Today is Duruthu Full Moon Poya Day:

The significance of giving

By Lionel Wijesiri

The virtue of dana or giving is universally recognised as one of the most basic human moral excellence. It is regarded as a quality that testifies to the depth of one’s humanity. In the teaching of the Buddha, too, the practice of dana claims a place of special eminence, one which singles it out as being in a sense the foundation and seed of spiritual development.

Dana leads to one of the perfections (paramita): the perfection of giving - d?na-p?ramit?. Dana is a first step towards eliminating the defilement of greed, hatred and delusion (lobka, dosa, moha), for every act of giving is an act of non-greed, non-hatred, non-delusion. When you give you have loving-kindness (metta) and compassion (karuna) in your heart. So at that time greed, hatred or ill-will, and delusion would be absent.

Meaning

Dana is a word that has very wide connotations. It does not mean that you give only to monks. It does not mean that you give only expensive things. And it does not mean that you give only material things that cost money.

For you can give many immaterial things which may count even more than material things. For example, when we are kind to each other, we are giving kindness, gentleness, comfort, peace, happiness, etc. We can lend a sympathetic ear to a troubled person, listen to him (or her) with compassion and give him comfort and encouragement.

To the troubled person, your giving time to listen to him is more important than if he were to receive a material gift. So when we are living in a community, we should cultivate care and concern for each other, reaching out to help whenever we can. Then we give more kindness by speaking gently, soothingly, not harshly or angrily.

Three kinds

There are three kinds of dana: giving material offerings (Amisa dana), giving sanctuary and protection (Abhaya dana) and giving Dhamma advice (Dhamma dana).

In dispensing dana, volition (cetana) and the belief in kamma and its results (Saddha) play important roles. In performing dana, three steps of clear volition must be present to produce great benefits to the donors.

These three steps of volition are: volition that arises before giving (Pubbacetana); volition that arises while giving (Muncacetana); and volition that arises after giving (Aparacetana). It is very important to have all three volitions clean and pure whenever we perform any act of charity.

Guidance

The Buddha gave us some more guidance in the practice of giving. A person of integrity gives a gift with a sense of conviction. (That is to say that one gives truly, with certainty, without doubt). A person of integrity gives a gift attentively. (One is mindful of giving, and treats the gift and the receiver respectfully).

A person of integrity gives a gift in the right season. (“In season” here means that one gives a gift that is appropriate and helpful. One time it’s a book, another time a basket of fruit, another time cash).

A person of integrity gives a gift with an empathetic heart. (The giver does not see herself as above or separate from the receiver, but rather feels at one with the receiver).

A person of integrity gives a gift without adversely affecting himself or others. (One would not give a gift that causes harm, such as drugs or alcohol. One would give with the desire to remain capable of continuing to give).

Giving is non-greed. Giving is relinquishing all of those things that we could never truly possess anyway. It is relinquishing that illusion. Our elders sometimes say “You can’t take it with you when you finally leave” to justify spending lots of money on frivolous things. It’s true that “You can’t take it with you,” but the Buddhist sutras say that it can still be saved if you give it away.

Dana Sutta

On one occasion the Buddha was staying in Jetavana in Savatthi. A lay woman Velukandaki, had given a donation for the community of monks headed by Sariputta and Moggallana. On seeing this, he addressed the monks: “Monks, the lay woman Velukandaki, Nanda’s mother, has made a donation endowed with six factors for the community of monks headed by Sariputta and Moggallana.

“And what are these sis factors? There is the case where there are the three factors of the donor, the three factors of the recipients.

“And which are the three factors of the donor? There is the case where the donor, before giving, is glad; while giving, his/her mind is bright and clear; and after giving is gratified. These are the three factors of the donor.

“And which are the three factors of the recipients? There is the case where the recipients are free of passion or are practicing for the subduing of passion; free of aversion or practicing for the subduing of aversion; and free of delusion or practicing for the subduing of delusion. These are the three factors of the recipients.

“Such are the three factors of the donor, the three factors of the recipients. And this is how a donation is endowed with six factors.

“Just as it is not easy to take the measure of the great ocean as ‘just this many buckets of water, just this many hundreds of buckets of water, just this many thousands of buckets of water, or just this many hundreds of thousands of buckets of water.” It is simply reckoned as a great mass of water, incalculable, immeasurable. In the same way, it is not easy to take the measure of the merit of a donation thus endowed with six factors as ‘just this much a bonanza of merit, a bonanza of what is skilful - a nutriment of bliss, heavenly, resulting in bliss, leading to heaven - that leads to what is desirable, pleasing, charming, beneficial, pleasant.’ It is simply reckoned as a great mass of merit, incalculable, immeasurable.”

Prominence

Whenever the Buddha delivered a discourse to an audience of people who had not yet come to regard him as their teacher, he would start by emphasising the value of giving. Only after his audience had come to appreciate this virtue would he introduce other aspects of his teaching, such as morality, the law of kamma, and the benefits in renunciation, and only after all these principles had made their impact on the minds of his listeners would he expound to them that unique discovery of the Awakened Ones, the Four Noble Truths.

Strictly speaking, dana does not appear in its own right among the factors of the Noble Eightfold Path, nor does it enter among the other requisites of enlightenment (bodhipakkhiya dhamma). Most probably it has been excluded from these groupings because the practice of giving does not by its own nature conduce directly and immediately to the arising of insight and the realisation of the Four Noble Truths.

Nevertheless, though giving is not counted directly among the factors of the path, its contribution to progress along the road to liberation should not be overlooked or underestimated. The prominence of this contribution is underscored by the place which the Buddha assigns to giving in various sets of practices he has laid down for his followers.