(upbeat music) - This podcast is brought to you by Free Buddhist Audio, the Dharma for Your Life. Our work is funded entirely by donations from our generous listeners. If you would like to help us keep this free, make a contribution at freebuddhistaudio.com/donate. Thank you and happy listening. - Thank you very much for that warm up. - Yes, so I'm going to give a talk on Dharma, which I've entitled The Emotional Life of the Sangha. And, well, as Sarah has said, "Dhana means generosity." But it's quite easy then to just think, oh, we know all about that. We know what generosity is, and she's gonna ask us for money, and (laughs) I'm not actually, (laughs) you know, and we can kind of put that to one side because we know all about it. But, and I sometimes think like that. It's such a familiar topic, generosity, dhana. But I found when I started thinking more deeply that there's just so much about generosity or dhana or giving as a practice that's fundamental to Buddhism and to our understanding of the spiritual path. Yeah, and just to our lives as human beings, it was really quite inspiring, I think, to think about it. So I'm going to just share my connected ramblings or maybe unconnected ramblings about the topic of dhana for probably about 30 or 40 minutes. And then we'll have a tea break, and then we'll come back and meditate. So, okay, dhana, it's the parley word meaning giving. So, yeah, and there's a lot of emphasis on dhana in Buddhism. It crops up everywhere in all the texts and in lots of lists. I started thinking, why should we give anything to anyone ever? Why dhana, why practice, why do we give? And what happens when we give? What's that about? And is it actually, is it always appropriate? And maybe there are some reasons not to give sometimes. So, you know, these thoughts sort of came up. Yeah, so the first thing I'll say about dhana in Buddhism is that it's a practice. It's something that we do, like meditation, like puja, like dharma study, like going on a treat, or something that, you know, ideally we would do. And we do, I'm sure we all practice dhana in some way. But it's practice, which means that it's a deliberate, conscious choice of a way of behaving or a way of organizing our energy for a given purpose. So it's a training, it's a practice, it's a training. And obviously, ethics are a training ground. And dhana is the second of the five precepts, or the positive counterpart to the second of the five precepts. So the five ethical training principles that we take on are non-harm, generosity, avoiding sexual misconduct, truthful speech, and avoiding intoxicants or practicing mindfulness. I think I've mixed up the positive and the negatives there. So, yeah, because they, all those five precepts have, you know, as men, as you probably know, they have a negative aspect, something we avoid doing and a positive aspect, something that we positively try to do more of. And in the case of the second precept, it's dhana as an antidote to taking the not-given, or to grasping or to greed, perhaps if you like. So dhana is something that we positively undertake to do when we undertake those five precepts. So that's quite a thought. We're not just, it isn't just that we're undertaking not to steal. We're undertaking to try to be more generous than we currently are. So it's, you know, there's an edge that we all have to work with. And if we're undertaking this precept, we're trying to go a little beyond the level that we have attained thus far. It's a training. So dhana, the second of the five precepts, is also the first of the six paramitas practiced by the Bodhisattva. Now this may sound like jargon to a few people here. Perhaps not, but so the Bodhisattva, I'll just explain briefly, it's sort of the ideal Buddhist, the Buddhist in training. So we have sort of fully developed Bodhisattvas like these ones on the walls, like Avalokiteshva in particular, archetypal Bodhisattva of compassion. And there's a whole range. It goes all the way down to trainee novice Bodhisattvas, which perhaps, you know, we are. We're sort of on our way to becoming one of these more developed, very glorious helpful beings at some distant point in the future, maybe if we carry on. So as trainee Bodhisattvas, we take on the six perfections, perfect ways of conduct of a Bodhisattva, of somebody in training to be a Buddha, to become an enlightened being. And these six ways of conduct, just the completion are dhana or giving, sealer or ethics. And then of course there's a loop here because ethics is usually covered in those five precepts and dhana is in there. But anyway, firstly dhana, secondly sealer. Thirdly, virya or energy or positive effort. Fourthly, kshanti or patience, which is very, very beautiful quality for a Bodhisattva to develop or for any human being to develop. The quality of patience, quite an active quality actually. You know, a quality of being able to be with what is without railing against it. Fifthly, samadhi, which is meditation, meditative states. And lastly pranya or wisdom, which in a sense underlies the previous five. All these practices need to be undertaken in a spirit of pranya, in a spirit of knowing how they fit in with the flow of how things really are. So these are the perfections that are practiced by Bodhisattvas who, those who are in training to become Buddhist, not just for their own sex, but for the benefit of all. That's the definition of a Bodhisattvas. And I thought it was interesting to find dhana at the beginning of this list of the perfections. Why would it be at the beginning? Does it mean that it's just a preliminary, a sort of forerunner to the more advanced real practices later on? Sometimes people, you know, you could be forgiven for thinking, oh, because these lists often start with dhana, well, maybe dhana's the beginner practice, and then for those of us who are further along the path, we don't have to bother about it, 'cause we've gone to the next one. Obviously it's not like that. It's not beginnerish at all. Perhaps it's most advanced. It'd be interesting to argue at some point, to see, well, what makes for an advanced practice and what makes for a beginner's practice? Yeah, why is dhana there even before sealer being morality? I think to understand this, we have to go back to the essence of Buddhism itself, to the wisdom of the enlightened mind and to the way that a Buddha would look at reality, and to insight and the goal of the spiritual life itself, which I suppose you could say is enlightenment, but what's that when we talk about enlightenment? Why are we trading a spiritual path? And what is it that we're trying to attain or achieve? So if we are aiming for enlightenment, what we're trying to do is develop, the fullness of our human potential, our potential as human beings, which means, according to Buddhism, it's the full flowering of wisdom and compassion. So we have that germanally in ourselves as human beings, but if we were to progress to the state of enlightenment, that wisdom and compassion that we have would be fully flowered. So that's where we're headed. We're on a long journey. It's more than one lifetimes' work, I believe. That's perhaps another point for discussion. And we're making use of teachings on this journey that have been offered to us from the past, people who have trod this path before us. So they've given us the benefit of their experience in the form of teachings and instructions and guidance. And that's what we use to orient ourselves on this path, on this long, long journey towards enlightenment. We're using the dharma, that's what it amounts to. And so along the way, one of the features, one of the principal events or results, I suppose, of practicing is that our ego becomes attenuated. Our individual, separate ego gets loosened up and becomes attenuated. And that's what we want. We all have a sense of ourselves, we all have a sense of an ego, which we need to protect, which we need to cherish, which is fine to cherish and protect as we do in the first stage of the metabarvana. But we need to not be limited by that ego, and spiritual practice consists in attenuating the boundaries of that ego. So we become, as time goes on, hopefully, a bit less self-referential, a bit less the center of everything. And we see things more in the terms of the general good, of everybody's good, or the good of all living beings, the good of the planet, less in terms of our individual, needs and desires and preferences. So this loosening up, this attenuation of our ego, is one of the fruits of spiritual practice. So as a result of practice, that starts to happen, and we start to benefit from not feeling so constrained by our ego. And it's also a method for deepening our practice and our understanding. So you get this quite often in Buddhism, that something is both a fruit and a practice in itself. It's like a positive loop, like, for instance, meditation posture. If you have a good meditation posture, and you can sit well, then that helps you to concentrate. And then the concentration gets reflected in your posture again. You've probably had the experience of getting quite concentrated in meditation, really being absorbed into practice. And your body just subtly straightens up. You'll spine subtly elongates, as your consciousness gets more integrated and settled and expanded at the same time. So, yeah. So the meditation posture is both a fruit and a practice, because you sit in a certain way to stimulate that practice to start with. And likewise, with other spiritual practices, if you speak truthfully, then communication with others becomes more authentic, and then it's easier and more natural to be fully truthful. So that's another positive loop. And if you develop meta towards others, people will pick up on that, people pick up on your goodwill, and you're liking for them, your goodwill and kindness towards them. They act more kindly towards you, then it's easier to develop meta towards them. So that's a kind of positive spiral, which is in line with the dharmic order of conditionality, if you like, the spiral path, which is the path we're trying to be on when we practice the dharma, when we practice Buddhism. So dharma, as a practice, works in the same way. If you give something, whether it's time or money or comfort to somebody or a kind of service, you do something for somebody, it opens up a channel, and there's a flow of subtle energy between you and the recipient. And that channel is opened and you feel more comfortable then with giving and more inclined to give again and more able to take pleasure in that giving. In 2008, there was a national order weekend for the women order members, and Diane Undie gave a talk on that weekend. And she talked, among other things, about practices that unite the order. I'm just calling it, they call the sangra havastus. And she said in that talk, the main benefit I feel from practicing dharma is happiness and an expensive opening of a heart. I feel more connected with people, more flowing and in relationship. Everything seems to flow more and be less stuck. So as an incidental benefit of practicing dharma, generosity, it often involves letting go of something. You know, it might be letting go of some money, it might be letting go of an idea of my time versus time for something else, somebody else. So whatever it is that we're kind of loosening our grip on, it's we're giving up something, we're giving something away. So we're sort of attenuating the tendency to grasp and cling to things, and we're moving towards a more flowing and open-handed relationship with the world. And so going back to the attenuation of the ego, if your main interest and concern were the well-being of all living beings, then it would be completely natural just to want to give them whatever they need, whatever they need or want. If that is really the thing motivating your life, you know, to work for the benefit of others, you just would want to give. So I think we're all sometimes in touch with that, you know, to greater or lesser degrees. So then the Buddha's natural attitude towards living beings and the Bodhisattva's natural attitude towards living sentient beings is a spontaneous wish to give to them and to just be of service. And this is the whole foundation of the spiritual path. And that's why Dharana is what comes first, an orientation towards meeting the emotional or spiritual or material or whatever needs of others, as well as our own. So this wish is beautifully expressed in one of them is the suit of golden light. And I'll just read a little quote from there. Everywhere in the spheres of all beings, may all the woes in the world be extinguished. May those beings whose senses are defective, whose limbs are deficient, all now become complete in senses. May those lying in the ten directions who are diseased, powerless, whose body is injured and who are without protection all be delivered quickly from their disease. And may they obtain health, strength and senses. May they have beautiful, gracious or suspicious forms and continually have a heap of numerous blessings. As soon as they think of them, may they be for them food and drink as they desire, great abundance and merits, lutes, drums and pleasant sounding symbols, springs, pools, ponds and tanks. As soon as they think of them, may they be for them lotus ponds of blue and gold and lotuses, food and drink. Likewise clothing, wealth, gold, ornament of gems and pearls, gold, barrel and various jewels. May they be no sounds of woe anywhere in the world. May they be not one being of opposing men and may they all be of noble aspect, creating light for one another. And it just goes on like this, the page is actually, they're rained down three times from the trees, perfume, garlands, ungrant clothing and so on. So there's this fervent wish just for beings to have what they need to relieve their suffering or just to make them some happy. And this emotional state flows directly from the Bodhisattva's desire to gain enlightenment, not just for his or her own sake, but for the benefit of all sentient beings. There's another very beautiful part in this chapter that says, "And may I be for those who are without deliverance, "without rescue, without refuge, "the deliverer, the refuge, the excellent protector." So the Bodhisattva here is wanting to put themselves in a position where they are going to really be able to help, to be the deliverer, the excellent protector. It's sort of like a knight in shining armour, kind of Indian equivalent. Very beautiful. So ultimately, this desire is in line with the enlightened wisdom of a Buddha. The wisdom that sees all things as being interconnected so that the happiness of one being is connected to, that's reflected in the happiness and the health and the well-being of all beings. Yeah, it would be impossible, say, for an enlightened being to enjoy something if it comes at the expense of another. It would just be a contradiction in terms. For instance, a Bodhisattva or a trainee Bodhisattva couldn't take pleasure in, say, hunting or any kind of blood sport or an activity that's based on inflicting suffering on a living being, like bullfighting or shooting birds out of the sky or actually even, in my opinion, fishing. Kind of, you know, comes under that as well. So all these practices are just the opposite of treating beings with loving kindness. The Bodhisattva on the country wants to protect beings, human and non-human from all forms of suffering, wants to nurture them and allow them space to grow and ultimately to grow towards enlightenment. So this is the emotional orientation, which underpins basically all spiritual development, i.e. the wish to help others. And giving is the most immediate, obvious expression of that wish, giving. Just being open-handed, being there to support. So Dana is absolutely fundamental. In fact, if it isn't, say, without some desire to help others, we wouldn't get very far in the spiritual life. So the main points so far are that Dana is a practice as in a training. It's the basis of all ethics. So in a sense, it's the basis of the whole path because enlightenment is about attenuating the ego and Dana loosens it up. And thirdly, practicing Dana leads to increasing connection with others, which leads to a stronger desire to be of benefit to them and then an even stronger wish to give to them. So it has a positive loop effect. And fourthly, that kindness is what flavors a Buddhist's behavior towards other living beings, ideally, kindness and matter. And kindness and generosity just go naturally together, like tea and biscuits, like salt and pepper. So kindness and generosity. And lastly, the Bodhisattvas wish is to help beings and Dana is the immediate concrete expression of that wish. So those are some of my thoughts about the importance of Dana in Buddhism and why one would do it. So I'll just talk a little bit now about more about the nuts and bolts of giving the what, say, and the how. So this will be a bit briefer. Sankra actually gave a talk on Dana in the Bodhisattva ideal series, which many people here have studied because it's part of the Mitra study course. And in that talk, he identified five things that could be given, five useful things. So the first is material things. This is really obvious. It's probably what we all think of first in terms of generosity. We have some material possessions. We have some money. We could give it. We could give some of it at least. So that's quite easy to do. Well, in theory. (laughs) Secondly, there's time, energy, and thought, which, well, we all have a quantum of that. So sharing that with others is an active of Dana, of generosity. Thirdly, there's knowledge. Sharing our knowledge. Where would we be without our teachers having shared knowledge with us, both secular and non-secular? Fourthly, there's life and limb. And fifthly, there's the gift of the Dharma. So, of course, it goes into all of these in more detail in that lecture, which is a very good lecture. You can find it on free Buddhist audio. So, yeah, the gift of the Dharma, I think that's interesting. It's sort of lasting a list. Sometimes it's said it's the highest gift. And I believe that. I believe that it is the highest gift because ultimately it's the gift of the Dharma that in the long run is going to alleviate suffering the most. In that it will help beings to move towards enlightenment and to become more harmless and more kind and more effective in the world as a force for good. So it's the highest gift, you know. You could, there's lots of reasons why it's the gift of the Dharma is, of utmost importance. So this center exists in order to give the gift of the Dharma and I personally feel very honored to be a part of this center. I feel somehow I've stumbled into this life, this Buddhist life, and somehow I've ended up connected with this center, you know, profoundly connected with the center. And in some ways I don't know how it happened, but I just feel very honored that I'm here and that, you know, I can do my part in serving this vision. So I'm in a position where I can give time and energy and thought to the center. So in this way I'm part of helping to make the Dharma available in the world. But it's interesting because, well, I come back to giving and receiving later because I don't actually feel as though I feel more like I'm receiving than giving when I'm involved in the center. But why should I, or why should anyone want to do that? Why should they want to be part of a center like this and give their time and energy to it? Two reasons sprung to mind for me. The first was out of gratitude, which is a really interesting emotion in itself, gratitude, a very beautiful emotion. It's called in Pali Catanuta. And there's actually a whole chapter devoted to gratitude and then now this book, "What is the Sangha?" I'd certainly recommend. And yeah, so it's disgusting here, but there are, you know, being objects of our gratitude, such as parents and teachers, so on. It's gone into a number of pages. And I thought an interesting part of this chapter was going into reasons for ingratitude. And basically, Banti in this chapter identified four reasons not to be grateful, not to be grateful, four reasons why people sometimes aren't grateful. Firstly, the failure to recognize a benefit as a benefit. You've received a benefit but you don't realize that it's a benefit, so it's a failure to recognize that. Secondly, taking benefits for granted. I think it's very easy to do this. It's very easy for us to take for granted things like, you know, classic one is the NHS in this country because it's always been there in our lifetime. You know, we take it for granted, but maybe we don't. Perhaps I'm just talking about myself, but actually I don't think I take it for granted. I feel very privileged again to live in a country that has the compassion, that you know, where the compassion has been manifested, to that extent, where healthcare is provided free at the point of delivery. I just think that's so advanced and so civilized. So, yeah, taking benefits for granted. So that would be another reason for ingratitude. Egoism, you know, why should I be grateful to anybody? Another reason. And forgetfulness, just plain forgetfulness. We've received a benefit but it's not in the forefront of our mind, so we've forgotten. So, yeah, I think if one, you know, can counteract those negative tendencies, gratitude flows. Gratitude is sort of not far from the surface in most people's lives, I think. It doesn't take much to start to remember benefits received and reasons to be grateful for that. Definitely something that's worth doing on a regular basis. So the second reason why would one want to give one's energy and time or generosity in whatever way to a centre like this is because it not only benefits others, but all in my case, I'm saying it benefits me. Sometimes it's quite hard to tell the difference between the two, between benefiting others and benefiting myself, especially when it comes to being involved in something that's so obviously wholesome and so obviously a benefit to many people in very immediately apparent ways. People often begin as classes where people, at their very first class, they've just sat and done a metabolic or the mindfulness of reading for the first time and they sometimes overwhelmed with happiness after that experience, even if the meditation itself might not have been crash hot or whatever, but they can be so grateful at that point just to have had that immensely calming and refreshing experience of being able to give some attention to their inner life and to find themselves in conditions that are supportive to that, to find themselves in a supportive structure. So I really enjoy beginners' classes because of that, you know, that initial contact with the Dharma and how people really respond to it. So when that happens, I feel like I'm receiving something, I really feel as though I'm being lifted when, you know, when somebody expresses that sort of experience. So it's an absolute delight. The first little short happily in pieces and is a fire about that. Giving is the natural, unforced exchange of one's energy with that of others. In this sense, real giving is receiving. So giving and receiving, obviously two sides of the one coin, it's sometimes the one is the other. An ultimate Dharma goes beyond giver and receiver. That's probably why they're so closely connected. There's just a flow of generosity. Sometimes you get a sense of that when you want to contribute with any sense that you're giving anything. So you're just being yourself. And you see that in different things happening in the world. I've heard recently of the response of Japanese people to earthquakes. I was talking to a friend of mine who had been in Japan and not at the time of the recent earthquake, but she had been there a number of times a year ago. And she said it's quite common in Japan. Of course, they have a lot of earthquakes and sometimes they're quite strong earthquakes and things fall off, fall off shelves and things fall down. So it's quite common after an earthquake for video cameras to pick up people in supermarkets, lifting the products up off the floor and putting them back on the shelf. They're not looting. They're just, there's been an earthquake. Things have been rattled about and fallen down. So it's time to put it back up again. And I was very impressed by that because there's obviously such a sense of just an impersonal wish to just be a benefit, to put things right. So on some fundamental level, that's our humanity, you know, working at its best, I think. Yeah, and closer to home, sometimes you get a sense of that when, well, there's a lot of people about and some washing up to do and someone just starts to wash up. It's, in fact, it happens all the time here that people just generously go into the kitchen and wash up, dry up, do various things. Or, you know, you replace the loo roll because it's empty or the doorbell rings, so you answer it. So just being there and being willing to sort of respond to quite ordinary needs around about, that is generosity and it might not seem like very much, but it's actually incredibly important because the sense of a sanger operating in a healthy way is reliant on that sort of attitude, that attitude of being generous, taking responsibility and just being available. Yeah, in fact, I think, yeah, just making yourself available to do whatever's needed, it's quite a strong practice in its own right and Bantih once said something like, I'm paraphrasing, the most useful person around a centre is simply an ordinary human being who is willing to help and those, you know, that is definitely what all centres need, basically all organisations need ordinary human people (laughs) human beings, I mean, who are willing to help. I mean, skills maybe, skills can be useful, but even more useful is that willingness. So not wishing to be too opportunistic here, but I can't help, I can't resist saying that we need volunteers and making a little plug for that. Elaine, who works upstairs in the office, or who works in the centre has produced some flyers about volunteering, there's a few of them at the front. Just to sort of make the message out, make it known that we, you know, we're always, we welcome any help that people can give us with various tufts, like office work, gardening, cleaning, maintenance, cooking, all sorts of things. Yeah, so we rely on volunteers to actually help keep the centre running. There's more work actually than a small team can manage on its own. So we already have good support from volunteers, but more is always needed. Yeah, and especially, well, either regular or one off. There are regular times in the week that are very useful for us. There's two times in particular. One is Tuesday afternoons, particularly between four and six, because we've recently decided in the centre team we're going to have a sort of work period after our team meeting on Tuesdays, which goes from two to four o'clock. And then after that meeting, we'll just have a period of work where we load up the car for the outreach class and put on the potatoes for the Tuesday class and maybe do some cleaning and carry around some mats and things like that. So any help is very gratefully received on a Tuesday afternoon. Come and join in with the team's work. And that would be lovely. That would be a sense of us creating something together. And Fridays, another good day. We've got a star volunteer here, Dave, who's in most Fridays doing the garden. And yeah, so on Fridays, there's actually Dharmashura organises the gardening and he's always happy to have more help with that because you've probably seen the beautiful garden where it takes a lot of work, keeping it like that. Yeah, but anyway, there's, those aren't the only two times in the week, but I just thought I'd highlight those two in case that sort of fits in with anybody's lifestyle. So yeah, just a few words about, that was the what, we had the why and the what. Just a couple of words about the how. One can give Dharna, one can practise Dharna with body, speech or mind. And of course they're all linked, but I just want to say a final word about mental giving. So thoughts of loving kindness matter, basically. These thoughts are the forerunner of the deeds of loving kindness. They have to come first. It's like the first verse of the Dharmapada, all experiences led by mind, created by mind. So, you know, similarly with Dharna, it comes out of thoughts of loving kindness, thoughts of not necessarily generosity, but just kindness first of all towards other living beings. So that's the connection with Dharna and Meta. Meta itself is an act of mental generosity. And it's just as important as physical and verbal generosity, because without Meta, it is quite difficult to be truly generous and truly helpful. And finally, Dharna is a means of unifying the Sangha. In his lecture on the Sangha havastus, the four means of unification of the Sangha, Banti says that Dharna is a form of communication. We give expression to our special awareness of someone, to our positive feeling and genuine concern for them. So as a Sangha havastu, it has a special function to perform in the Sangha. It's the function of establishing positive contact with people and just helping to form that spiritual community. We're building a spiritual community not only for today, but for the future, future generations, whom we haven't met and won't meet. They'll be here in the future when we're gone. And we are standing on the foundations that have been laid down for us by the teachers of the past and by practitioners of the past who've worked for our benefit. So we've created good conditions here, but they come on the foundation of conditions that were put in place before. So that's another thing that we can be grateful for. And for just being able to participate in a super personal flow of dana. So that was all I was going to say about dana being the emotional life of the Sangha. Thank you. (audience applauds) - We hope you enjoyed this week's podcast. Please help us keep this free. Make a contribution at freeputus.io.com/donate. And thank you. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) [BLANK_AUDIO]
