Where Am I Giving: A Global Adventure Exploring How to Use Your Gifts and Talents to Make a Difference

9Giving on Purpose (Myanmar, 2017): Giving alms / Meditating on giving

“ARE YOU READY?” VAJIRA, a Buddhist nun from Chicago, asked.

“I think so,” I responded.

I was nervous. The thought of meditating for six hours and being alone with my thoughts terrified me.

Sometimes I will walk into the bathroom, realize I left my phone downstairs, and then go get it just so I don't have to be alone with my thoughts. When I mow the yard, I listen to audiobooks. When I shower, I listen to podcasts. When I drive, I constantly have someone else's thoughts entering my head to avoid being with my own.

If I had nothing to think about, what would I think about?

So that was scaring the hell out of me. And it also didn't help that my friend, Janja Lalich, a cult expert, was really against the idea of the meditation retreat.

“Too much self-involvement,” she wrote to me. “That doesn't change the world, which I believe is your mission.”

I would never state my mission so boldly, but I do hope to encourage you (and myself), as Gandhi put it, “to lose yourself in the service of others.” And meditation seemed to be the opposite of that. How would so much self-reflection lead to connecting more with others? But giving plays such a large part in Buddhism and so does meditation, so I decided to try it. The Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) speculated that Myanmar's position atop the World Giving Index had a lot to do with Buddhism. Nearly 90% of Burmese are practicing Buddhists, and almost all of them follow ...