Matthew 6:
1 “Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven. 2 “So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. 3 But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
Translation:
1 Beware of thinking you need to be a good person in the eyes of others; because then you lose the reward you get from being aligned with your own true nature (which is both heavenly and divine). 2 So whenever you express love for what is, don’t show it off like someone who needs constant validation. (Seriously: external validation is a fleeting reward. It never lasts.) 3 But when you express love from your own true nature, don’t even tell yourself you’re doing a good deed, 4 just let it be something you do for its own sake; and then the calm, peaceful part of you that silently witnesses everything will see it and be filled with an enduring joy.
This is not about secrecy in generosity, it’s about spiritual alignment: alignment with the divine self. It’s not saying that if I let anyone know about it, my generosity doesn’t count. It’s just a useful mental exercise for checking in with myself about my motivations so I don’t set myself up for suffering.
It’s saying, “If my act of generosity only counts for me if people know about it and admire it, then I’m probably going to be in for a stressful time because some people won’t. I might want to take another look at what I’m doing. I might be looking for love in all the wrong places - in places that can’t supply love - and I might be setting myself up for a world of hurt.”
If I imagine giving without anyone ever knowing about it and it still fills me with joy, then I can rest assured that the act itself will feed my soul from within - the only direction from which my soul can ever truly be fed.
If my gift only makes sense if other people know about it and admire it, I might want to get quiet and explore my motivation.
Is it to give something or to get something (like love, acceptance, admiration, attaboys, points or pats on the back)? When I give in order to earn an external reward, I set myself up for resentment. Especially when I think I need the external reward and it doesn’t come (which happens every time I think I need something I don’t need).
The thing is, engaging in an act of true generosity is a way to reward myself. That’s what “rewarding” means: the act itself rewards me. My generosity increases my own sense of connection with the world, my own sense of belonging. There’s nothing to collect after the fact. The moment I engage in the deed, I am rewarded with the joy that comes naturally from moving in concert with the benevolent universe. When the deed is done, the world is in perfect balance. There’s nothing owed, no more to be earned, nothing to be given back to me. So expecting more brings on hell: the hell that comes from seeking my “fair share” when I’ve already got it, from looking outside myself for what I’ve had inside me the whole time.
When I understand this, when I realize nothing can possibly return to me or be taken from me to amplify or invalidate the reward of my eternal oneness with what is, there’s no problem with people knowing about my act of generosity.
At that point, people can know all they want about it (and I’ll find I really don’t care if they do or not). It won’t hurt anything because I’m no longer confused about where the true reward for every act of generosity actually comes from.