What Makes an Act of Giving Complete

T1606 unpacks each mark with a concrete illustration drawn from familiar scriptural language. "Repeatedly" describes one who has so habituated generosity that giving becomes their settled character, a great, constant benefactor. "Without partiality" describes giving equally to any renunciant or seeker, without favoring one over another based on personal preference. "As fully as one is genuinely able" describes giving in accordance with one's actual wish — whatever food, drink, or other resource the recipient genuinely needs, given as fully as circumstances allow. "Without self-interested dependence" means giving without any covert expectation of reward, whether worldly benefit or a favorable future rebirth attached to the gift. "With broad and thorough purity" describes an open hand — giving generously, without any inner reluctance or clutching, and grounded in wisdom rather than mere sentiment. "To a genuinely worthy recipient" specifically names giving to those in genuine need or of genuine spiritual merit. And "skillfully distributing new and long-accumulated wealth" means giving evenhandedly from whatever resources are actually on hand when a request arises, not reserving one's finest or most recently acquired possessions while giving away only what is old or unwanted.

T1606 explains why the gift's own provenance matters just as much as the giver's own state of mind: property obtained through deceit means wealth acquired by fraud, such as fabricating a claim on goods that are actually held in trust for someone else; property obtained by encroaching on another means wealth seized through another's own effort and hardship, taken by force or imposition rather than earned; unclean, stained property means gifts contaminated by association with harm, such as items connected to intoxicants, poison, or weapons; and property not lawfully acquired means wealth obtained through outright dishonest commerce — rigged scales, false measures, and the like. The underlying principle T1606 draws out is a genuinely important one: an act of giving cannot be made pure and meritorious purely through the giver's own good intentions if the object being given is itself tainted at its source — genuine generosity requires both a pure motive and a pure gift.