Buddhism As Education

Sharing of benefits of your good deeds to others is known as patti dana (patti - what you had gained and dana - sharing your merit). A donor with no doubt enjoy the benefits of his dana. The desire to share with others the merits gained is indeed magnanimous. We all, ater doing a good deed, should proclaim, "all those who can hear me, come and share my merits. May you all gain as much benefits as I do," and share the benevolence gained. This is patti dana, which in itself is a separate good deed. Caution : Some donors just verbally say, "come and share my merits" but have no sincere wish to do so. Such perfunctory sharing does not qualify as patti dana. Once upon a time, a donor invited many people to his son's novitiation and gave lavish feast. The contributions (from invitees) did not cover the expenses of the feast, so he was left in debt. After the ceremony came the time to share merits. At that time, he was mentally calculating how much he would owe. Somebo...

One must not assume that what is said covers all the benefits of dana. To enumerate all benefits of dana would indeed require a separate treatise in itself. If a person discard dana according to the belief of some malicious quarters, sociable relations would cease and metta (loving kindness) will disappear. The rich will no more be charitable to the destitute. They will cultivate and attitude of disregard and say "oh let them die" or "who cares?" Humanity without dana will in fact be very much uncivilized. And of course, uncivility of mind eventually leads to savagery in physical action. The Bodhisatta attained Self-Enlightenment and became Tathagata after renouncing wealth, power and glory of the crown only with the help and support of numerous donors offering him alms food, etc. He was then able to preach his noble Dhamma and establish the holy Holy Order of Sangha to propagate his Sasana with the support of wealthy devotees like Anathapidika, Visakha, King Bimbis...

Some have the wrong belied that dana prolongs samsara (cycle of rebirths). In the story of the two friends, we have seen that the one who gave charity was not late in attaining nibbana. Therefore, it is illogical to assert that dana prolongs samsara. In fact, the impurity of the mind of the donor responsible for the round of rebirths. One's lustful greed to enjoy the luxuries of humans and devas for the dana given causes one to linger in the cycle of samsara. Some erroneously say that Buddha himself has to struggle loger in samsara because he cherishes dana in every existence. This is absolutely untrue. Due to dana parami (perfection of charity) an infinite number of Buddhas have attained supreme enlightenment while we all are still swimming along the stream of death and rebirths. Can we attribute this to our danas which far exceed those of the Buddhas? The Bodhisatta Vessantara who gave charity in an unprecedented magnitude attained Buddhahood after only two existence. Therefore i...

The benefits of Dana need no elaboration. The good deed of feeding a small animal just once brings about long life, beauty, prosperity, strength and wisdom for the next one hundred existences. When reborn in human or deva world, due to his dana in this life, he outshines other beings. In the time of Kassapa Buddha, there were two monks who were good friends. One of them was a generous donor while the other was not. Since both observed sila (precepts), they were reborn as human and deva up to the time of Gotama Buddha. In each and every existence, the generous always excelled the other in status. In their final existence, they were both reborn as humans in the court of King Kosala. The generous donor became a prince while the other became a son of a minister. While the prince slept in a golden cradle under the regal white umbrella, the other slept in a wooden cradle. Although both attained Nibbana ultimately, the benefits they enjoyed in each existence were quite different.

During the time of Gotama Buddha, devotees were privileged to offer alms to the Buddha in person. But today, the Buddha is no more with us in person. So we have to learn from the text how to offer alms in devotion to the Buddha. First you must prepare alms food enough for one bhikkhu and place it in front of a statue of the Buddha. If there happens to be no statue nearby, you can through reverence create a mental image of the Buddha and offer alms to that image. Then you must dedicate your cetana to the Buddha in person. After such offering, the alms food may be given to a devotee who does voluntary service in keeping the pagoda precinct clean and tidy, whether he is lay or a bhikkhu. A voluntary worker who keeps uposatha sila (eight precepts) can eat the alms food before doing any service if the noon time is drawing near. At the time of great ceremonious charity if one wishes to offer alms food to the Sangha led by the Buddha, the same procedure should be adopted to make offering of a...

Even if you offer alms to one, two or more bhikkhus, if you select them in personal terms, the dana becomes puggalika dana (charity meant for individuals). And if you do so, eventhough you offer alms to a thousand bhikkhus, you are only doing puggalika dana. Except dana specially offered to Buddha and Paccekabuddhas, Sanghika Dana excels all other forms of dana. When we talk of Sanghika Dana, the Arahats are also included. In the case of puggalika dana, Arahats may or may not be included. So, we can safely deduce that Sanghika Dana amounts to offering alms to the holiest bhikkhus whereas puggalika dana needs careful selection of the recipient bhikkhu. It is quite logical to conclude that Sanghika Dana is much more powerful and much more beneficial than puggalika dana.