The Collected Teachings on the Bodhisatva
Chapter 6: The Perfection of Generosity

“Now, Śāriputra, how does one practice the perfections? Śāriputra, there are six perfections that bodhisatvas engage in when they practice the bodhisatva path. What are these six perfections? They are the perfection of generosity, the perfection of morality, the perfection of patient acceptance, the perfection of vigor, the perfection of meditation, and the perfection of wisdom.

“What is the perfection of generosity? Śāriputra, the bodhisatva gives support to ascetics, brahmins, and the wretched. He gives food to those in need of food, [F.56.b] drink to those in need of drink. He gives vehicles, clothes, fragrance, garlands, ointments, shelter, utensils, medicine for the sick, light, music, male and female servants, gold, jewels, pearls, gems, conches, crystals, and coral. He gives horses, elephants, chariots, parks, hermitages, sons, daughters, wives, treasure, grain, stocks, storerooms, and all the pleasures enjoyed by the kings of the four continents. He gives all his joys and amusements, and he gives his hands, feet, ears, nose, eyes, head, flesh, blood, marrow, and bone. There is not a single worldly object that he will not part with for those in need.

“He gives that gift as purified because of ten features. What are they? The bodhisatvas’ generosity does not provide for inappropriate pleasures. The bodhisatvas’ generosity does not inflict harm on sentient beings. The bodhisatvas’ generosity does not come from intimidation or fear. The bodhisatvas’ generosity does not discourage renunciation. The bodhisatvas’ generosity is not superficial. The bodhisatvas’ generosity does not discriminate between sentient beings. The bodhisatvas’ generosity is not a gesture of flattery. The bodhisatvas’ generosity is not a gesture of animosity. The bodhisatvas’ generosity is not a means to acquire land. The bodhisatvas’ generosity does not involve denigrating sentient beings, thinking that they are unworthy recipients. These, Śāriputra, are the ten features by means of which the bodhisatva gives that purified gift.

“Śāriputra, he gives that gift as purified because of ten features. What are they? The bodhisatvas are not generous because they wish to ripen the fruits of their actions. [F.57.a] The bodhisatvas are not generous with improper motives. [MS.58.b] The bodhisatvas are not generous without the proper resolve.67 The bodhisatvas do not become exhausted by being generous. The bodhisatvas are not generous because they are encouraged to be. The bodhisatvas do not regret their generosity. The bodhisatvas are not sorry for their generosity. The bodhisatvas are not generous as a way to honor those who uphold morality. The bodhisatvas are not generous as a way to chastise those who behave badly. The bodhisatvas are not generous because they wish to obtain something. These, Śāriputra, are the ten features by means of which the bodhisatva gives that purified gift.

“Śāriputra, he gives that gift as purified because of ten features. What are they? The bodhisatvas do not give reproachfully. The bodhisatvas do not give with their faces averted. The bodhisatvas do not give in distress. They do not express anger, envy, or malice when they give. They do not give without veneration. They do not avoid giving personally. They do not give less than is appropriate. The bodhisatvas do not give with a desire that anything in particular will occur. These, Śāriputra, are the ten features by means of which the bodhisatva gives that purified gift.

“Śāriputra, he gives that gift as purified because of ten features. What are they? There is no bodhisatvas’ generosity that is not firm. There is no bodhisatvas’ generosity that is already included. The bodhisatvas’ generosity is not broken. It is not a generosity that is reliant on others. It is not a generosity that is less than what would be considered little. It is not a generosity that delights in the physical, in pleasure, or in power. The bodhisatvas are not generous out of a longing to be born as any of the gods, as Śakra, Brahmā, [F.57.b] or a protector of the world. The bodhisatvas do not aspire to generosity at the level of a śrāvaka or a pratyekabuddha. The bodhisatvas’ generosity is not despised by the learned. There is no bodhisatvas’ generosity that is not dedicated to omniscience. These, Śāriputra, are the ten features by means of which the bodhisatva gives that purified gift.

“Further, Śāriputra, he gives that gift as purified because of ten other features. What are they? If the giving is done for the purpose of escaping the conditioned and reaching the unconditioned, then, Śāriputra, the bodhisatva gains ten advantages from being generous. What are they? By giving food he will gain perfect vitality, eloquence, happiness, power, and status. By giving drink he will gain the complete removal of all afflictions and craving. By giving vehicles he will gain perfect possessions that will bring him pleasure. By giving clothes he will gain perfect modesty, humility, and a golden complexion. By giving fragrances and garlands he will gain perfect fragrance-anointed morality, learning, and concentration. By giving pleasant fragrances, powders, and ointments he will gain a perfectly energetic and sweet-smelling body. By giving flavors [MS.59.a] he will experience the most exquisite tastes in the world and gain the perfect characteristics of a great man. By giving shelter he will gain a perfect resting place, a shelter, a sanctuary, an abode, and a refuge for all sentient beings. By giving medicine for the sick he will gain the perfect complete happiness of immortality without aging and death. By giving various utensils [F.58.a] he will gain the perfect tools conducive to awakening, the complete Dharma. Śāriputra, when the bodhisatva who longs for awakening is generous in this way, he will obtain these ten advantages.

“Śāriputra, there is a further set of ten advantages that the bodhisatva will gain. What are they? By giving lamps he will gain a tathāgata’s five kinds of perfect, pure vision. By giving music he will gain perfect, pure divine hearing. By giving all types of precious substances‍—gold, jewels, pearls, gems, conches, crystals, and coral‍—he will gain the perfect, complete thirty-two characteristics of a great being. By giving a variety of different kinds of riches and various kinds of flowers he will gain the perfect complete eighty minor marks. By giving horses, elephants, and chariots he will gain vast tracts of land. By giving parks and hermitages he will gain the perfect complete liberative meditative states, the attainments of concentration. By giving treasure, grain, stocks, and storerooms he will gain the perfect complete treasury of all precious Dharma teachings. By giving male and female servants, workers, or laborers he will gain perfect complete freedom, independence, and spontaneous knowledge. By giving sons and daughters he will gain what he wants, what he longs for and desires: perfectly complete supreme full awakening. By giving all the resources of the kings of the four continents, [F.58.b] the bodhisatva will gain the perfect knowledge of omniscience, with all supreme qualities. These, Śāriputra, are the ten advantages he will obtain.

“If he gives in this manner, Śāriputra, the bodhisatva who gives and longs for awakening will gain a further ten advantages. What are they? By giving the pleasures of the five senses he will gain perfectly pure morality, concentration, wisdom, liberation, and insight into the knowledge of liberation. By giving up all joys and amusements he will gain the perfectly pure joys and amusements of the true Dharma. By giving his legs he will gain the completely perfect legs of Dharma that carry one toward the seat of awakening. By giving his hands he will gain the hand of Dharma, the most perfect means of giving to all sentient beings. By giving his ears and nose he will gain completely perfect unimpaired senses. By giving his major and minor limbs he will gain the perfect complete body of a buddha with supreme, irreproachable limbs. By giving his eyes he will gain the perfectly pure eye of the Dharma that has unobstructed access to all sentient beings. By giving his flesh and blood he will gain perfect experience of the way all sentient beings rely on the belief that the body and life force have an essence when in fact they are without essence. By giving his bones he will gain perfect attainment of the unbreakable vajra body. By giving the supreme limb, his head, the bodhisatva, the great being, will gain perfect realization, supreme and unsurpassed omniscient knowledge, truly outstanding in the three realms. Śāriputra, when the bodhisatva [MS.59.b] who longs for awakening is generous in this way, he will obtain these advantages, [F.59.a] the perfect characteristics of a buddha.

“Śāriputra, the learned bodhisatva of profound wisdom longs for unsurpassed perfect awakening from mundane concerns. He longs for deathlessness. He longs for the essential. He longs for awakening. Śāriputra, the bodhisatva who longs for nirvāṇa gives away material things, but as he takes supreme perfect awakening as his support, there are in fact no mundane concerns that he has to give up;68 there are in fact no worldly objects that he has to give up.

“Śāriputra, take the example of a farmer who, relying on a dry piece of land,69 works the land with an ox, making furrows in the soil made fertile by the divine rain, and then plants seeds. By basing his survival on the plow, the various conditions that are put in place will eventually yield gold and silver for him. They will result in a variety of other things. Why is this? Śāriputra, it is because there is nothing like the wealth of grain. Likewise, Śāriputra, eventually, in due time, the bodhisatva will accomplish unsurpassed perfect awakening by relying on the material world.

“Śāriputra, take the example of a cow who is fed moist and dry hay and who drinks cold and warm water. It will produce milk, which can be fermented into yogurt or churned into butter. Likewise, Śāriputra, the bodhisatva, the great being, gives material worldly objects, and as he takes unsurpassed perfect awakening as his reference point, he will become a king of the entire world, even though he does not desire it. He will even attain the state of Śakra and Brahmā. Through his mastery of those three states, he will accomplish the ten stages of the bodhisatva path. He will attain the ten powers and the four kinds of confidence. He will manifest the eighteen unique buddha qualities that are the result of a thousand deeds. He will manifest perfect speech with sixty characteristics that is the result of a thousand deeds. [F.59.b] He will manifest the unique characteristic of a great being that is the result of a hundred deeds. He will develop a crown protrusion that is the result of two hundred deeds. He will manifest the blast of the conch shell of the great Dharma of the tathāgatas complete with a hundred features and qualities. He will display an unbroken, faultless, even row of white teeth with ten million features and a hundred thousand qualities. Then, Śāriputra, he will have reached the goal of tathāgatahood, the ripened fruit of tathāgata actions.

“Śāriputra, as he has given rise to a loving mind and is generous, giving to those who request it, he develops a mental state that is as vast as the grains of sand in the river Ganges are numerous, and he therefore accomplishes the unique, unbroken concentration of a buddha. Dwelling in this concentration, the tathāgata, arhat, fully accomplished Buddha will manifest a hundred concentrations as Ganges-like streams from each of the pores of his body. As a tathāgata, Śāriputra, he has mastered all types of magical techniques.

“These are the buddha qualities, Śāriputra, that are the outcome of training according to the way of the bodhisatva and that he will take hold of as a tathāgata, as he has been generous with worldly material objects. Śāriputra, longing for the deathless, longing for the essential, longing for awakening, [MS.60.a] longing for nirvāṇa, the bodhisatva gives material worldly objects. So, Śāriputra, you ought to take to heart that this is the way of things, that the bodhisatva will realize unsurpassed perfect awakening by relying on the material world.

“At one time, Śāriputra, a great many uncountable, inconceivable, innumerable eons upon innumerable eons ago, a tathāgata, arhat, fully accomplished buddha by the name of Bhāṅgīrasi, appeared in the world. He was perfect in wisdom and conduct, and he was a sugata, [F.60.a] a knower of the world, an unsurpassable guide for those who wished to train, a teacher of gods and men, awakened, a lord. Now, Śāriputra, the Lord, the Tathāgata Bhāṅgīrasi, reached the ripe age of ten thousand. Śāriputra, the Tathāgata Bhāṅgīrasi had a hundred thousand mendicants, arhats who had eliminated the vices, who possessed powers and had reached the very highest level of complete mastery of the mind‍—a great assembly of śrāvakas.

“At that time, Śāriputra, there was a weaver by the name of Sūtracunaka. He was beautiful, handsome, pleasant to behold, and possessed an abundance of excellent and splendid features. The Lord, the Tathāgata Bhāṅgīrasi, was dwelling in an area that was not very far from his place of work. When the day’s work was ended and he was on his way home in the evening, it was always his habit to visit the Lord, the Tathāgata Bhāṅgīrasi, and offer him some woven fabric. He would then proclaim, ‘Lord, as I make this offering of woven fabric through your inspiration, may I, Lord, be able to develop in future all the necessary roots of virtue to become a tathāgata, an arhat, a fully accomplished buddha.’ As a consequence of having made one thousand five hundred gifts of woven fabric, he did not fall into the lower realms for five hundred million eons. With these roots of virtue, he enjoyed the state of a king of the entire world for a billion eons. With these roots of virtue, he enjoyed the powerful state of Śakra for a billion eons. With these roots of virtue, gentle and agreeable acts of a beginner, he pleased a billion buddhas. [F.60.b] He constantly honored, worshiped, and venerated all of them and supplied them with flowers, incense, perfumes, garlands, ointments, aromatic powders, clothes, parasols, banners and flags, robes, and offerings of food, beds, seats, medicine for the sick, and utensils. Then, after incalculable eons, he fully realized the unsurpassable state of full awakening. He appeared in the world as a tathāgata, arhat, fully accomplished buddha by the name of Susaṃgṛhita. He was perfect in wisdom and conduct, and so forth, awakened, a lord. He remained for two hundred million eons and had two thousand million billion śrāvakas, arhats who had eliminated defilements, who were free from vices, who possessed powers, and so forth, and who had reached the very highest level of complete mastery of the mind‍—a great assembly of śrāvakas. He established fifty million bodhisatvas in the state of unsurpassed perfect awakening. He taught the Dharma, [MS.60.b] benefitting uncountable, innumerable sentient beings, and then passed into nirvāṇa. After this lord had attained final nirvāṇa, the true Dharma remained for a thousand years, and his relics were spread far and wide, just as my relics, Śāriputra, will be spread far and wide after I pass into final nirvāṇa.

“You should observe, Śāriputra, that it was because of his motivation for giving the cloth that he in turn could eventually accomplish the qualities of the Buddha. Śāriputra, it is the motivation that is great, and not the gift. Giving a great gift, Śāriputra, without the proper motivation, is simply crude. However many gifts one might give, one’s mind will not be purified.

“You should observe, Śāriputra, that it is in relying on the material world that everything is accomplished. The learned bodhisatva, Śāriputra, will perform acts of great generosity with few things. What he does is superior because it is done with the power of knowledge. It is vast because it is done with the power of wisdom. It is immeasurable because it is done through the power that comes from dedicating.”

Then, in order to clarify this point further, the Lord went on to speak these verses:

“This, Śāriputra, is the perfection of generosity of the bodhisatvas, the great beings, and by engaging in this perfection of generosity, the bodhisatvas train in the bodhisatva path.” [B9]