Aug 3 -AN9.20 Velama -Power of Giving -Sunday Series

So, let me share the screen. I'm going to see if you guys can see this. Okay, so this is Anguttara Nikaya 9.20, the Velama Sutta. This is what we would call in India, kanji. Given for people when they need to recover or are convalescing from some sickness. It's easy on the digestion. When I was in Kerala and I was at this Ayurvedic center, one of the things that they give you to drink for most of the day is this kanji. So it's supposed to be nourishing and good for the system. Anyway,

We have to understand the cultural context in which the Buddha was living and why he was instructing the way he was instructing. You see, most people during that time in ancient India were concerned with getting to heaven, getting to meet with the devas, meeting Brahma, becoming filled with riches and gold and ornaments and vehicles, in this case chariots and things like that, so their minds were always towards that. And what the Buddha here is saying is that there is a way in which we give, but if we give in a way that is disrespectful and inconsiderate, what that means is first and foremost you're not giving mindfully. You don't realize, as he says, gives what should be discarded, what would be discarded, gives without a view of future consequences.

So when you give, you give to the best of your ability, whatever you can give, right? So this is, well, here's the other thing. It says, does not give with one's own hand. This can be understood broadly. One is, of course, when you are directly giving to someone, like a monk or a teacher, you give with both hands because it's respectful and it shows that you're mindful and you're aware of the value that you've received in terms of the teachings or in terms of what you are offering, because of the merit that you will receive and what this means for the person that you're giving to as well.

Sometimes what happens is you can't give directly. So it's not just about giving with your hand. It's about you having a direct sort of intention to give, right? It's not that you are being forced to give. It's not like you are thinking about giving and you're not so sure whether you should give or not. There should be a one-pointed intention to give, giving to those who require it. And so one of the things that I do personally is whatever I receive in the form of Dana for my teachings or in the form of fees for my consultations, private consultations, I always make it a point once everybody else gets their share, because there are people who manage and there are other things that are going on that are directly related to what I do.

Then whatever is left over, I always just give 10% off the top, just 10%. And so that could mean anything. That could mean a few hundred bucks. That could mean a couple thousand bucks. It doesn't really matter. But the idea here is you have a direct intention that I will give a portion of this towards the Sangha or towards building a center or towards supporting a particular teacher be.

So the only reason I use 10% is because that's the way I grew up learning about it. For those of you who've been in a Christian household or Jewish household, you'll know this, which is, my parents would do this all the time. I grew up in a Catholic school and I was brought up there early on in my life. And my mom was religiously Catholic and she would always give 10% of what was received over that week, at least 10%. And so my parents kind of instilled that in me, which is no matter what you do, always give at least 10%. So I say 10% is a good minimum. And that's what I generally give.

And I might give more when required. And how do I give? I can't necessarily give directly to people with my own hands. But I have people in India who know what the monks require. And this person, for example, he manages everything, from preparing or having people prepare the meals for the monks, to buying new robes or acquiring new things for the monks, whatever is required for the monastery and things like that. So all I do is I trust in him and I send him my 10% and then he does what needs to be done, right? So if you can do that, that's great. Or just you directly giving; it's however you can give, with one-pointed intention. And of course here the Buddha says that with regards to the future consequences, you have, you know, you don't incline towards being able to enjoy your life. There's something wonderful about the generosity, because when you give there is such a great degree of contentment that you feel. You feel uplifted. Your mind is full of joy.

Your mind is full of happiness and you realize joy in giving, joy in sharing what you have. And the more you do that, the easier it is for your mind to actually fully receive whatever it is you receive as well. And so he says enjoyment of superb food, superb vehicles, superb clothing and all of these things. But that's relative.

It's not like because you're going to be giving whatever to a monk now, you're going to receive a BMW or something like that. It just means that wherever you are and whatever you receive, to that level, to that extent, you're able to fully enjoy whatever it is that you receive. And in the last part, he says, one's children and wives, one's slave servants and workers. Well, we live in a different world now. There is a greater degree of communication with you and the people in your life, your partners, your spouses, your friends. If you have a business, your employees. If whatever it is that you're able to communicate freely with them, and you're able to be heard and understood. One gives alms, whether coarse or excellent.

Again, it doesn't matter what kind of gift you give. It's about the intention. One gives respectfully. One gives considerately. Gives with one's own hand. Gives what would not be discarded. In other words, whatever you're going to give, it's something that you give because it's valuable. It's a value to the other person. Gives with a view of future consequences. You know that there will be benefit and fruit from this. Then wherever the result of that gift is produced for one, one's mind inclines towards the enjoyment of superb food, toward the enjoyment of superb clothing, toward the enjoyment of superb vehicles, toward the enjoyment of whatever is superb among the five objects of sensual pleasure.

Also, people in your life want to listen to you. Where did we go? They lend an ear and apply their minds to understand. For what reason? Just this is the result of actions that are done respectfully. So it's not about just giving. It's about whatever you do in a respectful and mindful manner as well. In the past, householder, there was a Brahmin named Velama. He gave such a great alms offering as this.

84,000 golden bowls filled with silver. 84 silver bowls filled with gold. 84,000 bronze bowls filled with bouillon. 84,000 elephants. I don't know if there were that many elephants back in the day, but okay. With golden ornaments, golden banners covered with nets of gold thread. 84,000 chariots with upholstery of lion skins, tiger skins, leopard skins, and saffron dyed blankets with golden ornaments, gold thread. 84,000 milk cows. That I can believe. There's a cow on every corner in India. With jute feathers and bronze pails. 84,000 maidens. Why would you give a maiden? That doesn't make sense, but okay. Adorned with jeweled urns. 84,000 couches. Wow, that's a big furniture store. Spread with rugs, blankets, and covers with excellent coverings of antelope hide, with canopies and red bolsters.

Yada, yada, yada, yada. Okay. How much more of food and drink, snacks, meals, refreshments, and beverages? It seemed to be flowing like rivers. You know, whenever you see this amount, 84,000, that's not a real number, right? That's just like a lot. He gave a lot. He gave abundantly. Like when you hear, and 500 people became arahants. It's just like, that's a lot of people.

So it's not. Because the amount, 84,000, is used in many different Indian traditions. And it's just to mean, like, that's a lot. You might think, householder, he was someone else, the Brahmin Velama, who on that occasion gave that great alms offering. But you should not look at it in such a way. I myself was the Brahmin Velama, who on that occasion gave that great alms offering.

At that alms offering there was no one worthy of offerings, no one who purified the offering. This is also very important to understand. There's a concept in India which is that somebody should be worthy of offering. This can be strange to the Western mindset, or to the non-Indian mindset, but the idea here is that, somebody, you should give to everyone, definitely, but there is also this thing of: if you give food to somebody who doesn't need it, why would you do that? In other words, you give to somebody who actually requires what it is that you're giving. So I gave you this example of my person in India who I give this money to, and he will utilize it in the way that it is required. So he won't just go haphazardly buying food, and he will actually go and see what is actually required, right?

And where does it need to go? So that's one understanding. You just don't give in that way. You understand what is required and you give accordingly. So there was no one worthy of offerings, no one who purified the offerings. Now this is a different way of looking at it, giving to the Sangha, giving to a noble person. Even more fruitful than the great alms offering that the Brahmin Velama gave, would it be to feed one person accomplished in view?

That means one person who has gotten super mundane right view. Even more fruitful than that, the great alms offering that the Brahmin Velama gave, and feeding a hundred persons accomplished in view, would it be to feed one once-returner? So this is now getting to the attainments. Likewise, it would be even more fruitful than the great alms offering that he gave, and feeding a hundred once-returners, would it be to give or feed one non-returner. Even more fruitful than that is feeding a hundred non-returners, would it be to be feeding one arahant. Now here's interesting. So it goes even more fruitful than feeding a hundred arahants, would it be to feed one Pacceka Buddha.

I don't know where you're going to find one like that, but even more fruitful than feeding a hundred Pacceka Buddhas, would it be to feed the Tathagata, the arahant, the perfectly enlightened one? Would it be to feed the Sangha of Bhikkhus headed by the Buddha? So he says, it's not just me, the Buddha, but the Sangha. Would it be to build a dwelling dedicated to the Sangha of the four quarters? So this is also wonderful. Would it be for one with the mind of confidence to go to refuge to the Buddha, the Dhamma and Sangha? Now we're getting somewhere, right? So it's the beginning of the path. Generosity is to offer and to give, to give to those in need, to give to those who require things.

But the thing is, you don't know anyone specifically who might be a sotapanna. You don't know anyone who might specifically be a once-returner and all of these other things. So just give freely with the intention that may this offering be of some level of service to the being that I'm giving. Give to dogs, give to cats, give to cows.

You start from there and give to children, give to the aged, give to the sick, give to the poor, give to the needy, give to anybody that you can give to. You don't know who one person is. You really don't know what is their level of attainment. You don't know what is their level of mind. And then, of course, it says giving to the Sangha, right? We don't have a Buddha to give to, but we give and dedicate to the Sangha. We build quarters for the Sangha. But beyond that, now it gets really good, which is if we have and take refuge in our minds and hearts in the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha.

What does that mean when we say a mind of confidence? This path works because we have walked it. So you need the generosity to be able to walk the path, to find benefit from the path, and thereby establish experiential confidence, realizing that indeed the Buddha is the personification of what is possible in terms of liberation and freedom. Indeed, the Dhamma is the realization of what is impersonal and what is beyond that, which is Nibbana. who actually continue this process in whatever way they can. But more than that, we have a community of like-minded people who meditate together, like how we do here every Sunday.

And so he says, would it be for one with the mind of confidence to undertake the five precepts, to abstain from the destruction of life, to abstain from taking what is not given, to abstain from wrongful sexual activity, to abstain from false speech, to abstain from liquor, wine, and intoxicants, the basis for heedlessness. Now it gets interesting. So now the generosity helps us see the benefit of keeping the precepts.

And our mind gets even further uplifted. And when it gets even further uplifted, our mind feels relief. Our mind is able to get easily collected and thereby start to go into the practice of samadhi. Even more fruitful would it be to develop a mind of loving kindness, even for the time it takes to pull a cow's udder.

Not sure how long that takes, but it's probably very quick. So just having a moment of loving kindness is worth more than all the other stuff that the Buddha talked about. So don't worry, you don't need to go to the shopping mall and find 84,000 elephants. Just develop loving kindness. And this is the greater of all the other generosity and everything else that you can do. Because it's through this loving kindness that you experience non-ill will. Through compassion, which then comes naturally, that you cultivate the non-cruelty. And you're continuing to walk the path. expunge, starts to diminish.

And in that moment, whatever limited karma is there starts to get extinguished. And here's something interesting. He says, even more fruitful householder than the great alms offering that the Brahmin Velama gave and feeding one person accomplished in view, a hundred persons accomplished in view, a once-returner, a hundred once-returners, a non-returner, a hundred non-returners. An arahant feeding a hundred arahants, feeding one Pacceka Buddha, and feeding a hundred Pacceka Buddhas, and feeding the Tathagata, the perfectly enlightened one, and feeding the Sangha of Bhikkhus headed by the Buddha, and building a dwelling dedicated to the Sangha of the Four Quarters, and for one with a mind of confidence to go for refuge to the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha, and for one with the mind of confidence to undertake the precepts, and for one to develop the mind of loving kindness, even for the time it takes to pull a cow's udder, would it be to develop a perception of impermanence just for the time of a finger snap?

What does this mean, the perception of impermanence? So you have cultivated sila, you have cultivated generosity, you have cultivated sila, you have cultivated samadhi, and now you have panya, and you see for yourself the conditioned existence in every moment. This is what it means to be able to be mindful of the four noble truths in every moment, to see the conditionality of every experience, to realize that every experience is conditioned, therefore liable to change, which means it's unstable or unsatisfactory, and it's impermanent.

Therefore, not worth holding on to because ultimately it will lead to disappointment and disillusionment. Therefore, it's not me, mine, or myself. Therefore, I experience equanimity. Therefore, I experience disenchantment. Therefore, I experience dispassion. And therefore, I experience liberation. So, it's not about noting, oh, this is impermanent, this is impermanent, this is arising and passing. It's about the realization and seeing for yourself and disengaging from every experience, from every sensory and mental experience, from the viewpoint of a self, from the standpoint of this is me, this is mine, this is myself. It is basically in the seeing, there's only the seen. In the hearing, there's only the heard. In the sensing, there's only the sense. In the cognizing, there's only the cognized.

When you have this way of experiencing life that is greater than all the other things. And this is what the Buddha is referring to. And this is the step-by-step process. Develop generosity, uplift the mind. Develop sila, silence the mind. Or at least start to collect the mind. Develop samadhi, experience the otherworldly super mundane joy and equanimity. And thereby experience panya and be So, any questions? shopping mall for any of these?

No, it's inside. No questions? Hey, Nelson, I have a question. Yes. So since giving is so great and so satisfying, why does that concept not, why isn't it on every street corner? What has been lost? What has been missed that it hasn't taken hold of just everyday ways of being? It's so interesting because you don't find it just in the Buddha Dharma. You find it in every tradition. It's not just the Eastern traditions. You even look into the Bible, for example, it talks about, and it's the only time when God says in the Bible, he says, this is the only time you can test me. If you are generous and you give a portion of whatever you receive, I will make it worth your while.

He says that. So it's like we've lost it because somehow we've been conditioned to take, take, take, take, right? that has been taken on because of the way that people have started to become accustomed to, which is like, it's a dog-eat-dog world out there and you have to do whatever you can to make as much money as you can. And greed is good, as Gordon Gekko would say in the 80s.

And so people have that sort of scarcity mindset, like I need to be able to provide for my family. wrong with that. You want to be able to provide for your family. But if you were to really test this out, this principle out, and you are generous, there's not a moment when you won't feel satisfied. And there's not a moment when you are not taken care of. And that requires a certain level of faith in some sense. It requires a certain level of falling off the cliff and saying, okay, I'm going to give this portion and we'll see what happens.

So I think we have the cultivation of this amongst few people in the population because not a lot of people are accustomed to this or exposed to this kind of situation. Yeah, look, somebody says, just being generous with anyone makes me feel good. It's a win-win. What about the intention behind giving? The intention is this will benefit the other person. It will benefit me as well. And so I give with loving kindness.

Oh, okay. I didn't know about that. Seven types of intentions. Maybe we'll do that next time. Yes, Anne. It happens in animals, and I see it in children without them being told they should be generous. A cat will bring you a dead bird, or a child will give you, here, you want to eat my candy? They take it out of their mouth to give to you so you can have a taste. Yeah, I think generosity may be one of the good qualities that human nature has. We're not originally evil. That's right. I agree. We have qualities in ourselves that might get buried by culture, but I don't think it's a foreign thing, generosity.

Yeah, I agree. I agree. Yeah, that's a good point. Even animals do that. Animals can do that. So it's really getting back to our true nature by being generous and realizing there's enough to go around everywhere, for everyone, for every being. Hey, Delson. It's kind of interesting that I'm looking at the sutta from Bhikkhu Sujato and the one that you just read, and they're very different. Oh, okay. And Sujato leaves out the second part, where if you are following precepts and you're taking refuges and you give to somebody, this is purifying the gift. And this is even better, way better.

And that's left out in this one here. And I thought, wow, that's interesting. This is a case where it really is purifying the gift by the giver. Right. Yeah. And the other part is that it can just be anybody who gives to an arahant or anything like that. But if they're also following the path, this makes the gifts so much more powerful.

Interesting. Yeah. Wow. The other thing I noticed was, I have never seen this before, and I never really thought about it, is that when we give, we're told don't think about the future. Don't think about what you're going to get. Don't think about anything. Well, here it says, think about the future. Think about the consequence. Rejoice in the consequence. Rejoice that you're doing things that are going to make you happy.

And instead of, and the other, he does say, if you're not thinking about it, you're not doing the right thing here. And if you do think about it, then you will enjoy in the future all those gifts that are coming to you as a result of this. Yeah. That's really interesting. So enjoy when you give something, enjoy it, and be happy about it, because when you get that gift back at some future point, then you can enjoy it. You know exactly, and that do many more fold, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is good. Well, somebody has a comment from outside the realm of Zoom. Yes, oh, live. Mm-hmm. Right. Yeah, seeing the upliftedness in the mind of the person and yourself is part of it, yeah.

But then I think if we do everything with loving kindness, that just takes care of everything. Giving with loving kindness, receiving with loving kindness, just as a broad general guideline. Just like, hey, I'm happy to give this to you, may it give you whatever you need, may you have it in good health and happiness, and at the same time you're feeling the joy of it. And you had raised your hand. Well, I was thinking about two things, and this last comment you might have touched on, about the generosity of receiving.

Because I don't know, some people have. And of course, in my life, I've had trouble receiving. So, and also being thwarted with my generosity. You want to give and someone says no. So there's a generosity in receiving. And then I think about, and David, you might call this somewhere in our the kingly giving, the queenly giving, the poorly giving, giver and the receiver, the qualities of both have a determination on the merit of it. And I don't recall the source of that information.

I think that's probably in the Majjhima Nikaya, that's probably the Dakkhina Vibhanga Sutta, which is somewhere there. 142. There you go, 142. The kingly and the queenly, though, comes from somewhere else, and it's on the Access to Insight site, and I don't remember the actual... It's a little different, it's a different interpretation, but it's the same thing. It defines the levels of giving. Interesting. So, anyone else? Okay, I guess we can share some merit.

That's also giving, by the way, sharing merit. Don't ask me how that works, but somehow it works. Yeah. I've got to get out of here. This. Okay. All right. So when you share merit, do it with loving kindness. Do it with the right intention. When you say these words, really feel it. This is how you share merit.

May suffering ones be suffering free and the fear struck fearless be. May the grieving shed all grief. May all beings find relief. May all beings share this merit that we have thus acquired for the acquisition of all kinds of happiness. May beings inhabiting space and earth, devas and nagas of mighty power, share this merit of ours. May they long protect the Buddha's dispensation. Sadhu, sadhu, sadhu. All right. Thank you, everyone. I'll see you around.