We wind up hoarding the most amazing things out of the fear of losing them. I personally have had to force myself to give away little containers that I saved for paperclips and other stationery. Once, after a discussion on generosity, I gave people the assignment to go through one closet or set of drawers and take out the things they did not use and give them away. This assignment was difficult for people. Some could not even get to the closet or chest of drawers. Some people got there and discovered things they had not used for years and had forgotten about, such as a souvenir t-shirt from a trip to Mexico. But they clung to it again once they saw it and could not give it away.

Some people got the things into a box but could not get the box into their car. Other people got the box into their car but could not get the box out of their car to a charity. Always there was something that interfered. Clearly at play was the self-centred mind of stinginess and miserliness, which karmically creates the cause for us to be poor. We do not need to go home and empty everything, but we should not pass up an amazing opportunity to create the karmic cause for wealth by giving away things we do not need, or things that other people may need more. Let us remember how good it feels when we overcome our self-centredness.

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