The mind that gives only where return is likely has not given at all; it has traded. The ego arranges all its love as an exchange, calling to itself those who can pay it back, because it believes that love is scarce and must be recovered wherever it is spent. Such giving leaves the giver exactly where he was, richer by nothing.
True giving looks past the circle of those who can repay and offers itself where no return is possible, and in that it discovers that giving and having are one. A mind that expects no recompense has already been given everything, for it has learned that love increases only by being released without a ledger.
Dinner or supper: the offering the mind extends to others, the giving it lays out that can be either a bargain or a gift
Friends, brethren, kinsmen, rich neighbours: the circle of those who can repay, the safe exchange the ego keeps so that nothing is truly given away