تفسیر درس

Contribution Commentary

Hello, this is A.J. Welcome my VIP to the commentary this month and the topic this month, of course, is ‘Contribution’; contribution.

Now, of course, this topic really is related to the third part of our code, you know, show other people that you care, but it’s more than that, I think. You know the code is really kind of a basic thing of just how to act and just a way to sort of keep our Effortless English Club in a polite, nice, social kind of environment. I mean that’s what we’re trying to create with this. So those are sort of the minimal requirements, I think, you know?

But this contribution, this topic, is really much deeper that than. At least for me it is, because it really gets to much more of the emotional center of what we want to do and what creates a happy, generous, successful, enjoyable life. And I think one of the things that can happen is that we can, often times, really get focused and caught up in our heads. To be caught up in something means to be kind of obsessed with it or to be focusing on it a lot. So it’s really easy for us to get caught up in our thoughts or caught up with our thoughts.

I do this too. In fact, I’m guilty of doing this a lot. That we really, really, really focus on our minds a lot, the thoughts, the ideas, the beliefs and changing our beliefs and thinking up great goals and managing our ideas and our thoughts. It’s all so focused on our heads, you know, so intellectual, so mental. And I’m not saying that’s unnecessary or bad. All those things are good, but the thing is without the heart, without the deep emotion, I have found that all those great mental accomplishments are not fulfilling.

They just don’t satisfy without the deep emotion, the deep fulfillment that comes from, you know, feelings like love, generosity, contribution.

So that’s what I was trying to communicate this month in that main topic, the main article, the main speech or talk, really trying to get you to think about…maybe that’s the wrong word to use ‘think’. I’m trying to get you to focus on emotion this month, the emotion of contribution, the emotions that come up, that we feel when we give, when we help, when we contribute. So it’s not just doing it because you feel like you must.

I think this is a problem. A lot of religious people are like this, you know? You must do this! You must do this! You must not do this! And it’s all like these rules that some authority person is telling you what to do and what not to do, but there’s no heart in that.

There’s no emotion in that. You know, you’re just obeying somebody, some boss, basically. I don’t find that to be powerful at all and, in fact, I tend to want to rebel against anything like that.

Maybe you’re like me, I don’t know. Maybe I’m just rebellious, I’m not sure, but I think we need to think more deeply about these things and not do these things because it’s some kind of duty. You know, some sort of mental idea that we think we must contribute and somebody is telling us that we must love our neighbors as ourselves. Someone is pushing us to do all these things. That’s not powerful, in my opinion, and I think that doesn’t really help the world. It hasn’t helped the world so much and I don’t really think it helps us either.

I think the magic happens and I find it very magical when we help other people from a feeling of love or generosity or just, you know, niceness in our heart and we give to them in whatever way we can, big or small, and then we notice that that feeling of love or generosity or happiness actually grows when we contribute and then we also see it in the other person. That’s the magic of it that I was trying to get you to understand or to focus on.

I’m sure you understand it already, but I want you to focus on and remember is this is something very magical in the world, in the Universe, in human psychology, whatever.

This thing that when you give from your heart, when there’s this positive emotion involved, that it creates this sort of chain reaction. Of course, a chain reaction means it’s kind of a multiplication.

So you have this positive, warm, feeling inside you. You contribute. You give to someone else – it could be an animal too, it doesn’t even have to be a person – and then that feeling inside you grows, just from the act of giving and helping and contributing and then it grows even more because the other person or animal feels better, happier, so it grows in them as well. And then if you notice their reaction and you notice their happiness it will grow even more in you and it creates this amazing upward spiral where these positive emotions, these positive feelings, these positive motivations multiple and get stronger through the act of contributing.

Now I know I’m not the first person to realize this. There are books written about this and, you know, great saints and all the different spiritual traditions around the world talk about this, but, you know, we tend to forget these things, but I find it to be something very, very concrete and practical. I mean you can observe this phenomenon, this experience, in yourself. If you just focus on it and notice it you will see it and feel it happening.

It’s not just something you can read in a book. Yeah, that sounds really nice. That’s great. I should do that. No. Don’t just trust me. Don’t just trust the book. Don’t just trust the church or whatever, actually try it. I mean just try it. You know someone you feel that you would like to help in some way or contribute in some little way and then notice the feeling. The first step is to notice the feeling.

Just quiet your mind, you know, quiet our little busy minds with all the thoughts in our minds all the time. Quite your mind and focus instead on just the feeling, the emotion, the feeling in your body and in your heart. Maybe breathe a little bit. Feel the emotion first then do your act of contribution. Give whatever you’re going to give. Give the compliment to the other person or, you know, clean their house for them or do whatever it is you’re thinking of doing that you think would help them or be nice for them then do that action.

As you’re doing the action, don’t just do it mindlessly where your mind is thinking about something else. Instead, as you do it, focus on contribution. Focus on the feeling you feel of wanting to give and you can even imagine, you know, how they might feel, because this is important too.

I think a lot of times, you know, there are so many people doing lots of nice things and we’re helping people all the time throughout the day at our jobs, in our families, with friends, but even with strangers. You know most of us are nice people. I know definitely you, as a VIP, you’re a very nice person. I’m a nice person and we all want to be helpful, but I think the problem is, one of the big problems, is a lot of the time we just don’t notice. So we do something for people, we contribute, but we do it mindlessly. So while we’re doing something helpful we’re thinking about something else.

Like, for example, let’s say you’re cleaning your house for your spouse or boyfriend or girlfriend and you’re just doing it to be nice. I’m gonna’ clean the bathroom today because it’s dirty and it would be a nice thing to do and I’m going to contribute. Well here’s what happens so many times. You go in, you start cleaning the bathroom, but while you’re cleaning the bathroom you’re not thinking about contribution. You’re not thinking about giving. Instead, your mind starts to wander and you start thinking about all the other things you need to do that day or what you gotta’ do tomorrow or some other problem that you have or ah, whatever, you know? All these different thoughts come into your head, so you’re not really focused on contribution in that moment.

Yes, you’re doing something nice. You’re cleaning the bathroom, but your heart is not in it. I mean when we say our heart is in something, you say his heart was really in it, it means you were really feeling it while you did it. And, often, it’s a common English phrase to say his heart just wasn’t in it. It means he did the action, yes, but he didn’t do it with strong emotion. He wasn’t really feeling it and focusing on it.

We use this phrase in sports sometimes. Somebody is playing a game, but they’re not really playing fully. You know they’re not playing with all their heart. Yes, they’re playing and they’re making some effort, but it’s not with all of their heart and soul. So that we might say well, he’s a good player, but his heart just isn’t in it. You understand?

Well, let’s be honest. I think that in our daily lives most of us do a lot of good things, but our heart is just not in it. We’re distracted while we do it. I mean imagine if I got up in a seminar and I’m teaching English and I really genuinely want to help students learn better English and, especially, I want to help them feel more confident and good about themselves as they use the English they already have. So I have a good motivation and I’m trying to contribute, but imagine if while doing the seminar I was distracted and I was thinking about, you know, exercising the next day.

I’m thinking oh, you know, I need to really exercise tomorrow because I gained a little weight and I need to be doing that and I’m thinking about that while I’m teaching English. So I’m trying to do something good, I’m trying to contribute during the seminar and, yet, my heart’s not really in it if I’m thinking about other things while I’m doing it. So the power of that contribution is much weaker.

So this is why in the main video and main article, I’m really stressing to you to notice, to notice while you contribute. Whenever you do something even very small, you leave a tip, for example, at a restaurant, I want you to notice it, okay? I want you to just notice what you’re doing and feel the feeling completely.

There’s a big difference between, let’s say, leaving a tip for somebody, just kind of automatically ah, just leave the tip on the table and walk out the door and there’s a different feeling if you think about wow, that waiter was really good. You know he was really polite, very helpful, seemed to really care. I’m going to leave him a tip, because I’m really grateful. Thank you so much. And then you leave him a nice good tip and you walk out the door smiling, appreciating this person and also feeling that feeling of contribution that you have as you give the tip to them.

See how that’s different than just throw the money on the table and walk out the door? I mean it could be the same amount of money, but the emotion, the focus, changes it completely. It’s very different if your heart is in something or if your heart is not in it. So that’s what I’m really trying to get at.

I think you probably are already contributing a lot in your life. You’re probably doing it a lot in your life in many different ways with many different people, but I also am guessing that, probably like me, you get distracted a lot. And a lot of times when you’re doing those nice things, when you’re doing those good things, when you’re contributing, that you’re not really feeling it so much and when you don’t feel it, it does not multiply.

All that wonderful upward spiral I was talking about, that sort of magic of human psychology or the magic of the Universe or whatever you want call it, it doesn’t matter, you could have a religious meaning for it, you can have just a personal psychological meaning, but it definitely exists and you can notice it and you can see it in yourself, but it only happens when you notice the feelings. So I think that’s something that people forget.

People think that okay, I’ll write a check. I wrote a $1,000 check to Green Peace and I sent it to Green Peace. I did a good thing. I contributed and that’s going to come back to me as good karma or is going to come back to me as good luck. In the future I’ll make a lot of money and be prosperous because I contributed to Green Peace. Well I don’t think that’s true. I don’t. I don’t think it works that way. I haven’t noticed it working that way in my life. I think that’s a little bit of a selfish mentality, in fact. I think when you give you should just give from your heart because you want to help, because it feels good and as you do it you notice that feeling. You really notice it and you feel it and you enjoy it.

That’s what creates the magic, I believe. I think that’s what creates the good karma or however else you want to describe it, because then when you feel that feeling you’re like oh, that felt great. I’m helping. I’m helping the environment. I’m helping save the whales or whatever it is you’re doing. You feel that emotion and then you feel really good and then you want to help even more people and so you start going out and your contribute more.

And when you contribute you notice the feelings and you feel them and that makes you want to contribute even more. And then what happens is you become a happier person.

You become a more generous person, a more giving person and what else happens is people feel it. Other people feel it. They know if your heart’s in it. They know if your heart is not in it. It’s a huge difference. And when people feel that you are giving from your heart, not wanting something in return, guess what? They want to give more to you.

And that’s how it works, I think, really and that’s when then you will start to receive more and more. Of course, you already receive the nice emotions just from giving, but you also will start to receive just very practical things. Other people will start contributing more to you, but they only do that when your heart’s in it. They respond to your emotion, not to the check you give them, not because you just cleaned the bathroom. If you clean the bathroom with love, maybe you do a cute little extra things, you add a couple little candles and you just, you know, your heart is totally in it and you’re really feeling that contribution, your husband or wife is going to respond differently then if you just quickly clean it and kind of in a hurry and okay, now I’ll do something else and I’m not really focused on it. It’s a big, big difference.

So I know I tend to repeat important things many, many times, because I try to say them in a lot of different ways. Because I know everybody hears things a little differently and responds to things differently, but these are important deep ideas, so I’ll restate it one more time. And the power of this is in the doing, so I really, really hope you’ll do this, this month and continue it in the future.

The whole point of this month is the emotion, the emotion, the emotion, the feeling, the feeling, the emotion of giving, of contribution. It’s not so much the action; it’s how you feel in your heart as you do the action. You can give .50 cents with great love and that’s more powerful, in my opinion, then giving $100, but not really caring too much, okay?

The love, the generosity, whatever it is, you need to feel it and not only feel it, but notice it and make it stronger as you contribute. That is the whole point of this month and that’s what I want you to focus on.

You can do this on the VIP Forum. So when you give a compliment to someone, don’t just write it, I want you to feel the emotions as you write it and really feel deeply as you write that compliment to the other person. You know feel it. Just notice it as you do it and then publish your compliment.

And, in fact, I would also like all of us this month on the VIP social site to report about our experiences with contribution. You’re all already contributing in small or big ways in your life, so what I would like you to do this month is try these things I’ve been suggesting, especially focusing on the emotion as you contribute, putting your heart in it; giving all of your heart as you contribute.

Do that for a few weeks then go to our VIP social site and write what happened. How did it feel? Did it feel differently to you than just doing it without focusing so much? Were the results different? Did the other person react differently? I’m curious. I would like to know, so I would like to hear your experiences. Let’s share our experiences with this experiment, okay?

So what you’re going to do, you’re going to focus on contribution, you’re going to focus on all the ways you already contribute and then you’re really going to notice the feelings of contribution. Focus on the feelings as you contribute. And after you do that in different ways in your life, go to the VIP social site and share your experience. What was it like?

How did it feel to you? What happened? What was the result? Did the other person seem to respond differently? All of those things. Tell us your experience and we can all together share our experiences and encourage each other.

Okay, I hope you have a great month my special VIP. You know you are special, because I know you are a person who contributes. I already know that about you and I appreciate that about you and I hope that I am contributing to you each month, because that is my deep purpose and I certainly and feeling it now from my heart, hoping that I’m giving to you and helping you and inspiring you to have a happier, more successful, more wonderful life.

Have a great day and I will see you again soon, bye-bye.