Giving Thanks by Sharing the Abundance (and Dana)

Posted on 22. Nov, 2011 by in blog

When I was contemplating the focus of my practice and teaching for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, folktales in which the family is preparing a feast, and a beggar comes to the door and asks for some food came to mind.  The family is busy with its own internal drama and, as lavish a feast as they have, do not feel they have enough to spare or hate the idea of the unsightliness and dirty clothes (or nakedness) of the beggar and turn him away.  Perhaps nothing happens.  In other versions of the story, the beggar curses the family.  The beggar, still hungry, goes to the next house.  The feast at this house is more modest, but the family is richer in gratitude and compassion and thus is more open to sharing.  They give the beggar a bowl of food—he has asked for nothing more—and when they do, he reveals his true nature.  He is an incarnation of Shiva and for their generosity, he gives them a boon.

We have similar tales in the West where the true nature of one who is in disguise or has been bewitched is revealed only when someone freely and generously offers them love or nourishment without expecting anything in return and despite the unpleasantness of the disguise or curse.  What these stories are telling us is that those who see the good in everyone and treat everyone hospitably and with grace are rewarded by recognizing Shiva wherever he appears or by discovering the prince in the frog.  Those who only give in order to get something return miss out on the true day to day joy that comes with living from this intention of gracious welcome (with appropriate boundaries).

These tales teach in part, the practice of dana (hospitality or giving), an aspect of the seva (service) component of one’s sadhana (practice).    I think that in the context of holidays such as Thanksgiving, dana would include not just making one’s home graciously welcoming for family and friends, but also supporting those who are hungry.

For many, many years starting during my law school years, coming as I do from a family that does not put much emphasis on celebrating on the holidays but loving making festive meals, I created Thanksgiving feasts for neighbors and friends who, for one reason or another, were not having a family Thanksgiving, as society expects us to do.  These meals were delicious and delightful, and I really enjoyed being a gracious hostess.  It felt in some way, though, that they were not as expansive and inclusive and full as holidays could be.

Nine years ago, when the holiday season was approaching and I was in my intensive year of Anusara teacher training at Willow Street Yoga Center and had started teaching regular classes, I thought deeply about how I most wanted to celebrate the holiday.  As seems to the case every year, newspaper articles were starting to appear about how to avoid over-eating side by side with densely fattening recipes for dishes to impress your guests for impress them with the novel and delicious we must, articles on how to satisfy those with all sorts of eating restrictions and diet rules both for health and ideals, advice on how to cope with difficult gatherings and how to survive the traffic on the roads and at the airports.  There were reminders of the history of the holiday and how wretchedly the settlers treated the Native Americans who taught them how to find food in this then wild land.  There was the annual crop of movies about the dysfunctional family holiday.  When I listened to all the stories of what I was supposed to do and how I was supposed to behave and feel and what I was supposed to eat, a joyous gratitude for the amazing abundance that I in fact had felt something of a conscious effort.

I knew, in opening to discover a joyous way to celebrate the day, that an “anti-holiday” was not the right solution.  What, after all, could be better than sharing the fruits of an abundant harvest with friends and family?  I wanted to find a way for me that would best express my gratitude for what nourishes me most and to make offering out of that place of thankfulness.  I decided that what I wanted most was to do yoga with my friends and make it an offering to share the wealth.  It was the start of what has become my annual ritual—to start Thanksgiving Day with a fundraising class to benefit Oxfam—an organization that works to find solutions to end poverty and injustice that I first learned of when I was a student in London.

Fellow practitioners have been delighted to have a yoga class, to be able to share the yoga with family and friends, to have something to do in the morning if they were not attending a big gathering and to have a break or share with guests, friends, or family if they were in the midst of a high energy get together.  The offering I used to make to friends and neighbors who did not have a family meal to attend still extends to my old friends, but has expanded to embrace anyone in town who wanted to practice yoga.  For some who come, it is the only celebration they need.  Many have brought guests or family or friends to make it part of their own party.  A couple of times, three generations in the same family came to the class.  For some, the class has served to help expand the energy to support a more traditional Thanksgiving.  The class is for all who wanted to express their gratitude and celebrate the abundance in their lives by sharing both yoga and monetary energy with each other and with others in need—collectively to practice dana, to share this holiday dedicated to giving thanks by recognizing and making offering in service to the auspiciousness and goodness in themselves and in each other and all beings.

This Thanksgiving day, I will be at Willow Street Yoga in Takoma Park leading my ninth annual Thanksgiving Day Fundraiser for Oxfam from 10-11:30.  All are welcome.   As always, 100% of the profits go straight to Oxfam.

Or if class on the Hill would better serve, Katie Myer is leading an all-levels class at Capitol Hill Yoga from 9:30-11:30, benefitting S.O.M.E.

Elizabeth Goodman is a certified Anusara yoga instructor and is E-RYT 500 with Yoga Alliance. Her study of yoga is informed by her work as a government lawyer, her commitment to citizen advocacy and volunteerism, and her passion to create. Her classes express her belief that the practice of yoga helps to bring us in alignment with our true nature, enabling us to be more compassionate and generous to our living planet, all other beings and ourselves. She was raised in a meditative tradition and took her first yoga class over 25 years ago. She is also a Reiki master.  She blogs about yoga inside the Beltway (on and off the mat) at rosegardenyoga.com.

 

 

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