Chris – I certainly agree with you that you have to have something to give. I remember another analogy with a tree – when it has no fruits, it stands tall and erect; it is only when it is laden with fruits that it bends down. In many ways, I think my last point cautioning against egoistic ‘giving’ it ties in with this, as excessive ego and an acute lack of inner contentment are often to be found in the same place.

Keith – yes, goodness is a kind of investment; the return just happens to be a little more long-term than many of us are prepared to wait for – Its pretty fortunate that we can just get joy out of the act itself 🙂

This was powerful because what he proposed was that if there was something you wanted in life. Let’s say in this case, you wanted to experience happiness.

Then the best way to test whether or not you could ever be happy was to try and bring happiness to somebody else.

By bringing it, we realize we had it to begin with. Otherwise it would be impossible to give.

How can we give $100 to somebody if we don’t actually have $100? We can’t. It’s impossible. Same is true of immaterial things.

The gift of giving is always to ourselves first whether we are aware of this or not, and whether or not it comes from the ego or from that deeper place you speak of within the chest.