I see what you mean about sympathy and guilty. Your feedback is great - thank you.

And IMO...

Sympathy is a harmful emotion. If you feel sympathy for someone, you are adding your energy to the concept that the person is a victim. For the person to become stronger, it is helpful to add energy in the other direction (strength).

Feed what you want to grow, starve what you want to go! If you feed the concept of weakness, you nurture weakness. So when the father felt sympathy for the son, he fed the son's weakness by condoning through his actions that it is not offensive or imbalanced to take without earning.

With my mom, her father did not want to nurture the weakness to take without earning. So he nurtured her strength by insisting she take responsibility for her actions. The fact that she didn't steal again was a testament to her understanding that earning what you get is preferable than having to pay later - when you simply "take". There are many ways to look at this and break it down. But I agree with the balance of earning/receiving, whether it is a cultural law or not. Stealing is a separate issue in a way, because not only have you not earned your reward, you are taking someone else's reward. Kind of a double negative.

As for giving... I believe the gift that we truly give is to nurture ourselves so that we are whole and complete. It is at this point that we bear fruit (in the analogy of a tree). To be a tree that has yet to bear fruit, what do we really have to give other than to take a branch from ourselves. And can that dismembered piece of us truly help another? And even if it can, what harm does that do to us and how far back does it set us from reaching fruition?

Yet if we feed and nurture our selves, then we bear fruit, it does not hurt for others to partake of our fruit, in fact, it is satisfying and fulfilling to all.

Your heartfelt gifts and the appreciation that you give to others is positive (I love all the cyber goodies you give me ). I was mainly referring to monetary and commercial gift exchange, or gifts you feel you have to give because you've been conditioned to do so.