How is a donation endowed with six factors?

There is the case where there are the three factors of the donor, the three factors of the recipients.

Three factors of the donor:

1. There is the case where the donor, before giving, is glad.

2. While giving, his/her mind is bright & clear.

3. After giving is gratified.

The three factors of the recipients:

1. Free of passion or are practicing for the subduing of passion.

2. Free of aversion or practicing for the subduing of aversion.

3. Free of delusion or practicing for the subduing of delusion.

"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 skillful — 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."

Dana Sutta: Giving

translated from the Pali by

Thanissaro Bhikkhu

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an06/an06.037.than.html

What is given to a virtuous person is of great fruit...

"I tell you, Vaccha, even if a person throws the rinsings of a bowl or a cup into a village pool or pond, thinking, 'May whatever animals live here feed on this,' that would be a source of merit, to say nothing of what is given to human beings. But I do say that what is given to a virtuous person is of great fruit, and not so much what is given to an unvirtuous person. And the virtuous person has abandoned five factors* and is endowed with five"**.

*He has abandoned sensual desire... ill will... sloth & drowsiness... restlessness & anxiety... uncertainty. These are the five factors he has abandoned.

**He is endowed with the aggregate of virtue of one beyond training... the aggregate of concentration of one beyond training... the aggregate of discernment of one beyond training... the aggregate of release of one beyond training... the aggregate of knowledge & vision of release of one beyond training.

Vaccha Sutta: To Vaccha
(on Giving)
translated from the Pali by
Thanissaro Bhikkhu

Letting go of it will be for your long-term happiness & benefit

"Suppose a person were to gather or burn or do as he likes with the grass, twigs, branches, & leaves here in Jeta's Grove.

Would the thought occur to you, 'It's us that this person is gathering, burning, or doing with as he likes'?"

"No, lord.

Why is that? Because those things are not our self nor do they pertain to our self."

"In the same way, monks, the eye is not yours: let go of it. Your letting go of it will be for your long-term happiness & benefit... The ear... The nose... The tongue... The body... The intellect is not yours: let go of it. Your letting go of it will be for your long-term happiness & benefit... Whatever arises in dependence on intellect-contact, experienced either as pleasure, as pain, or as neither-pleasure-nor-pain, that too is not yours: let go of it. Your letting go of it will be for your long-term happiness & benefit."

(Let go here means - letting go of the carving)

To read the full sutta:

Na Tumhaka Sutta-Not Yours

Like swans taking off from a lake...

The mindful keep active,
don't delight in settling back.
They renounce every home,
every home,
like swans taking off from a lake.

Arahantavagga
Arahants

"Having enjoyed & given...he goes to the heavenly state"

When a house is on fire
the vessel salvaged
is the one that will be of use,
not the one left there to burn.

So when the world is on fire
with aging and death,
one should salvage [one's wealth] by giving:
what's given is well salvaged.
What's given bears fruit as pleasure.

What isn't given does not:
thieves take it away, or kings;
it gets burnt by fire or lost.

Then in the end
one leaves the body
together with one's possessions.
Knowing this, the intelligent man
enjoys possessions & gives.

Having enjoyed & given
in line with his means,
uncensured he goes to the heavenly state.

Aditta Sutta -(The House) On Fire

Think of your mind as a "garden"

Think of your mind as a garden. People may throw "seeds" in it from time to time. Don’t water them if you know they are weeds. Weeds are very difficult to get rid of once they start to grow. If you know they are flowers you should water them often.

Related posts:

What is the matter with my grass?

The Path to Happiness - "Letting Go or Getting More!

Last week I went to a shopping mall and found that it was packed with people who were rushing to buy things as if they have never shopped before. Then I suddenly realized that they were getting ready for a another Christmas - the season for joy and giving. It is a great time to practice giving and "letting go." Then I thought to myself, it would be nice if we can can practice this giving more often. This made me to contemplate on the Buddhist idea of "letting go." Sometimes we wonder why we suffer in this world? The answer is simple. It is because we don't know how and when to "let go." This "letting go" is essentially the opposite of "attachment," which I have already discussed in one of my previous posts (see below).

In today's consumer driven society we tend to practice, "getting more" than "letting go." We think by getting more, for example material wealth, we will be happy. The happiness found through material gain comes with peaks and troughs. Buddhists believe that real and long lasting happiness comes from "letting go." Letting go is one of the fundamental teachings of Buddhist practice. What do we mean by "letting go?" How can we benefit from this? What is the deep meaning of "letting go" according to Buddhist teachings and practice? I will try to explore some of these questions in this post.

As we have already discussed the first step in The Noble Eightfold Path , "the right view" (see the post below). The second step in this path is "the right intention." There are three right intentions and one of them is "letting go." Once a Buddhist monk who inspired me to start this blog gave me some wonderful advice on giving and "letting go." He said that, "it is a hard for most people to even contemplate on giving to others. Only a very few people can really carry out the act of giving and letting go. Out these people only a very small proportion of people will really rejoice after giving and letting go." Giving material things such as gifts, medicines or food is the one of the first steps in "letting go." In Buddhism this is called Dāna, a Pali term for "generosity" or "giving." It also refers to the practice of cultivating generosity. This can be characterized by unattached and unconditional generosity, giving and "letting go." In other words you give without expecting anything in return. This is one of the three methods of gaining wholesome karma in the Buddhist tradition. The other two methods are Śīla or morality, and Bhavana or meditation.

Buddha gave a beautiful disclosure on the benefits of Dāna in Dakkhinavibhanga Sutta - The Exposition of Offerings (listen to MP3 Below). In this sutta he talks about the order of merit or wholesome kamma you would gain by giving to different individuals staring from a an ordinary lay person up to a Buddha. At the start of the this disclosure Buddha points out, leave alone the humans, even if you give Dāna to animals you will get hundred fold in return. Giving does not always mean material processions. You can also give in speech, for example give Dhamma (teaching of the Buddha) Dāna or by giving in mind and thought, for example loving kindness meditation. It is said in Buddhist texts that giving will increase your life span, beauty, happiness, strength, and wisdom. In the Culakammavibhanga Sutta Buddha said that the person who gives, accumulates merit and " having performed and completed such kamma, on the dissolution of the body, after death, he reappears in a happy destination, in the heavenly world. If instead he comes to the human state, he is rich wherever he is reborn."

The next level of "letting go" belong to Śīla or morality. In this one trains to "let go" the unwholesome acts done through the mind, body and speech. We have already discussed the ten unwholesome deeds in a previous post (see the post below). Having realized what is unwholesome the wise one "let go" of these acts and will start practicing the wholesome. This is for example, one who is lying will refrain from lying or one who is killing animals will refrain from killing animals. This will lead to further development of right faith, effort, mindfulness, concentration and wisdom leading to the next level of "letting go".


The final level of "letting go" is the Bhavana or meditation. This is the basis of training of mindfulness meditation (see the post below). Just think for a moment on how we usually spend our time. Most of the time we are thinking about the past or worrying and planning about the future. We have very little time or no time at all for this beautiful present moment. In this present moment awareness training you are free from attachments. Buddha said; "Do not go after the past, Nor lose yourself in the future. For the past no longer exists, And the future is not yet here. By looking deeply at things just as they are,In this moment , here and now,The seeker lives calmly and freely" Although this makes perfect sense in reality it is not so easy to practice. We usually try to hold on to the the past' especially unpleasant experiences we had, we may even get depressed thinking about these things. If you really cannot let go of the past at least think of a pleasant thing that happened. The human mind is such, it always looks for faults. This is what we call the "fault finding mind." It always tends to remember what went wrong rather than what went right. In the same way if we worry too much about the future this may even cause anxiety. We will start thinking..... what if this happens, and what if that happens and so on. The truth of the matter is none if these things may ever happen. This causes us an unnecessary anxiety. I have seen many patients like this in my practice. These people worry so much about a minor illness and the worrying and anxiety makes them suffer more than the illness itself. Mindfulness teaches us to "let go" of the past and the future and to be mindful in the present moment. This is the basis of mindfulness meditation. Buddha said "The mindfulness of in and out breathing, of body contemplation, of keeping consciousness of the moment, is a noble occupation and a sublime way, leading to independence of mind and to wisdom." He also said "In mindfulness I was conscious of the entire process. In this way I practiced contemplation on the body. When standing, I was aware that I was standing, when sitting, there was total knowledge of sitting; and when lying down, the full experience of lying down. By experiencing each moment, my mind clung no more to the world

The Vipassana meditation takes us to the ultimate level of "letting go." As I have discussed before, first we have to contemplate on how our six senses (eye, ear, nose, tongue,body and mind) work together with the external sense objects (object, sound, smell, taste, touch, mental object) and how and where this craving arise (see the post below). Then you can contemplate on impermanence, suffering, and non-self of these six senses and their external sense objects. If this process is practiced diligently with mindfulness, it will help to get rid of the cravings that arise in them as we realize it is fruitless to suffer because of an impermanent nature that is anyway not in our control (see the post on non-self below). You can merely look at them as they are, with equanimity and let them go. This is the practice of Vipassana meditation. This is the path to final freedom from suffering and to the ultimate happiness of Nirvana.


Related Suttas, Discussions and posts:

"Why are these two boots tied together"? (post on attachment)

" The True Weapons of Mass Destruction" - Greed, Hatred and Delusion ( post on the right view/ten unwholesome deeds)

Dakkhinavibhanga Sutta - The Exposition of Offerings-Majjhima Nikaya 142 explained by Ajahn Brahm (MP3)

Dana Sutta -Giving (sutta on Dana)

Generosity -dana, caga (collection of infomation from the suttas on Dana)

Dana ,The Practice of Giving -(Selected essays edited by Bhikkhu Bodhi)

"Stop worrying about your body so much...you are just renting it anyway" (Post on non-self)

Na Tumhaka Sutta-Not Yours

The Practice of Mindfulness -"The four bases of mindfulness" (Post on mindfulness meditation)

The Ultimate Psychotherapy -Through Buddhism (post on the six senses)

" The True Weapons of Mass Destruction" - Greed, Hatred and Delusion

'The Right View"

I was very disturbed to hear this story from a patient I saw last week at the clinic who presented with a hand infection. She was bitten a few days ago by another woman. This has apparently happened after a verbal argument between the two women. I was shocked to see this but I thought to myself .... this is a good example of human hatred at its best! Buddha said greed, hatred and delusion are the roots of all the unwholesome deeds in this world. I like to call these the "true weapons of mass destruction." People fight at home, at school or at work because of greed, hatred and delusion. People design chemical and nuclear weapons of mass destruction because of greed, hatred and delusion. Terrorist attacks on nations and war among countries happens because of greed, hatred and delusion. Whatever the unwholesome or so called "evil deeds" big or small that happen in this world can fit into three baskets of greed, hatred and delusion.

Buddha said when one understands the unwholesome, the root of the unwholesome, the wholesome, and the root of the wholesome, in that way he is one of "Right View." "The Right View" is the first step in the noble eightfold pathway leading to ultimate happiness. The Buddha said arriving at the "Right View" is something like seeing the brightness in the sky when the sun is about to rise (see the above picture). When the sun is fully shining you have already arrived at the perfect wisdom, called Nirvana. To achieve this one has to follow The Noble Eightfold Path, the pathway that leads to ultimate happiness.

Now we know that greed, hatred and delusion are the root of unwholesome deeds. What are the unwholesome deeds?

1. Killing living beings is unwholesome

2. Taking what is not given is unwholesome

3. Misconduct in sensual pleasures is unwholesome

4. False speech is unwholesome

5. Malicious speech is unwholesome

6. Harsh speech is unwholesome

7. Gossip is unwholesome

8. Covetousness is unwholesome

9. Ill will is unwholesome

10. Wrong view is unwholesome.

So the question is can we completely get rid of greed, hatred and delusion in our lives? Non -greed can be achieved by the practice of non-attachment (letting go). This may sound simple and you may say "it is no big deal , I can do it!" In real life you may find it is very difficult to do this when it is really the time "to let go." The deep cravings and attachments embedded in us may be very subtle, hard to see, yet they may be very strong. The practice of Vipassana meditation (see below) will help overcome these attachments and to help "let go" with ease.

Now how can we get rid of hatred? The antidote for anger and hatred is loving kindness. The loving kindness practice should start towards yourself first. This is the most important and the one that people often forget the most. This may be one reason why we find more and more depression in this world today. Once you start loving and appreciating yourself then you gradually spread loving kindness to your family, neighbours, ....and so on, and finally to the entire universe. I have discussed the practice of loving kindness and its benefits in a previous post (see below). The more you practice loving kindness the faster the anger or hatred will leave your heart. Buddha gave a beautiful simile about this. He said, "in some people anger is like a 'line drawn in the water'. It vanishes instantly as soon it appears. In others it is like a 'line drawn in the sand.' With time it will slowly fade away. In the third group it is like a 'line drawn on a rock.' It may take a lot of effort and time to get rid of anger. The first person has a lot of loving kindness in his heart whereas the last person needs to practice more loving kindness."

Finally, getting rid of delusion is the most difficult task. First of all it is a very difficult concept to understand. I will try to explain this clearly as possible in my own interpretation during this post. Delusion is also sometimes referred as "ignorance." This really means that we are really unaware of the true nature of our existence. To understand this you need to contemplate on how The Four Noble Truths work. Once we understand what is unhappiness and its cause,the craving, we have to find out how we can get rid of this craving. To do this we have to contemplate on how our six senses (eye, ear, nose, tongue,body and mind) work together with the external sense objects (object, sound, smell, taste, touch, mental object) and how and where this craving arise. Then you can contemplate on impermanence, suffering, and non-self of these six senses and their external sense objects. If this process is practiced diligently with mindfulness, it will help to get rid of the craving that arises in them as we realize it is fruitless to suffer because of an impermanent nature that is anyway not in your control (non-self)). This will help us step outside of this constant struggle with desire and aversion. You can merely look at them as they are with equanimity and let them go. This is the practice of Vipassana meditation. This will be discussed later in detail in a future post. Some concepts like, sensory restrains, impermanence, suffering and non-self have been addressed already in some of my previous posts (see below).

Therefore one must understand, although it is difficult, it is not impossible to fully get rid of greed, hatred and delusion, if you walk the path laid down by the Buddha (The Noble Eightfold Path). He has done all the hard work for us, we just have to see it and walk on the path. Buddha very cleverly showed us how to travel this path with great precision. It is like a "do it yourself" project. Nobody can do it for you, not even Buddha. You have to travel this path alone by yourself and it will finally lead you to the ultimate happiness in this very life.

Related suttas:

Sammaditthi Sutta, Magga-vibhanga Sutta, Saleyyaka Sutta, Mula Sutta

Sammaditthi Sutta

Avijja Pahana Sutta (Samyutta Nikaya IV)

Avijja Sutta- On Ignorance (Samyutta Nikaya XLV.1)

Avijja Sutta- On Ignorance (Samyutta Nikaya XXXV.80)

Pahana Sutta -On Giving Up

Related posts:

What is the matter with my grass? (Post on Loving Kindness)

Who will drink this medicine? (Post on The Four Noble Truths)

Why is this dog asking for more ? (Post on Sensory Restrains)

"Stop worrying about your body so much...you are just renting it anyway" (Post on Anatta or Non-self)

Life is just like a "Morning Glory"- Mindfulness about life (Post on Impermanence)

Mindfulness About Life- "A Lesson From The Garden" (Post on Impermanence)