The practice of generosity, dana, can be traced to the early teachings of the nikayas, the agamas, and to the later teachings in the Prajnaparamita Sutras, as well as the Mahaprajnaparamita Sastraii, which elaborates on this practice. Among the paramitas, generosity can be the easiest to fulfill; one can reap immediate benefits from it. Generosity can be practiced in two modes: with characteristics and without characteristics.
Generosity with Characteristics
We practice generosity with characteristics when we have a motive for performing a generous deed. For example, we can give as a form of repayment for something received. We may feel indebted even though the giver does not expect anything in return. We may even do charitable work or make donations in the name of that person. We may then say that we have fulfilled our indebtedness. This kind of giving is good and may be counted as generosity.
I have a disciple who attended a seven-day retreat with me in Taiwan. Afterwards I asked him why he came to the retreat. He replied that his wife was extremely good to him, and he asked her what he could do to express his gratitude. She told him the best thing he could do for her was to attend a Chan retreat with me. So he told me his motive for coming to retreat was to repay a debt to his wife. You could say that this is practicing generosity with characteristics because it was a good deed with a motive.
Generosity with Characteristics and Intention
Generosity with characteristics and intention is giving with the intention of being recognized, being reciprocated, or earning spiritual merit. (Spiritual merit is experienced only after death, in a heavenly realm.) While these types of generosity are a little self-serving, like investments, they are still good and better than not giving anything. Then, there are people who are miserly, yet expect others to be generous to them. This is like constantly paying for things with your credit card. Somewhere down the line, the account must be repaid with interest.
The paramitas are antidotes for mental afflictions, and the cure for greed and miserliness is generosity. Miserly people may feel that they benefit themselves when they get the upper hand, but in reality they are harming themselves. Their strong possessiveness prevents them from receiving the rewards of helping others.
The Sickness of Poverty
While this may sound strange, the poor should practice giving as a way of freeing themselves from poverty. What can a poor person give? How can his condition be improved by giving things away? But even poor people can benefit others by working very diligently. Through diligence they will acquire what they do not have and they will gain what they lack. In the Mahaprajnaparamita Sutra, Nagarjuna Bodhisattva uses the analogy of a thirsty person who, being wrapped up in self-concern, does not know how to find water. Someone with a strong intention to bring water to those around him will very diligently look for water. Because of this altruistic intention, he will tend to find more water than someone concerned only with his own thirst. Similarly, the poor are more likely to find wealth if they work diligently to benefit others. The Daoist sage Laozi said that one can gain the most by giving everything to others.
Giving Without Characteristics
Giving without characteristics means giving freely, without self-oriented motivation. It includes the gift of wealth, the gift of the Dharma, and the gift of fearlessness.
The Gift of Wealth
The wealth that one may give freely, without characteristics, includes material wealth, time, knowledge (including speech), and one’s own body. Giving material wealth, including money, is fairly obvious, but giving one’s time and knowledge are also ways of practicing the first paramita. For example, for a very wealthy person to give a little bit of money may be less meritorious than for a poor person to give a lot of their time and knowledge.
Giving one’s body includes one’s strength and energy, but it also includes literally giving part of one’s physical body, such as offering skin to burn victims, or donating organs for transplant. You can be an organ donor while alive, or after death. But when you are alive, you would want to consider carefully before donating any parts of your body.
The Gift of the Dharma
People who think that the Dharma is something very mystical and abstract can become very confused about the idea of giving the Dharma. In fact, the Dharma is nothing other than the teachings of Buddhism. For example, the teaching on dependent origination is that all existence is a result of interdependency. Something exists because it is the product of other causes and conditions, and this something will in turn condition the arising and existence of other things. Everything is constantly under the influence of something else, and nothing truly exists independently; hence, nothing is permanent. How do we relate this to our own lives? Here is a simple analogy.
The reason why a woman is a wife is because she has a husband. If she does not have a husband, she is not a wife and vice versa. Therefore, husband and wife are interdependent, relative to each other. If you present this teaching to other people, then you are giving the Dharma. You need not literally tell others about the theory of wives and husbands; you just need to communicate the idea of this thing being dependent on that, and vice versa, or this ceasing to exist because of that, or the perishing of this causing the cessation of that. Simply by sharing your understanding of the Buddha’s teachings, you are giving the Dharma.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama has said that one who understands dependent origination understands the Dharma. If one understands the Dharma one also understands Buddhism. If a person correctly expounds this idea, this can be considered giving the Dharma.
The Gift of Fearlessness
People fear many things—death, poverty, illness, imprisonment, and so on. The gift of fearlessness is being able to respond to people’s fears and needs with wisdom and compassion. As practitioners of the paramita of giving, we can alleviate people of their fears, whatever their origins.
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1 The Buddhist sutras are the recorded teachings of the Buddha, while sastras are commentaries on the sutras by later scholars
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