As you give you are cause, but if you refuse to be an effect, to never receive, then your giving will be out of balance and you won’t create. To reject a gift is to reject the giver, and the giver is the source. Even if you don’t want to be spiritual about it, it’s just bad business. It makes the giver feel unimportant, and it degrades the one who won’t receive.
A receiver can feel shame if he has nothing to give in return? There is no such thing. By permitting another to do the desired action of giving, they are giving also.
We likely all know at least one martyr, and one miser. In the case of a miser who seeks mostly to obtain and not give, their efforts create imbalance. Our current financial crisis is because of it. The one who cannot give will not be able to keep, circumstances will deplete them. In the case of the martyr, the one who gives but will not receive, they give for no purpose. No one is strengthened, and they merely create a vacuum that depletes not only them but those they give to. If they had the respect they desire, they would respect what they are given in return also. Ever try to help a martyr? It is impossible and depleting. Did their sacrifices actually help you?
Now there are unusual people, and they aren’t martyrs. They tend to be elderly. The benign old granny who is quite happy, but keeps busy doing things for people. Do they seem to be tired or bitter at all? They have discovered they don’t need all that stuff. Yet if a little child gives them a flower, of if a younger adult gives them food or other support do they reject it? If yes, it then raises the question of “Are they happy?” Because to reject gifts implies a negative attitude, and stress related illnesses are the biggest scourge of even our elder citizenry. But it is possible to be a giver in balance.
Giving makes an elderly person feel useful as well? If they let it make them feel that way, some don’t.
I think you can give without receiving if the receiver of the gift welcomes it? Without receiving what giving has value? Is that noble? Is that moral or superior? Perhaps something to think about, what can honestly be earned? What can really be deserved? Is the monk or nun the only person of spiritual worth?
Giving without creating guilt is simple, give what you want to see in the world. If you want to see more love in the world, hug someone. Want to see more imagination, share your imagination with another. As Christians often say, some of Gods greatest gifts are unanswered prayers. You can give by not supporting disharmony, and you give to people by preserving your well being.
Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.
Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~