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You can offer money to hire a 
person but if they 
don't want to do the job, you can 
offer the highest 
salary in vain. Generosity is like 
the downpayment 
needed to get a new project rolling. 
If if wasn't for 
the generosity of our parents, how 
could we have 
survived after the moment of our 
birth? If it wasn't 
for the extra hours of work put in 
by our teachers, 
would we be so able to make sense 
of the world 
around us today? Thus it is true 
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that before all else 
one must practice generosity. 
A.2.3 Respect for generosity 
makes you 
respectable too! 
Some people complain that others 
show them less 
respect than they deserve. If we are 
moved by the 
value of giving, then others will 
respect us for that 
(i.e. we have respect for 
generosity) then when our 
generosity gives its fruit then we 
too will be the 
object of respect. If you find that 
others never treat 
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you with much respect then the 
situation is telling 
you that your attitude to giving is a 
little reluctant. 
Thus if you find you are not being 
treated with 
enough respect, then don't go 
blaming others, put 
the blame on yourself first. 
Generosity is thus an 
indispensable prerequisite for 
being a `pillar of society'. 
B. GENEROSITY 
B.1 Definition of Generosity 
The Pali word `dAna' means 
literally `to give'. In 
this Blessing, we take generosity to 
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mean: 
`sacrificing your own possessions 
for the benefit 
of other people, wholeheartedly, 
with the 
intention to honour the virtue of 
that person, 
or to assist a person of similar 
social standing, 
or to help someone who is worse 
off than ourselves.' 
If you are not wholehearted about 
giving then it 
cannot be called `dAna'. The 
Buddhist usage of the 
word `generosity' is therefore 
broader than the 
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equivalent word `charity' in 
Christian culture which 
isusually restricted to giving to the 
poor and the 
sick. In the spiritual sense, 
`dAna'sometimes refers 
to our intention to give, sometimes 
it refers to the 
thing we want to give, sometimes 
it refers to abstention 
from wrong-doing (e.g. not 
seeking vengeance 
from someone who has harmed 
you). In this 
particular blessing we will speak 
of only the first 
two instances of usage of the word, 
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because we have 
already mentioned abstention from 
wrong-doing 
in Blessing Nine on 
"self-discipline". 
B.2 Categories of Generosity 
(A.i.90) 
There are two main categories of 
generosity 
1. Concrete generosity 
[amisadAna] 
2. Abstract generosity 
[dhammadAna] 
Material generosity can be 
subdivided by the quality 
of the gift: 
1. Giving things of worse quality 
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than you 
would use yourself [dAnadAsa] 
2. Giving things of equal quality 
that you 
would use yourself [dAnasahAya] 
3. Giving things of better quality 
than you 
would use yourself [dAnasAmE] 
Or by the exclusivity of the gift 
(M.iii.254-6, A.iii.392) 
1. Personal [patipuggalikadAna] 
2. Community [saIghadAna] 
Or by the nature of the gift (see 
BlessingFive §C.2 for 
further details), generosity can be 
divided into: giving 
useful material objects 
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[vatthudAna]; giving 
worldly knowledge 
[vidhayadAna]; giving spiritual 
knowledge [dhammadAna]; 
forgiving 
[abhAyadAna]; humility 
[apacAyana]; service 
[veyyAvacca]; transfer of merit 
[pattidAna], and; 
rejoicing in the merit of others 
[pattAnumodanA]. 
B.3 Reasons for Giving 
Some reasons for giving are less 
noble than others 
—therefore it is useful to study the 
variety available 
to that we can select the noblest. 
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According to 
the Buddha's teaching in the 
PaEhama DAna Sutta 
[A.iv.236] there are eight different 
reasons why people 
give gifts: 
I. giving because in the hope of 
getting something 
in return [Asajja dAnaO deti]; 
Giving because 
wants something in return. 
Sometimes people 
Blessing Fifteen: Generosity 187 
give because they want others to 
see them doing 
so, or they want to become famous 
as the 
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result; 
2. giving out of fear [bhayA 
dAnaO deti]; Giving 
out of fear. Some give gifts to 
others because they 
are afraid that if they don't give 
something the 
recipient will create problems for 
them (e.g. protection 
money). Such giving can even 
include 
being scared someone won't love 
us so we give 
them things to win their love; 
3. giving in order to repay past 
favours [adAsi me 
ti dAnaO deti]; Giving in order to 
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repay a debt 
of gratitude we have to someone 
else; 
4. giving to procure future 
favours [dAsati me ti 
dAnaO deti]; Giving with the 
thought that the 
recipient will repay our favour in 
the future —
e.g. Mr.A gives Mr.B some sweets 
so that the next 
day he can invite himself to eat a 
meal at Mr.B's 
house; 
5. giving for giving's sake [sAhu 
dAnaO ti dAnaO 
deti]; Giving for the joy of it - 
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perhaps because 
spontaneously inspired by a 
particular monk or 
seeing a group of children without 
transport to 
go to the temple and gladly paying 
the cost of 
hiring a bus for them. 
6. giving out of sympathy for the 
monks [ahaO 
pacAmi, ime na pacanti, na 
arahAmi pacanto 
apacantAnaO adAtunaO ti dAnaO 
deti]; Knowing 
that monks cannot cook rice or 
catch fish to 
feed themselves out of fear that the 
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parammaraAA sugatiO saggaO 
lokaO 
upapajjissAmE ti dAnaO deti] 
The first four reasons are no more 
than ways to keep 
up good relationships with the 
people around us. 
We want others to remember us for 
our goodness 
— it is the only reason for giving. 
There is no merit 
in such giving. This is the sort of 
giving which politicians 
like to do in order to win votes or 
of shops 
wanting to boost their sales by 
giving away free 
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gifts. The remaining reasons are all 
types of giving 
which are done for merit, however 
people differ as 
to the extent they see the true 
nature of merit in 
what is given. In this blessing we 
will try to go as 
deep as we can, i.e. to discover the 
sort of giving 
that is going to improve the quality 
of the mind. 
C. HOW TO CULTIVATE 
GENEROSITY 
Here is some practical advice for 
cultivating generosity 
in a way that fulfils all the 
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requisite components. 
One should practice generosity 
according to 
the following steps: 
C.1 Make an intention 
Purify your intention by 
recollecting the virtues 
ofthe Triple Gem and the power of 
generosity to 
banish stinginess from the mind 
filling your 
mind with faith and the joy of the 
act of generosity 
you plan to do. Once you have 
made your intention, 
make sure you fulfil it because 
according to 
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the VaAijja Sutta (A.ii.81), the 
Buddha taught that 
if someone has made a promise to 
offer a certain 
amount of requisites to a monk or 
someone who 
keeps the Precepts, or to parents 
who are virtuous, 
but when it comes to the appointed 
time: 
• do not come up with the goods, 
then in business 
they will always lose money; 
• come up with less goods than 
they said they 
would then they will always 
receive less than 
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the anticipated profit; 
• come up with the goods, no 
more, no less than 
they promised, they will always 
receive the anticipated 
profit; 
188 A Manual of Peace: 38 Steps 
towards Enlightened Living 
• come up with goods exceeding 
the promised 
amount then they will always 
receive more than 
the anticipated profit. 
C2 Seek out an appropriate gift: 
Seek out or buy an appropriate and 
wholesome gift 
by your honest efforts. Some 
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people expect to find 
joy in giving to something else 
something they have 
obtained in a dishonest way —
such as picking daffodils 
in a public park to offer on a 
Buddhist shrine. 
However in his teaching on the 
Ten Ways of Consuming 
Sense Pleasure [kAmabhogE] 
(A.v.176) the 
Buddha taught that there is no joy 
to be had in the 
giving of gifts obtained in 
dishonest or partially 
dishonest ways. 
C.2.1 The Quality of the Gift 
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