# A Buddhist Take on Homelessness & Generosity #182

An episode of [How to Train a Happy Mind](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1496841325), 4 Feb 2025, 43 min.

Audio: https://www.buzzsprout.com/721908/episodes/16537804-a-buddhist-take-on-homelessness-generosity-182.mp3

In this episode, I share lesson's I've learned about generosity from my Buddhist teachers, my college girlfriend, and, to start off, my mother on the generosity we choose to share (or not to share) with homeless people. This year, most of our episodes are centered around what Buddhism calls the "six perfections": generosity, morality, patience, joyful effort, calm abiding, and special insight into the ultimate nature of reality, also known as emptiness. These six practices are centuries-old altruistic ways of thinking, speaking, and acting in the world that evolve our minds (and the minds of the people we touch) toward happiness, better relationships, and a better world. Episode 182: A Buddhist Take on Homelessness & Generosity If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. 🙏 Help us stay ad-free 📲 Follow us on socials

## Chapters

- 0:00 Introduction
- 3:51 The Homeless Harvard Professor
- 5:14 The arc of a homeless person’s life on the street
- 7:43 Should you give cash to homeless people?
- 9:52 An easy way to make someone’s day
- 15:15 There’s never enough to give away
- 16:42 Are homeless people more violent than those with homes?
- 18:44 The perfection of generosity
- 22:29 Four types of generosity
- 27:05 Giving protection
- 29:02 Giving the dharma
- 31:58 Giving love
- 34:06 Giving is hard
- 41:52 Closing

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.