Todayand#8217;s FBA Dharmabyte, and#8220;The Bodhisattvaand#8217;s Gifts,and#8221; by Padmavjra, is from the third talk in the series: and#8220;The Diamond Sutra and#8211; Taking Mind to its Limits.and#8221; Padmavajra takes a look into the world of the Bodhisattva and the six Perfections of Wisdom, especially dana and#8211; generosity which forms an essential basis of Buddhist practice and of life.
Dharmabytes from free buddhist audio
The Bodhisattva’s Gifts
[music] Dharma Bites 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. [music] And in this suit, regenerosity stands for all the parameters. You could say that Dharma is in fact the only perfection. It's the first, but it's also the last of the perfections, because the Bodhisattva wants to benefit all beings, so he's going to be generous to them. He's going to be giving to them on all kinds of levels. That's how he benefits them. And they kind of work this out, the commentators as Sangha and Vasubandhu. But first of all, there's just straightforward giving of material things. That's Dharma as it were in the limited sense. You give money, time, energy, food. You give yourself fully. Even this could reach extraordinary proportions, giving your body, giving your life, if necessary. The Bodhisattva regards himself as the servant of all. The servant of everybody. This is a very strong aspiration in the Bodhisattva tradition. But he gives other things. The Bodhisattva gives confidence, gives protection, gives fearlessness. These are very, very important grits. People are often very frightened, can get very frightened, very nervous, uncertain, and confident in this changing world of ours. So the Bodhisattva aims to reassure people, to support people, to encourage people, so that they feel at ease. He does this, obviously, as much as through his presence, as through any particular kind of methods. And these gifts are said to arise, especially from the two parameters of ethics and patience for parents. Because of his practice of these, the Bodhisattva is morally strong, if you like. And he's at calm, and at ease, doesn't get ruffled by things through his practice of patience. So he communicates confidence, calm, and ease, and puts people at their ease. Well, that's generous activity. And thirdly, he gives the dharma. And of course, this is the great concern of the Bodhisattva. That people should hear and receive and know the dharma. He wants to transmit, to give his sense of the deep meaning of things to others. He wants to communicate that. And of course, to give the dharma, he needs to have made the dharma a living experience in himself. You can't give the dharma unless you have the dharma in your being. So his gift of the dharma arises from his practice of effort. His effort on the path, his practice of meditation, particularly his experience of dhyana, of profound meditation. And of course, it arises from his wisdom. His understanding of what the Buddha teaches, what the great teachers say, and his own insight into the dharma. That's from that he can give the dharma to others. So from this, you can see your whole life as the practice of dharma paramita. You could regard the spiritual life, Buddhist life, simply in terms of dharma and generosity. Or practice, all spiritual practice. Whatever you possess, gain, learn, attain is for passing on to others, to enrich others, to enrich the world. So you could well look at your entire spiritual life in terms of dharma. And I think if we thought of the spiritual life in these terms, I think it might be really rather liberating. Really, very liberating indeed. In a way, it's very, very clear what has to be done. I think Dada Rinpoche was once asked, "What to do when you're not sure what to do?" He said, "Well, help others, give." And you can be sure that that's having a positive effect. So this is a standard, a very basic Buddhist idea, and we need to get that interview. First of all, we need to live this, we need to experience this, if we're going to get any sense of what the Diamond Sutra is on about. We hope you enjoyed today's dharma bite. Please help us keep this free. Make a contribution at freebuddhistaudio.com/donny. And thank you. [music fades out] [music fades out] [music fades out] [BLANK_AUDIO]