Hi Sakula,

I’m attending an Art class at Mental Health Rehab once a week and some months ago in the shopping mall I chanced upon two large books on Learning How to Draw. I was delighted at my great good luck (I had got out of the elevator on the wrong level!) and that giving them would bring me joy! Half an hour later I arrived at the class. The books were a bit heavy so I couldn’t present them holding them them both in my hands. And then unfortunately the two Art teachers were embarrassed and wanted to reimburse me which spoilt the joy. Ajahn Jagaro said something along the lines of that being a Buddhist and learning to give is parallel to learning to receive without embarrassment (even though it was a wonderful volunteer Art teacher – When she thanked me again half an hour later I reminded her that I was thankful for her being a volunteer which I think helped her understand). The next time I just anonymously left some coloring books behind on the table.

What helped in the weeks that followed was the teaching I posted before about Visakha’s profound dana wisdom. When I see the evidence of one of the patients using one of the Drawing or coloring books that brings me satisfaction even though the person doesn’t have a clue that I gave it.

Thanks for listening.

With metta / Antony.

antony272b2 - 28 April 2007 02:04 AM

Sahattha deti: one should give with one’s own hand.

I had an insight last night to set a goal of, instead of just sending checks in the mail, to instead seek out ways of personally presenting a gift to a needy person.

Hi Anthony,

Are you doing this and what is the result? I know when I give personally to someone it can give rise to such joy especially when exchanging eye contact, if even briefly. As well I find it lovely to recall such personal contact when sending checks in the mail or dropping dana anonomously into a basket. One-on-one giving is sweet and uplifting and I’m grateful for the support that can be drawn from this experience when direct contact is not plausable though wanting to offer dana is.  And fortunately the blessings of developing a spontaniously generous heart doesn’t end with the buck (thank goodness).  In striving to develope a habit of automatically giving the best of myself in any circumstance is first of all a tall order and not always met LOL, and secondly worth every bit of effort and determination to bend the mind toward such intention.

Thanks for the topic on Dana Anthony, its rich and as I continue to explore, its useful and wise application seems boundless.

Sahattha deti: one should give with one’s own hand.

I had an insight last night to set a goal of, instead of just sending checks in the mail, to instead seek out ways of personally presenting a gift to a needy person.

Hi Sakula, Dorothea and all,

I’ve been getting paralyzed and disturbed at the computer when an ad with a photo asking me to sponsor a child in the third world. I remembered this Buddhist quote:
“...perhaps the only reward some (Westerners) look to (for giving) is an easing of the conscience: being aware of some particular need — of which the case of Ethiopia is the outstanding current example — people feel unable to live with themselves if they do not give something. This is certainly better than hoping for a heavenly reward, but an easy conscience, too, may perhaps sometimes be purchased a little too easily. Best let the giving itself be its own reward, and leave it at that!”
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/various/wheel367.html
From: Giving from the Heart by M. O’C. Walshe in Dana: The Practice of Giving Selected essays edited by Bhikkhu Bodhi, Wheel 367/369, Buddhist Publication Society, http://www.bps.lk

I cheered up listening to Happiness by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
http://www.audiodharma.org/talks/ThanissaroBhikkhu.html

I used to think that donating to Buddhist websites was “middle-class” dana, but after thinking about the voluntary poverty of Buddhist monks and nuns I think that supporting them can be a priority.

Thanks Sakula for encouraging me to start a thread on Dana.

With metta / Antony.

Thank you Sakula and Dorothea for both of you advice.

My first intention is for a long term place.
Since there aren’t many buddhist practictioner in the area. 
I have come across people who are interested and asked me if
I can find the teacher in the area.  There are a few groups Buddhist
practictioner in Salt lake area. 

I moved to Salt Lake city last year. I have the place to offer, the mortgage has been paid off
but I may not have time and all other resouces alone because I am about one hour away from my old house.

Hmmmm… This take quite a bit of time and resouces to make it happens,
I always wish to have a forest buddhist monastery in UTAH some day. 
I very appreciate for all your advice.

Metta
Sukhanda…

Hi Sukhanda,

Wow, what fun you must be having with considering such an offer to your home town community!

I need your advice, I have been thinking a long time about this empty house I have.  I live in Utah.  I can rent it out, but my heart would like to offer to be a house for forest monks/nuns to stay and guide the practice to buddhist practictioner group in UTAH.  It is about an hour away from Salt Lake City.

You might play with the idea of someone managing your home as a Buddhist center. Make the space available for sitting meditation. Start a library with books for free distribution, maybe even sponsor books for free distribution. Maybe there is someone in Utah that would even live in one part as an onsite manager. This is kind of what I’ve done in Portland (Portland Friends of the Dhamma) only we have a public facility where I have an office; you could do the same thing with a house only you won’t have to pay rent, lucky you!

I don’t know if any forest monks and nuns want to come to UTAH.  It is in a nice area, but it is not up the mountain area.

In circumstances such as yours, uncertainty is not a burden but a gift that replenishes itself through the very nature of its uncertainty. We feel what our intentions are grounded in, it has an effect on us. Being open to uncertainty while grounded in good (in this case generous) intentions, will give rise to joyful feelings.  I’m betting you’ve already felt some moments of happiness when thinking about the possibility of turning your home into a Buddhist refuge.

What do you suggest, my friends ?

I suggest you take a deep breath and relax and take refuge in knowing there is no hurry. There lots of joy in exploring ways to share your good fortune, you don’t have to be certain about any outcome. The very act of considering how you might extend your good fortune to benefit your community is in itself a support. Such thinking can be a magnet for bringing like minded folks together hence multiplying the joy and the generous thinking. Certainly no lack of support here. I hope you recognize the goodness of such thinking and recognize its fruits. Come on, taste it, you’ll like it

Hi, Sukhanda.

What a generous thought! It sounds as thought you would like to provide a place that is both nurturing to a monk or nun and nurturing for the Buddhist practice group in Utah. I hope your inclination towards dana gives you happiness!

But getting down to practical matters, there’s lots to think about regarding your idea. The first thing that comes to my mind is that you should be very clear about what you want to offer—very specific.

Here are some things to consider:

(1) Since monastics in the Theravada tradition don’t cook, you would have to provide a meal every day. And since monastics don’t drive, you would have to provide transportation to any event, doctor’s appointment, or other occasion to which the monk or nun would need to go. The driver or companion would need to be male for a monk or female for a nun. Can you arrange for all this yourself or can you organize a group to do these things? The easiest way to manage all of this would be to find an attendant (male or female as necessary) to live in the house and take care of the monk or nun’s needs.

(2) Are you thinking of this as a temporary stay—say for a few weeks—or are you thinking of this as a more permanent arrangement?

(3) It would be most appropriate for you or your Buddhist practice group to pay for transportation (e.g. air fare) to bring the monastic to Utah and return him or her at the end of his/her time there. If the idea is for a more permanent stay, then probably funds would be needed for visits to the home monastery periodically. Furthermore, if the monk or nun was coming from another country (say England), it would be most appropriate for you to pay for any health insurance that would be needed. Do you or your group have the resources to provide for such needs?

I’m sure that there are many other details that you’d need to think about—and these are just my own ruminations. If anyone else on the forum sees anything amiss with what I’ve said, please correct the impressions that I’ve made. Anyway, it might be useful to consider these questions, and any similar ones that come to mind, to see where your own wishes and resources lead you.

Once you’re clear on what you want to offer, I think you should talk to the monks at Abhayagiri to see whether your specific offering fits with the way things are in the monastic community. That is, to see whether there is a monk or nun who would be appropriate, available, and willing to take up your offer. If yes, the next step would be for you to invite whichever monk or nun is suggested by the monastery for a short stay at your house to see whether the idea is feasible.

Sukhanda, this is a wonderful dana gift that you’re considering. Even if it doesn’t work out, I’m sure that investigations with the monastic community would be of benefit to you—if only from the point of view of learning about and becoming closer to the community. However, you should probably wait to contact the monastery until after the winter retreat is over at the end of March.

With good wishes,
Dorothea

Hi everyone,

I need your advice, I have been thinking a long time about this empty house I have.  I live in Utah.  I can rent it out, but my heart would like to offer to be a house for forest monks/nuns to stay and guide the practice to buddhist practictioner group in UTAH.  It is about an hour away from Salt Lake City.

I don’t know if any forest monks and nuns want to come to UTAH.  It is in a nice area, but it is not up the mountain area. 

What do you suggest, my friends ?

I am a regular money donor of an Australian Rape Crisis Center. It is a very effective way of reducing lust whilst helping sisters in distress at the same time.

Thanks, Antony, for the reference to Taraniya’s talk on generosity. In that talk, she makes a point that was really helpful to me during my years of gainful employment. It’s not that I didn’t like what I did (technical writing). On the contrary, I really enjoy describing and explaining things. But in the great scheme of things, it never seemed that I was contributing something of significance to the world during my eight-hour workday. It’s true that those hapless programmers, whose jobs required that they use the programming languages that I documented, were helped by what I wrote—but it seems a small and inessential contribution to the lives of a very small group of people. So how could I re-orient my perspective so that I felt satisfaction with what I was doing?

In her talk (8m31s), Taraniya tells the story of a man who had a wife, children and a hum-drum job. The man asked Ajahn Sucitto how he could feel better about what he did all day. Ajahn said, “Why do you do it?” And the man answered that he did it because he wanted to give a good life to his children. He wanted to provide for them. So Ajahn said that this was beautiful. He told him to keep this generous and loving intention in mind when he thought about his job—to tune into his feelings of generosity. The man said that this gave him a whole new perspective on his job and that it helped him see other ways in which he was giving to others.

Fortunately, I heard this same advice years ago—I can’t remember whether it was from Ajahn Sucitto. It tuned me into my own generous intentions in a way that gave me more self-respect. And it made me feel grateful for my life rather than resentful and trapped in an unsatisfactory situation.

Dorothea

Hi Sakula,

One of my favorite splendid audio Dhamma talks is Generosity by your friend and colleague Taraniya:

Here’s a quote. Taraniya: (36m23s):

“One time I carried a whole bunch of ingredients even from the United States to the monastery in England. I like to cook muffins and they don’t have the proper muffin tins and everything there, so I brought all this paraphernalia with me to cook muffins for the monks and nuns. The day that I did I was just so happy to be doing it, which was lovely and great, but what often happens at the monastery is right at the last minute, just when you’re getting ready to put the food on the table, 16 cars will drive up (you know <laugh> and they all have food and so your plate that was going to be the centerpiece, was going to be the main dish, all of a sudden get missed – way in the back dwarfed in the presence of all this food and at the end of the meal you might notice that nobody took any of it. It could actually got put on a refrigerator-top somewhere and totally get lost in the process of all this giving.
What happens to your heart in that? <laugh>
Whoo! <laugh> it’s powerful: keep it clean and keep it pure.”

Hi everybody,

Sakula encouraged me to start a thread on Dana after I posted the Sequence of Meritorious Actions

My favorite story about Dana is Visakha’s profound dana wisdom

Let’s discuss our practices and challenges regarding dana.

with metta / Antony.