The Giver and the Receiver Are the Same

In Buddhism, the Dharma of giving and receiving invites us to see generosity as a path of awakening. Dāna, the practice of offering and accepting, is not simply about material exchange but about illuminating the assumptions and conditioning that shape our relationship to resources. I have come to this teaching through an unexpected doorway: I am a finance and development director who hates talking about money. This is a curious thing.

For much of my life, I associated money with power, privilege, and abuse of authority. To me, money was a weapon of “the man,” something used to dominate or exclude. Over time, I came to understand that money itself is neutral; it is our conditioning, fears, and unexamined beliefs that shape its meaning. Yet many of us avoid discussing money at all, leaving it in the shadows. What we refuse to bring into awareness tends to fester quietly until it erupts or collapses inward, causing harm.

So I began to examine my own relationship with money. Asking others for financial support has become part of my spiritual practice precisely because it forces me to bring light to what once lived in darkness. Instead of waiting for a painful crisis to force honesty, I choose to look directly at my views, habits, and stories. In this way, I seek “right relationship” to money.

Through this practice, I have learned that giving and receiving are not separate roles but two expressions of the same truth: we depend on one another. When generosity flows freely—without shame or fear—we discover that the giver and the receiver are already one.

I invite you to take your own journey with this—explore the stories you inherited about money, notice what lives in your shadows, and see what wisdom emerges when you bring it all into the light. 

Warmly,

Eishō Felicia Sy, Fund Development and Finance Director