compassion. Because of love. Because of some kind of self-incomprehensible insight. Because of joy, finally, as in The Tale of Tsar Saltan:

Such a king for joy
He sent all three home.
(All three - the villain, the weaver with the cook and the matchmaker, the woman Babarikha, who, in fairness, would have expected a fair punishment).

Generosity is usually contrasted with stinginess. But in itself this opposition is not very interesting. In the "Nicomachean Ethics" of Aristotle, which we have already recalled and which has become the basis of European ethics for centuries, stinginess is opposed to extravagance, wastefulness: these are two polar deviations from the "golden mean" of generosity. In Dante's "Hell" misers and spendthrifts serve their sentences in the same circle.

But it is worth noting that Aristotle's golden mean is not fifty-fifty, not half by half. The distance from generosity in two directions, to avarice and to wastefulness is different: a spender can still improve and become generous, he simply does not have enough intelligence for this, but a miser is incurable, he will never become generous. “Mot is much better than a miser,” says Aristotle, “and because his nature, unlike a miser, is noble, and because he helps many, while a miser helps no one, even himself.”

Aristotle thought about generosity, the virtue of giving, only in relation to property, material things. But that's not all generosity.

In Church Slavonic, “generous” means “merciful”, “sparing” (“Generous and merciful is the Lord,” as the psalms say many times). “Generate” means “to spare”, “to pardon”; "bounties" - "merciful gifts." Mercy and generosity are almost one in the Bible. Only God is truly generous (merciful). But a person is also prescribed to be generous, to see the world with a “generous eye”. Already the Old Testament considers only a gift that is given with joy, without the slightest doubt and calculation, without expectation of retribution, “quietly” as a real gift. The New Testament is even more categorical: “God loves the quiet giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7) – “God loves the one who gives with joy.”

If someone gives someone something (not necessarily material: his time, patience, indulgence, etc.), and gives in a huge amount - but at least once the thought will come to his mind that the one he gives , I should be grateful to him for this - he is not generous. He essentially takes away what he gives.

It takes away both from the one to whom it gives, and from oneself, because a person is happy when he can give “just like that”: he does it not for something else, not for praise and not for gratitude. Gratitude is a great thing, but like generosity, it also belongs to freedom. Forcing gratitude is ugly.

Where do we say - generous? Where they give more than we can expect, more than they ask:

You give more than they ask. -
it's Pasternak again. I think no other Russian poet has spoken so much about generosity. This is a special gift of Pasternak, noticed by another poet:

He is rewarded with some kind of eternal childhood,
With that generosity and vigilance of the luminaries ...
(Anna Akhmatova)

Generosity is most naturally associated with the luminaries, with the sun, which shines "on the right and the wrong." With gushing springs, abundant springs... There is no stinginess in what we call nature. I think that generosity is the native element of creativity. Great music, great poetry and painting not only tell us about generosity - they themselves show it. It is always "more than asked", always some kind of unexpected, undeserved gift.

So, generosity is a gift to give without any regard. To give not only material objects, but also something more important: forgiveness, participation, even one's own life. This gift can suddenly overshadow a greedy and heartless person, as it is told in L. Tolstoy's amazing story "The Master and the Worker".

The best story in the world about generosity - and how the world will not necessarily understand and approve of it - is the gospel story of a certain woman who anointed Christ with precious incense. All four evangelists relate this story, differing in details. I will paraphrase John's version (John 12:3-8). It takes place in Bethany, on the eve of the suffering and execution of Christ. Maria, the sister of Lazarus (in other versions, a nameless sinner), having bought precious ointment, poured it on the feet of the Savior (according to other versions, on her head) and wiped her feet with her hair. This aroused the indignation of Judas (among other evangelical disciples): why spend myrrh, which can be sold for three hundred denarii (a huge amount) and distributed to the poor?

Reasonable, although quite "virtuous" and "altruistic" (concern for the poor) ordinary morality. The Lord rejects her. He explains this action as prophetic: a woman anoints him before death and burial (according to the custom of those times, the dead were anointed with incense). Moreover, he promises the woman who committed this unreasonable waste - the only person in all the gospel narratives - no more, no less, than that she will forever enter into the good news itself: “Truly I say to you: wherever this gospel will be preached in general world, it will be said in her memory and what she did” (Mt. 26:13; Mk. 14:9). She fulfilled the commandment of generosity. Aimless and unreasonable generosity has its own purpose and its own wisdom.

And finally, I will tell you a very small incident. One day in the Roman square I saw an old man selling beautiful pears. "How much are?" I asked. The old peasant looked into the distance and said: “Life is short. Take it, daughter, so.

I started by saying that generosity, like genius, is rare in the human world. But the human heart will never stop admiring its beauty. Freedom from fear, heartlessness and mental pettiness.

What is generosity?

Generosity is our attention and desire to help other people, this is the intention to do something for another disinterestedly, this is a kind heart, this is the desire to give gifts and please.

In other words, this mood to give something to others, this is abundance. What is a scarcity mentality? This is when I have the feeling that everyone owes me - my relatives, my friends, partners, my state. I noticed one interesting relationship: people who have freedom in money are often generous, they are open. They are ready to listen to you, to help you disinterestedly. Give a ride, for example, somewhere without taking money from you. They are financially free.

People, who do not have freedom in money, believe that someone did not give them everything, everyone owes them. Such a profound deficit. They live in constant stress about money and have financial problems. Therefore, we must decide what we want for ourselves. If we want abundance, we must become generous. But, you need to remember that when the money starts to come, this generosity must be confirmed. And one of the important principles here is the principle of religious tithing.

When money appears, part of it must be invested in charity. If you don't have money and you can't help financially, the main thing is to have this intention to be generous. After all, generosity can be in small gifts, and in our words, and in timely support. When real material strength has appeared, generosity must also be shown at this stage, otherwise it will be hypocrisy on our part. I'm generous, but no, no, not in money. In other words, charity is a very important principle.

If you want to purify this whole situation energetically and strengthen it, these pure, selfless projects are absolutely necessary. Just support something without expecting anything in return. It's just your contribution. So there are two types of people. There are generous people and there are stingy people. In this case, we will make a classification of all living beings on the topic "Prosperity". What is the personal situation of generous people and the personal situation of stingy people? We are interested in the karmic plan of the situation.

So generous people fall into two categories.

• First- these are people who do not have much wealth, but money comes to them by itself, and we can notice it. A person lives in his niche, not really worrying about the material, but still he has everything he needs. There is some support of the universe. And there is a second category of generous people - this is great wealth. By the way, I want to draw your attention to the root of this word - "God". The energy of money is divine energy, it comes from God. If we do not learn to build relationships with God, with the Higher Principle, the energy of wealth will never come to us. This is one scenario.

• Second scenario- if she comes, then instead of bringing us joy, she will destroy our life. Because we are trying to exploit energy that does not belong to us. We need to build a relationship with the Higher through pure motivation, through service to others. Only with these ingredients comes great wealth. Now consider stingy people. We see two situations. The first is just poor people. They carry a scarcity mentality. They are in the position of the victim, they blame everyone, they are dissatisfied with everyone, they envy everyone. This mood is such a deep resentment towards life. And the second situation is rich people, but they destroy their connection with the energy of prosperity. This is a kind of subtle karmic reaction, which outwardly we may not notice. Just little by little, not right away.

Wealth can even accumulate, but on the subtle plane there will be a different trend. Their wealth is simply like the inertia of past merits, their former piety. But their stinginess, their egoism and desire to exploit others, it consistently destroys this situation of abundance more and more on the inner plane. I have already talked about this scenario. Such people will inevitably suffer financial ruin and get poverty in the next life. Therefore, do not be deceived by their external well-being. If a person does not reconsider his consciousness, he will simply destroy his well-being.

That's the whole karmic scheme. And I would like to say why there are people who are generous, but not rich. This is a very interesting point. It all really depends on the level of desire. If you carefully analyze the lives of these people, you will notice that they simply do not want wealth. Those. from a karmic point of view, they may have wealth, but they simply do not want it. Or another situation is a reaction for some impious deeds. But by practicing generosity, they overcome these reactions, thus redeeming their past. After some time, this situation will be updated. And their karmic limitation in finances will disappear.

I want to tell you the example of one of my acquaintances, a female psychologist from Kazakhstan. She did an analysis of her customers and discovered one interesting trend. Several directors of very large enterprises in Kazakhstan, whom she consulted and knew their biographies, changed their level of wealth by changing their intention regarding money. In Soviet times, they were simple engineers in institutes, many of them were very pious people, they helped their friends, met guests, but, nevertheless, they did not have much wealth.

As much as was needed, as much came, but they never aspired to big money. Then perestroika, the collapse of the Soviet system, all these research institutes fall apart, nobody needs these engineers. And they understand that families need to be protected, and they go into business. And within a year or a year and a half, each of them is promoted to the head of a large enterprise. Those. at first the situation was when there were no special desires for wealth. But the external situation changes and they change their intention, they decide that this is necessary, and see how quickly this karmic potential that has been accumulated in their consciousness immediately manifests itself. Just a desire and immediately all this is manifested.

Generosity is the basis of prosperity. This is what we talked about today.

Oleg Gadetsky

Add to favourites

Generosity is a property of character and the ability to absolutely disinterestedly share with other people, their material wealth, abilities, knowledge, spiritual strength.

Generosity is a complete denial of selfishness confirmed by actions, deeds and thoughts. Sharing with others means that a generous person also needed it, but he gladly gave it to people. If a person gave worn-out things and old toys of his child to the children of a beggar, this, of course, cannot be called generosity and mercy or sacrifice.

Generosity always comes from an attitude and a desire to make other people a little happier.

In this quality, the desire to live is manifested not from a position only for oneself, but from a position of true love - for others.

Generosity is a form of kindness where a person does not expect a reward. This is a manifestation of the breadth of the soul and self-enrichment of the soul. She does not need a reward, honors, gratitude and appreciation.

If a person generously endows an orphanage, it means that he considers it important and necessary, shows respect for him.

Any pomposity, pretentiousness, self-promotion, arrogance, narcissism, a sense of superiority over others and publicity indicate the absence of this quality in human actions and is called sponsorship or commerce. In such conditional generosity, there is only one and.

Generosity is always accompanied by other qualities of character - modesty, generosity and humility.

“Generosity,” wrote Johann Goethe, “especially when accompanied by humility, wins hearts. Giving and feeling the joy of giving is the best characteristic of generosity.

Often people say that if they had a lot of money, they would be generous - this is a delusion. Generosity must be shown real, not possible generosity.

The possession of a large bank account and the desire to transfer money from it to the needs of other people do not have an intersection point. Generosity grows out of the breadth and richness of the soul, and not from additional income to the account. Timely small generosity is more expensive than a large, but belated one. Generosity is only true generosity when the one who manifests it observes three conditions:

The first condition is to give without thinking about your generosity.

The second condition is to be patient.

The third is not to harbor suspicions in your soul.

Generous people are ready to give other people, not only some material wealth, but also their time and energy.

There are people who feel out of place when other people live worse than them. Generosity cannot be hidden, it sends invisible signals to everyone who meets it.

Generosity, like a magnet, attracts people to itself, causing trust and a desire to cooperate. Therefore, generosity has a rich circle of acquaintances. Generosity can come to a millionaire, and he will gladly cooperate with it. With whom you will lead, that and you will type. Generosity easily becomes a millionaire.

In other words, a high level of generosity is a high level of wealth and business, a low level of generosity is a low level of wealth and business. The unshakable conviction of generosity in the abundance of the universe makes it rich.

It is no coincidence that such an opinion is widespread that a person gives from his generosity. A poor person is convinced of the limitations of goods, he is not inclined to share with other people, and therefore he is poor. By showing generosity, a person is open to receiving from the Universe whatever he wants.

He says to himself: “I am open and receptive to all the blessings that the Universe gives me. I am worthy of wealth and allow only health, love and prosperity into my life. Giving with ease, he receives even more. Try to show real, sincere generosity from the heart!

There is a law of the universe - what you give is what you get. Generosity has complete order with income and expenditure. Imbalance temporarily arises only when generosity receives more than it gave.

And you can’t reduce everything to money, because generosity gives a feeling of spiritual wealth, gives a feeling of closeness to the spiritual world or faith in God. Generosity by its actions affirms the truth that a person is not just a body, but an eternal spiritual entity.

Generosity, an undeniably positive quality inherent in a person, is quite often perceived one-sidedly: the more material goods donated, the more generous the soul. In fact, the essence of this concept is much more multifaceted.

Too many people understand the meaning of real generosity rather superficially. At the heart of sometimes senseless wastefulness and ostentatious "breadth of the soul" are very banal desires - to be the center of attention and receive false sympathy from others. But just as much as such generosity is insincere, so hypocritical

The love of those around.

In fact, a person who lives for show and distributes benefits left and right may well turn out to be petty and quarrelsome. Covering his shortcomings with unprecedented generosity, he does not correct them, but only aggravates them with falsehood and duplicity. Sooner or later, the falsity of such behavior will become obvious, and then nothing will be able to restore trust, without which it is extremely difficult to exist in society.

However, real generosity does not come from the wallet, it is born in the soul and with a good heart gives others warmth and joy. This generosity is very valuable, it is able to tell about nobility and sincerity.

Human soul. Such people give their attention and help, not expecting words of gratitude and admiration in return.

Perhaps not everyone can do this. It may not be easy to do so. But everything can be achieved if there is a desire and desire to improve oneself. And you need to start small - learn to respect others, be attentive, sincerely delve into their problems, honestly try to help as much as you can, do not forget about charity and mercy. Yes, just start loving the people around you. Let not everything work out right away, but it is necessary to start, at least from a small one.

Generosity is, first of all, opposition to one's own egoism, the ability to share not only the wealth of one's soul, but also what, perhaps, oneself needs. One of the best moral qualities that can give confidence and a sense of self-sufficiency to a truly generous person.

Essays on topics:

1. Many people think about the question of what happiness is. Philosophers of antiquity spoke and wrote about happiness. But before...
2. In my opinion, courage is the presence of mind in any situation, the courage and courage inherent in a person. It's also about courage...
3. Goncharov's socio-psychological novel "Oblomov" was created in the second half of the 19th century and reflects the social life of that era, however, the problems raised by the author...
4. The poem “To the Poet” is a kind of declaration of poetic creativity, an appeal to the poet as a painter of human passions. You should be proud...