The 38 Ways to Happiness :- Generosity (7)

Blessing Fifteen:
Generosity

 

G. ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLES
G.1 Proverb: Mahāpadayī  Sutta (A.iii.51)
Those who give the things they like, are wont to receive things that they like; those who give the supreme, are wont to receive supreme things; those who give good things are wont to receive good things; those who give the ultimate are wont to attain the ultimate; persons who give the supreme, the good, the ultimate, will have long life and honour wherever they are born.

G.2 Metaphor: A burning house
If our house catches fire, the possessions we can manage to salvage before it burns down will be all we are left with. In the same way, the possessions that are really our own, are those we can convert to merit by the power of our generosity in the space of our lifetime, before the fires of old-age, sickness and death burn up this impermanent body of ours. Dutiya Jana Sutta A.i.156

G.3 Metaphor: Cow and Pig (trad.)
The pig was jealous of the cow because the cow seemed to be very popular with everybody.

Someone advised the pig,”Don’t be jealous — popularity is in proportion to one’s generosity. The cow gives her milk daily to make butter and yoghurt and cheese”.

The pig was indignant saying, “Generous — I’m generous! Look at all the things mankind has to thank me for — my bristles make paintbrushes and my flesh makes all the pork dishes of the world.”

“Don’t confuse the issue,” said the advisor, “— all the things the cow gives, she gives while she is still living!”

Ever wondered why the people who are only generous in their will are never very popular?

G.4 Ex. Cūḷasātaka Brahmin (DhA.iii.002ff.)
There was once a couple who were so poor that they only had a loincloth each and between them they only had a single shawl. If the husband went out of the house with the shawl then the wife had to hide in the house. If the wife went out of the house, the husband had to stay home. They couldn’t go anywhere together because they only had a single shawl between them. One day the husband went alone to hear the teaching of the Buddha. He was filled with faith and thought to offer the shawl to the Buddha. He took off the shawl, then thought of his wife at home and changed his mind. He listened to the sermon further until midnight and again he was filled with faith to offer the shawl — but when he thought of his wife, he changed his mind again. He listened to the sermon further almost until dawn and this time when he was filled with faith, he offered the shawl to the Buddha without any further hesitation, while exclaiming the words, “Cittame Cittame” meaning “I have conquered (it), I have conquered (it).” King Pasenadi was sitting nearby. If anyone shouts anything like this near a king, they will normally have their head chopped off — but the king was interested to know what he had conquered. The poor man said that he had conquered his stinginess. The king thought, “Such a person is rare” and therefore set the man up in life with a standard of living fit for a millionaire. The man offered everything he had been given to the Buddha except for a shawl for himself and one for his wife. The king therefore gave the man even more possessions.

In the morning the Buddha revealed to the rest of the monastic community that if the man had managed to conquer his stinginess since the beginning of the sermon, he would have been made four times as rich. If he had conquered his stinginess at midnight he would have been twice as rich. His hesitation had blunted the power of his meritorious intention. The Buddha concluded that if anyone ever has the faith to do a good deed, then they should quickly do that good deed before the intention is overtaken by stinginess.

G.5 Ex. Sumedha Hermit (J.i.30ff.)
At the fruition of the ninth asaṅkheyya kappa of pursuing perfections the bodhisattva was born as a hermit called Sumedha. He trained himself in meditation until attaining magical powers — being able to fly through the air. One day he traveled in the air and saw all the people of a certain town building a road. He asked why they were building the road. They replied that the Buddha Dipaṅkara had already arisen in the world so they were creating a road to receive the Buddha. Sumedha the hermit asked permission to rebuild part of the road for himself, and the people of the town permitted him. They thought he would use his hermit’s powers to magic the road to completion, so they gave him a piece of road that ran over a piece of subsided ground, with a deep hole in it. Sumedha wanted to cultivate generosity the ‘hard way’ in order to fulfill his Perfections so instead of using magical powers he started to mend the road by the sweat of his brow. Consequently, he had not finished leveling his piece of road when the Buddha and his disciples reached the place. Sumedha thought, ‘the road I have built is not finished — never mind, only two meters remains — so I will lie down in the hole in the road myself’. When the Buddha arrived, he bowed at the feet of the Buddha and invited the Buddha and all of his disciples to be his field of merit and allow him to be a human bridge for them all to traverse the unfinished piece of road. The Buddha and all the disciples walked over his body and instead of feeling aches and pains, Sumedha was filled with joy to have been of service to the Buddha. That was the lifetime in which the Dipaṅkara Buddha gave Sumedha the prophecy of his own Buddhahood that he would need to go on to attain full enlightenment four asaṅkheyya and 100,000 kappas later. It was also the lifetime that the bodhisattva recognized generosity as the foundation of all other Perfections (as mentioned at @A.3 above).

G.6 Ex. Aputtaka millionaire (DhA.iv.76ff.)
One day in the time of the Buddha, King Pasenadi of Kosala (of Sāvatthī) came for audience with the Buddha in the afternoon. King Pasenadi said that a miraculous thing had happened concerning a millionaire in his town. (Millionaires in our own time are simply rich people, but in those times ‘millionaire’ was a title bestowed by a king, on wealthy economists. Some in those times may have been wealthy but if they had no knowledge of economics, they would not qualify for such a title. Millionaires had the duty to be patrons who would use their knowledge and their wealth to support the king in the development of the nation. They were almost like bankers of the present day.) A millionaire had died without heir so the whole legacy of the millionaire became national property and had been taken for storage in the palace. When the millionaire was alive he had been so stingy that he would not even allow expenditure to feed himself decently. He would survive only on rice husks and over-ripe fruit sold at clearance prices. He would wear only rag clothes — anyone who saw him couldn’t believe he was a millionaire. He would not even buy soap so he always smelled from never washing.

The King asked how such a person could be so rich but seemed unable to spend any money on himself. The Buddha looked at the previous lives of the man and told the king that in a previous lifetime, the man had donated food to a paccekabuddha. Arahants, paccekabuddhas and fully-enlightened Buddhas are so pure of mind that anybody giving a donation to any such will accrue a lot of merit. On this particular occasion he had instructed his wife to offer food to the paccekabuddha and went to work. When he returned he found out that his wife had given all the best of their food to the paccekabuddha. He thought with regret, “If we had eaten that food ourselves, we would have had plenty to eat for many days. If we had given the food to our workers, they would have worked their hardest for us for many days.” When the merit of the donation of food gave its fruit, he became a very rich man, but from his regret at a later time, he was always stingy in any expenditure for his own convenience. He was only able to use remnants because at that time when he regretted having offered food to the paccekabuddha, all he thought of giving the paccekabuddha was remnants.

G.7 Ex. Daddalla Vimānavatthu (Vv.48)
In the time of the Buddha there were two sisters. The elder was called Patta and the younger was called Supatta. Both sisters did as many merits as they could throughout their lives. Patta intended to do more merits than her little sister. When Patta passed away, through the power of her merit, she was reborn as an angel and was born in the second level of heaven (Tavatiṃsa). Patta the angel wondered where her little sister had gone. Only much later did an angel of very bright complexion introduce herself as her former little sister who was now an angel in the higher fifth level of heaven (Nimmanaradi). Patta the angel was confused. She had always done many more merits than her little sister — how come she had a lower rebirth? Supatta the angel revealed that even though she had had less chance than her elder sister to make generous donations to monks, whenever she did make a merit it was always a donation to the monastic community [saṅghadāna] rather than the personalized merit [paṭipuggalikadāna] offered by the elder sister. As the result of her donations, the elder sister’s mind was not truly broad, and the merit she accrued was reduced. As for her little sister, although she had less opportunity to make merit, she always offered it with the thought, “May my gift be received by any monk who practices in earnest — any monk who is a representative of the monastic community will do.” Thus when the younger sister passed away, as a result of her mind being broader and having fewer biases in her understanding of Dhamma, she took a more fortunate rebirth than her sister when she passed away.

G.8 Ex. Jūjaka Brahmin & his wife Amittatāpanā J.vi.521-4, 593
Some people like to ask about the story of Vessandara. In that particular Jātaka, there is an evil man a hundred years old called Jūjaka who has a young wife called Amittatāpanā (aged 17). Some ask what this old man did to get himself a wife young enough to be his grandchild. Amittatāpanā was someone fond of giving but instead of offering fresh flowers to the monks she would always offer only shriveled flowers. When the time came for her to marry, then her husband was also old and shriveled. As for Jūjaka, he would always like to offer flowers to the monks that were fresh so when the merit gave its fruit the result was different. For a similar reason, if people habitually offer only second-hand things to the monks, maybe they will always get a widow(er) for their spouse!

G.9 Ex. Bhattabhatika the woodcutter (DhA.iii.87ff.)
There was once a millionaire called Gandha Seṭṭhī who inherited a fortune — and considering that he would be unable to take it with him when he died, made every attempt to use up his wealth within his lifetime by every sort of extravagance. He would spend 100,000 kahapanas each day alone on his own food. His extravagance became renowned and he would thus eat in public so that the peasants could come to watch what delicacies he would eat each day. One day a wood-cutter passed by and became so entranced by the millionaire’s food that he realized he would die if he didn’t get to taste such food. He pushed his way to the front of the crowd and begged the millionaire for a taste of the food. The millionaire refused, saying “If I give you a taste, the rest will be wanting one too.” Instead the wood-cutter offered three-years of his work in the service of the millionaire in order to earn a taste of such food, and the millionaire agreed.

At the fulfillment of three year’s labour, the woodcutter (in the meantime nicknamed Bhattabhatika — “the one who labours for a meal”), was sitting at the table about to tuck in to the delicacies he had earned for himself. At that moment a paccekabuddha passed into view on alms round. Seeing the paccekabuddha, the woodcutter hesitated, thinking:

“that I have had to work three years for this meal must be because I am lacking in merit to find myself subject to such poverty. If I eat this meal myself it will only sustain me for a day, but if I offer it to the paccekabuddha, it will sustain me for many lifetimes.”

The woodcutter offered a large portion of the food to the paccekabuddha who then closed the lid of his bowl. The woodcutter appealed to the paccekabuddha to receive more food saying: “don’t just help me for this lifetime — help me in the next lifetime too!” The paccekabuddha removed the lid of his bowl and the wood-cutter put all the remaining food into the bowl, while making the wish, “may this merit bring me happiness and success in every lifetime, may I know some part of the wisdom of this paccekabuddha”. The paccekabuddha gave his blessing to the effect that the wood-cutter’s every wish should be fulfilled.

The onlookers for the wood-cutter’s meal were inspired by the wood-cutter’s generosity and how he had given something that was so hard to give. They applauded him so loudly that the millionaire came out to see what all the noise was about. He too was inspired by the wood-cutter’s example and shared so much wealth with him that he too was to attain the status of millionaire.

He performed charitable works to the end of his days and was reborn as Sukha who ordained as a novice under Sāriputta at the age of seven and very quickly attained arahantship. This is an example of “giving things of better quality than you would use yourself” [dānasāmī].


 

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