What is it to give without attachments, without a sense of  loss or an expectation of receiving something in return? When I ask God for help the only one putting conditions on the results is me. I want to receive more than I am willing to give. I am coming from lack. That is the separate mind. When I recognize I am trying to bargain, manipulate or seduce then I know I am off the mark. (I’ll give you this much, if I can have more and my way.)

What is it to give without attachments, without a sense of  loss or an expectation of receiving something in return? When I ask God for help the only one putting conditions on the results is me. I want to receive more than I am willing to give. I am coming from lack. That is the separate mind. When I recognize I am trying to bargain, manipulate or seduce then I know I am off the mark. (I’ll give you this much, if I can have more and my way.)

When I start giving, just simply giving, not based on the way I have understood it to be according to the rules of the world but as it truly is as the expression of God’s love, I have allowed a space in my mind for something else to occur.

I actually had a direct experience of this doing an exercise in A Course In Miracles, Lesson 108, To Give And Receive Are One In Truth.  

Today we will attempt to offer peace to everyone, and see how
quickly peace returns to us. Light is tranquility, and in that peace
is vision given us, and we can see.

So we begin the practice periods with the instruction for today, and                   
say:

To give and to receive are one in truth.
I will receive what I am giving now.

 Then close your eyes, and for five minutes think of what you
would hold out to everyone, to have it yours. You might, for
instance, say:

To everyone I offer quietness.
To everyone I offer peace of mind.
To everyone I offer gentleness.

I kept saying the words over and over, to everyone I offer quietness, peace of mind, gentleness allowing images of friends, family and so-called foes to float in my mind’s eye. I soon became aware that in my extension it was coming back to me. I was receiving quietness, peace of mind, gentleness.  I am receiving as I am giving, and so it goes. I become the exercise.  It becomes one thing, singular. I have relinquished my attachments of what it should look like and am simply in the circle of light in which giving and receiving are one. The same Thought. All opposition is reconciled.

At that moment I discovered that true giving can only come from my state of mind and everything coming back to me is from that state of mind because what I am seeing are reflections of my state of mind. And in that action of mind is singularity, giving and receiving are one.

Christine C.