The Perfection of Giving

Question: What is fulfillment of the perfection of giving? Answer: Giving has been explained above. Pāramitā is explained as crossing the river of giving and reaching the other shore: pāra means ‘the other shore,’ and mita is glossed as ‘arrival.’

Question: What is failing to reach the other shore? Answer: It is like turning back before finishing a river crossing.

For sixty kalpas, Śāriputra practiced the bodhisattva path, wishing to cross the river of giving. A petitioner asked for his eye. Śāriputra said, ‘An eye is of no use to you. Why ask for it? If you need my body or possessions, I will give them.’ The petitioner insisted, ‘I need neither. If you truly practice giving, give me your eye!’ Śāriputra removed an eye and gave it. The petitioner sniffed it, complained of its smell, spat, threw it down, and stepped on it. Śāriputra thought, ‘Such wicked people are impossible to liberate! He insisted on an eye he could not use, then discarded and trampled it. Better to discipline myself and swiftly escape birth and death.’ He retreated from the bodhisattva path toward the lesser vehicle. This is failing to reach the other shore.

Continuing without retreat until Buddhahood is accomplished is reaching the other shore. Completing a task is also called reaching the other shore. (In Indian convention, any completed undertaking is described this way.) Stinginess and greed are this shore; giving is the river; Buddhahood is the other shore. Alternatively, views of existence and nonexistence are this shore; wisdom refuting them is the other; diligent giving is the river. Giving has two kinds: Māra’s and the Buddha’s. Giving plundered by the robbers of fetters, accompanied by anxiety, distress, and fear, is Māra’s giving, this shore. Pure giving without those robbers or fear, leading to Buddhahood, is the Buddha’s giving, arrival at the other shore, or pāramitā.

The Buddha’s Discourse on the Simile of Poisonous Snakes tells of a man punished by a king and ordered to guard and nourish four poisonous snakes in a box. Thinking even one was dangerous and impossible to tend, he abandoned the box and fled. The king sent five men with drawn swords after him. Another man spoke agreeably while intending harm: ‘Care for them properly and there is no trouble!’ Recognizing the danger, the fugitive fled to an empty village. A good person warned him, ‘Though empty, this village is a haunt of robbers. If you stay, they will harm you. Do not remain!’ He continued to a great river. Across it was another country, peaceful, level, pure, and free from danger. Gathering grass and wood, he bound a raft and paddled with hands and feet, striving to cross. Reaching the other shore, he was safe and at ease.

The king is Māra; the box, the body; the four snakes, the four elements; the five armed robbers, the five aggregates; the man with kindly words and evil intentions, attachment; the empty village, the six faculties; the robbers, the six sense objects; the compassionate adviser, a good teacher; the river, craving; the raft, the noble eightfold path; paddling diligently, effort; this shore, the world; the other shore, nirvāṇa; and the one who crosses, an arhat whose influxes have ended.

The bodhisattva teaching is similar. Giving with three obstructions—‘I give,’ ‘that person receives,’ and ‘this is the gift’—falls within Māra’s domain and remains amid dangers. Giving purified in these three respects, without these obstructions, reaches the other shore and is praised by Buddhas. This is the perfection of giving. The six pāramitās ferry people across the ocean of stinginess, greed, affliction, and attachment; therefore, they are called pāramitās.

Question: Arhats and pratyekabuddhas also reach the other shore. Why is their attainment not called pāramitā? Answer: Their crossing and a Buddha’s share a name but differ in reality. They regard birth and death as this shore and nirvāṇa as the other, but cannot reach the other shore of giving. They cannot give everything, at every time, and in every manner. Even when they give, they lack the expansive intention and great compassion to give for all beings; their minds may be indeterminate, wholesomely affected by influxes, or undefiled. A bodhisattva knows giving as neither arising nor ceasing, undefiled and unconditioned, like nirvāṇa, and gives for all beings. This is the perfection of giving.

Some also call giving every kind of internal and external possession without seeking reward the perfection of giving.

It is also so called because it is inexhaustible. Knowing the gift as ultimately empty, like nirvāṇa, and giving with that mind makes its reward inexhaustible. A seer with five supernatural powers stores treasures in rock and protects them with a coating of ground diamond. Likewise, a bodhisattva coats giving with wisdom of nirvāṇa’s true reality, making it inexhaustible. Giving for all beings is inexhaustible because beings are inexhaustible. Giving for the Buddha Dharma is immeasurable and boundless because that Dharma is immeasurable and boundless. Therefore, although arhats and pratyekabuddhas reach the other shore, their attainment is not called pāramitā.

Question: What is complete fulfillment? Answer: As explained earlier, a bodhisattva gives everything, internal and external, large or small, much or little, coarse or fine, valued or unvalued, useful or unused, without regret. Giving equally to all beings, one does not think, ‘Give to adults, not children; monastics, not householders; humans, not birds and beasts.’ Giving equally without seeking reward and realizing its true nature is fulfillment. One also does not discriminate among times—day or night, winter or summer, auspicious or inauspicious—but gives equally at all times without regret, even giving head, eyes, marrow, and brain without stinginess. This is complete fulfillment.

Some say that the period from a bodhisattva’s initial aspiration through the thirty-four moments of mind beneath the bodhi tree constitutes fulfillment of giving.

Furthermore, at the seventh abiding a bodhisattva attains wisdom concerning the true reality of all dharmas, adorns Buddha lands, teaches beings, and honors Buddhas. With great spiritual power, one manifests countless bodies, each showering jewels, flowers, incense, banners, and canopies, and lamps like Mount Sumeru, as offerings to Buddhas and bodhisattva communities throughout the ten directions. With wondrous voices one praises, bows, serves, and welcomes them. One showers food and clothing into immeasurable hungry-ghost realms, satisfying their needs so that they aspire to unsurpassed awakening. Among animals, one removes fear and hostility, supplies their needs, and brings forth that aspiration. In hells, one extinguishes fires, cools boiling liquids, quiets wrongdoing, brings wholesome thoughts, relieves hunger and thirst, and enables human or heavenly rebirth and aspiration to awakening. Among humans, one gives wealth to the poor and distinctive foods and beautiful things to the wealthy, bringing joy and that aspiration. Among desire-realm devas, one removes attachment to heavenly pleasures and gives the wondrous jewel of Dharma joy. Among form-realm devas, one removes attachment to their bliss and delights them with bodhisattva meditation. They too aspire to unsurpassed awakening. Continuing thus through the tenth abiding is complete fulfillment of giving. Bodhisattvas have two bodies: a body born of fetters and karma, and a Dharma body. Fulfillment in both is fulfillment of the perfection of giving.

Question: How is the perfection of giving fulfilled in a body born of fetters and karma? Answer: Before attaining the Dharma body, while fetters remain, one can give all jewels, head, eyes, marrow, brain, kingdom, wealth, wife, and children—everything internal and external—without wavering.

For example, Prince Sudāna, whose name means ‘Dearly Loved,’ gave his two children to a brahmin and then gave his wife, without wavering. King Sarvadatta, whose name means ‘Giver of All,’ lost his kingdom to an enemy and hid in a remote forest. A brahmin from a distant country came seeking a gift. With his kingdom and household destroyed, the king pitied the traveler who had come so far in vain. He said, ‘I am King Sarvadatta. The new king offers a great reward for finding me.’ Binding himself, he gave his own person to the brahmin, who delivered him to the new king and obtained great wealth.