Monday, July 4, 2011

Generosity on the path to Buddhahood - Ringu Tulku Rinpoche

First Paramita: Generosity

The essence of generosity is nonattachment. Giving enriches us, whereas holding on to things impoverishes us. Such is the karmic process coming into play in the practice of generosity. Few people these days would follow such a reasoning, and yet giving is the true source of prosperity and riches, whereas the result of avarice is poverty.

It is not always obvious, but it is certain that we are never happier than when we have few attachments, when we do not grasp at people and things. Of all possessions, the highest and noblest is contentment. Satisfaction gives us all the riches in the world, since we desire no more than what we have. A contented person is a wealthy person.

This view is not widespread today, and I often hear people say that contented people lack ambition and that without ambition one is nothing. And yet, to me, ambition seems to be a source of stress, and grasping people seem to encounter lots of problems. Of course, modern society is to a large extent built on grasping, on desire. People always want more. Their desire is like a fire that they have to keep burning. Everything they throw onto it is immediately consumed, and they constantly have to find more fuel. The only way to stop it is to find contentment. Desire and grasping are like a bottomless well: you can never fill it. Only contentment will bring us peace. As long as we are not satisfied, we are always running after something, incapable of staying still. Contentment is the prerequisite of a peaceful mind. That in no way means that we shouldn’t work or that we should just be satisfied with anything whatsoever. What matters is our attitude toward things. If we remain grasping, racked with an unquenchable thirst, we will never find contentment. We will never be able to enjoy what we have, and we will always want more.

Moreover, if we are particularly grasping and possessive, we risk being reborn in the realm of the hungry ghosts. A hungry ghost is a being who, although he already has lots of things, is convinced that everything else ought to belong to him too. According to the Tibetan tradition, a hungry ghost is like a ball of fire who never manages to touch the things he is trying to eat, and so is never able to taste anything. A hungry ghost sometimes has a belly as big as a barrel, with a narrow neck and a mouth as tiny as the eye of a needle. He doesn’t manage to get anything that he’s trying to eat into his mouth, and when food nevertheless somehow gets in, his throat is too narrow for the food to get down to his stomach.

According to the Buddha, if we’re rich in this life, it is because we’ve been generous in previous lives. If we want to become rich in the future, we must learn to give now.
A little while ago, I read an interesting book written by an American author whose name I forget. Its title was something like How to Get Rich Quick The author explained that, as a consultant to large firms for whom he trained administrators, he had tried to understand how some men had managed to become so rich. According to him, the only way to get rich quick was to adopt the policies of General Motors in the United States, whose motto is “Give people more of what they want and less of what they don’t want.” Curiously, this is more or less what is said in the Buddhist tradition, and it echoes our belief that if we give, we will become rich. Of course, the motivation is completely different, but the parallel remains interesting.

If we give more, we’ll receive more, perhaps in this life, perhaps in another. If we are rich but don’t have the courage to enjoy what we have and share it with others, then no matter how much we possess, it’s as if we had nothing. Wealth brings us a certain power, a certain importance, but also many problems, stresses, and worries. I’m not saying that we must lack what is necessary for living; we obviously need money and shouldn’t underestimate its importance, but let’s remember that there is also a “return:’ a “dividend” linked to what we give. According to the law of karma, the more we give, the more we receive. However, paradoxically, if we give in order to get something in return, this process no longer functions.

Gampopa quotes many texts that explain what generosity is and what its advantages are. To summarize, we could compare the act of giving to an investment with a very high interest rate. Not only do we get back the sum we initially invested but we also receive considerable interest. By helping others, we improve our own situation, which allows us to give even more in the future, and our generosity grows continuously.
In his Letter to a Friend, Nagarjuna says:

Knowing that possessions are ephemeral and devoid of essence,
Practice generosity with respect
Toward monks, Brahmans, the destitute, and friends.
For the next life, there is no better friend than what one has given.

What we’ve given remains, while what we’ve kept no longer belongs to us. At the moment of death, everything that we’ve given becomes essential, whereas what we’ve kept becomes useless. We’re no longer afraid to lose what we’ve given away, while what we have is a source of anxiety. What we’ve given away shows us the way to enlightenment, while what we’ve kept shows us the way of suffering and affliction.

Nonattachment is at the heart of generosity. Generosity is chiefly a state of mind characterized by nonattachment. How generous we are is an indication of how detached we are from what we have.
Three types of giving can be practiced:

1.    The giving of material things,
2.    The giving of protection, and
3.    The giving of the Dharma.

Material things can be given in a pure or an impure fashion. The gift is impure when it is accompanied by a wrong motivation, when one gives things that are inappropriate, when one gives to an inappropriate person, or when one gives in an unskillful way. These four ways of giving do not generate any benefit.
To give with a wrong motivation means to give with the intention to harm, or for one’s own glory, or to besmirch a rival.

Things that are inappropriate to give are, for example, poison or weapons that will certainly harm the recipient as much as the person against whom they will be used.

To give to the wrong people is to give to those who have wrong intentions. If a person with wrong motivation or a madman asks us for something that he shouldn’t have, or if someone asks for our help to commit suicide, we absolutely must not give what is asked for, since it would only harm the person.

The wrong way to give is to give without joy, without respect, with anger, with hatred, or in an offensive manner. To give away something that our family doesn’t want us to give, or that could affect them negatively, is also wrong. In such a case, it’s better to abstain.
The four pure ways of giving are exactly the opposite of these ways.
The second type of giving consists in protecting someone from a fear or a danger. The help can be psychological, physical, or material.
The last type of giving, that of the Dharma, consists in pointing out the correct path, what should be done and not done.

There is a difference between the simple fact of giving and the paramita, the transcendence of generosity. To qualify as a paramita, generosity doesn’t depend on the size of the gift. Everything lies in the manner of giving, in our detachment and in the way we manage our emotional reactions linked to giving: our avarice, our possessiveness, the image we have of ourselves and our attitude toward the person who receives our gift. We speak of transcendent generosity when we’re totally detached from the notion of a giver, a receiver, and what is given, when we cast aside all strategy in giving.

When we give, we must always be mindful of using the “three skillful means of a bodhisattva,” which increase the effects of generosity. These are wisdom (yeshe), intelligence (sherab), and dedication.

To give with wisdom is to be able to view the person who gives (this can be ourselves), the object of the gift, and the person who receives it as dependently arising aggregates like a mirage, a rainbow, or a rivet The presence of this understanding transcends the act of giving from samsaric to enlightened and increases its beneficial effects. When we consider subject, act, and object with wisdom, our generosity no longer awakens in us the least attachment or pride. Free from pride and attachment, giving is perfectly pure.

Intelligence encourages us to give with good intentions, in a clever manner. We purify the giving by thinking, “I am making this gift in order that all beings be liberated from suffering and attain enlightenment?’ This positive motivation frees us from all attachment, from all expectation or hope of reward.

The third skillful means is dedication. We multiply the value of what we give by dedicating the act. Every time we are generous, however small the gift, we should think, “I offer all the merit generated by this act to all beings, that they may attain enlightenment?’ Traditionally, it is said that, dedicated in this way, the merit generated even by the smallest gift is multiplied by as many times as there are beings in the universe.

With these three skillful means, it doesn’t matter whether our gifts are great or small. In both cases they will bring infinite benefit.

Extracted from "Path to Buddhahood" by Ringu Tulku Rinpoche. Published by Shambhala Publications
This book is a commentary on a text by the great 12th century teacher Gampopa "The Jewel Ornament of Liberation"






Ringu Tulku Rinpoche is a Tibetan Buddhist Master of the Kagyu Order. He was trained in all schools of Tibetan Buddhism under many great masters including HH the 16th Gyalwang Karmapa and HH Dilgo Khentse Rinpoche. He took his formal education at Namgyal Institute of Tibetology, Sikkim and Sampurnananda Sanskrit University, Varanasi, India and has served as Tibetan Textbook Writer and Professor of Tibetan Studies in Sikkim for 25 years.

Since 1990 he has been travelling and teaching Buddhism and Meditation at Universities, Institutes and Buddhist Centers in Europe, USA, Canada, Australia and Asia. He also participates in various interfaith and Science and Buddhist dialogues. He authored several books (see publications section) on Buddhism as well as some children’s books both in Tibetan and European languages. Rinpoche is also a great supporter, historian and proponent of the Rime' movement. For more information visit:
www.bodhicharya.org

No comments:

Post a Comment