The Endless Circulation of Divine Charity

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Chan master Hui Hai said “Deluded people fail to understand that the paramitas [usually translated as the “Perfections of a Buddha]  all proceed from the Dana Paramita and that by its practice all the others are fulfilled.” “Dana” is usually translated as charity or almsgiving—of goods, money, or the teachings.  More precisely, dana is the spirit and act of generosity.  Its salutary effects are endless, and they multiply beyond measure every time we form an intention to be generous and each time we fulfill that intention.  Neglecting its cultivation in the heart also has the inevitable consequences of the contracted heart, the blocking of the fulfillment of our Buddha heart.

With cultivation of the Dana Paramita,  the Buddha’s teaching of universal harmony is put into practice.  Mutual interdependence becomes mutual intersupport.  And its practice is not only Buddhist–it is perennial.  The Earth itself flourishes by what Emerson calls the endless circulation of  divine charity:  “The wind sows the seed, the sun evaporates the sea, the wind blows the vapor to the field…the rain feeds the plant, the plant feeds the animal.”  The very stars hold themselves on course through a mutual interchange of energy.  And the flow of this energy is dependent on every living being.

In keeping with this natural charity, ancient customs of gift giving and circulating the gift has kept  human society healthy from primal times to now. In reflecting on our suttas, we turn the virtue of the reflection back to  ancestral teachers in gratitude for their guidance.  We are constantly receiving that teaching, constantly sending it around again.