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Guided Meditation: A Posture of Generosity

Well, hello. Nice to be with all of you again. It has been some time, so I feel the pleasure and the privilege of being back with this robust, so kind IMC 7 a.m. Sangha^[1]. Great gratitude to Gil for inviting me back.

This week, as you might see, the theme will be the pāramīs^[2], the Perfections. I saw these recently described as the noble qualities that are accompanied by compassion and skillful means. We'll talk quite a bit about the pāramīs over the next five days, but first, let's meditate.

The focus of this meditation will be the first pāramī of generosity.

So even as we're taking the posture, giving the posture, setting up the posture... Calling in generosity, giving.

The support that's given by the seat holding us up. The relaxation of the face as we close the eyes.

Maybe rolling and aligning the shoulders. And a few deep breaths, really connecting with this body.

This body that accompanies us through so much.

Settling in.

Is there something in the posture that expresses an attitude of generosity?

The kind way we regard the spine. Or let the belly loosen.

The space we give for the breathing to come in and out, rather than controlling the breath.

Something you may experiment with is to see if you tend to meditate with your hands palms down. See if it taps into any of your generosity to turn them up: open palms, open-handed.

That gesture of giving and receiving.

Not only generous with the body, but generous with the mind and mental activity.

What kind of attitude am I bringing to distraction, wandering?

Or to the senses—the sounds that are just coming and just going, sensations, emotions, whatever is coming.

Can that too be regarded with an open generosity?

By this time, some of the needs or impulses of the body, or the habits of the mind, may be making themselves known.

"Welcome, dear friend. I have some tea. Stay as long as you like."

Is there some way that a generous welcoming or hospitality allows us stillness to accompany the movement?

And for these last minutes of the sitting, if the attitude of generosity has been favoring the side of giving, how now with the side of receiving?

Maybe it's receiving the support of what's outside of you—community, even your chair^[3].

Maybe receiving something inside: your intention to practice, or the results of this half hour of sitting, any little buds of goodness.

So, a minute just to receive with generosity.

Dharmette: Pāramīs (1 of 5) The Perfections of Giving and Virtue

Thank you very much, everyone. Hello again. I suspect we had some folks join while we were sitting. To reintroduce myself, my name is Kodo. Very, very happy to be here with the 7 a.m. Sangha. Thanks to Gil for the invitation.

The topic for the week is the ten pāramīs, the ten Perfections. Thanissaro Bhikkhu^[4], a well-known teacher, introduces them this way: He says the ten Perfections, or pāramīs, are the Buddhist teachings that are probably the most useful for bringing the path of awakening into everyday life. They are a list of qualities that you can develop in any situation. As he says, as you're working with your family at home, at the office, as you're driving, as you're meditating. And the qualities are these:

First, generosity. Second, virtue. Third, renunciation. Fourth, discernment or wisdom. Fifth, persistence or energy. Sixth is patience. Seventh is truthfulness, eighth determination or resolve^[5]. Ninth, goodwill. And tenth, equanimity.

The word pāramī relates to the word paramam, which means something of foremost importance. It really got my attention that Thanissaro Bhikkhu says these are the most useful for bringing the path into everyday life. How many of us wonder how best to do that?

I remember when I first encountered these teachings. I was practicing at a Burmese Dharma center here in the U.S., and what I heard was that for the practice to ripen into awakening—that is, for the practice to develop into just the sort of freedom that I was looking for—all of these pāramīs needed to be sufficiently developed. And I thought, "Oh, I thought this was all about concentration! I thought this was all about meditation and mindfulness."

But what this opened up for me is the opportunity that any moment whatsoever in the day could be a moment for practice. You can hear the broad application if you hold this in mind as I list them again: giving, ethics, renunciation, wisdom, energy, patience, truthfulness, resolve, goodwill, and equanimity.

The plan for the week is to discuss the pāramīs in pairs. Why is that? In part because ten pāramīs divided by two equals five days. Also, one of my hopes is that by discussing two pāramīs each day, we can see something about how one wholesome quality is supportive of another. To say this another way, one wholesome quality brings others along, in the way we talk about in the suttas^[6], Right View^[7] being the forerunner.

One way I think about the pāramīs in this regard is that you might know someone who has a good friend that brings out the best in them. One good quality brings out the good qualities in another. One of the ways the pāramīs are talked about is like each one being a bucket that's being filled with water: drip, drip, drip. Drop by drop, slowly, patiently. And because these pāramīs mutually support each other, you might think of all these ten buckets being very close together. When the water of one fills up, it spills over into the next. Our giving supports our virtue; our renunciation supports our wisdom, and so on.

Practitioners have been making sense of and relating to the Buddhist teachings for a long time, and that means a lot has been said. I like to relate to one specific teaching that can represent the practitioners of a specific time. So, a lot of what I'm going to say this week is inspired by reflections on a text called the Treatise on the Pāramīs by Ācariya Dhammapāla^[8].

All that I'll say about Dhammapāla, other than his being prolific, is that to me he seems like someone who did the very hard work of reflecting on his tradition in such a way that he could respond skillfully to his times. In that way, he sort of reminds me of the Dalai Lama.

The application of the pāramīs is everyday; it can be in all sorts of things. The tradition regards the great potential of these practices as nothing short of complete awakening, actually—of Buddhahood.

Practice and Virtue

Let's begin with some of the basic principles of the pāramīs that will apply to the discussion of all of them. We'll hear these sorts of things all week. First is that the pāramīs, the Perfections, are both practices and virtues. They are both actions we can do, and they are the results—the tendencies and qualities that arise over time as the basis of those practices. The pāramīs can be both. We practice giving to develop generosity. We become ethical by practicing ethical conduct, and so on.

What is beautiful about the pāramīs being both practices and virtues is that we get to practice them imperfectly. We get to practice as best we can, and we can trust that this is developing something beautiful in us. We practice renunciation imperfectly, but we're growing in the skill, growing in the tendency.

As Dhammapāla says, the pāramīs are noble qualities—such as giving, renunciation, etc.—accompanied by compassion and skillful means, and when mature, untainted by craving, conceit, and views.

Here we hear again how skillful qualities bring each other along. The skillful qualities of compassion and skillful means, which are a form of wisdom and discernment, bring along and mature our generosity.

Let's say you hear the word "Perfections" and your first thought is, "Oh great, now I have to be perfect in these ten ways in order to be a card-carrying practitioner." Let me say at the outset that this is not what I'm hoping to emphasize or propose. Instead of viewing Perfections as measuring sticks where we have to say, "I must be perfect now," consider that these can be ten powerful reference points for wholesome growth. It is as if the Buddha and the teachers are saying, "Oh, look here. There may be something useful here to examine, practice, and reflect on."

For example, in a very plain way: How is my generosity? Is it accessible to me? Is it something that lives in my life? What role does it play?

And here's the part where we don't have to be perfect. You can also reflect on the opposites. How is the opposite of generosity showing up in my life? Take a real, honest look and just see. It's almost like play or experimentation. What role does stinginess play in my life? Check that out.

Consider them not as demands of perfection, but as high-leverage points. Just like in our meditation, we have a reference point, like breathing for many of us, or another object. We don't demand that the mind stays with the breathing one hundred percent of the time. Instead, we get skilled at the process of attending to the breathing, seeing the mind wander, and bringing the mind back. We get skilled in this whole process, and all the while we have this really useful reference point of the body's breathing.

One of the keys that I'm going to emphasize throughout is a certain method of reflection encouraged by Dhammapāla with all ten of the pāramīs: to reflect on the drawbacks of their opposites. And then, to also reflect on the particular benefits of that quality.

You'll see this fleshed out as we go, but I want to emphasize it at the beginning. Reflecting on the drawbacks, hazards, and harm of the opposite of generosity versus the benefit of practicing generosity is precisely how we will discover where the practice can live all over our life in so many situations. It's also where we can start to notice the pāramīs supporting one another.

Dāna Pāramī

Just a couple of minutes on Dāna pāramī^[9], giving. Dhammapāla teaches that Dāna's function is to dispel greed for things that can be given away. Let's take up this approach.

We might recognize the drawbacks of possession—clinging to our possessions and particularly the sort of worry that can generate. You can think about how we may have something that's quite dear to us, but it's subject to loss. We may have a beautiful teacup that's subject to breaking. Our possessions can not only spark clinging in us, but others may want them. They can give rise to conflict; they can even give rise to enemies, he says. Not in all cases, of course, but these are the possible drawbacks of clinging to our possessions.

So, we're meant to reflect on someone we can give our things away to as a best friend. Someone who is helping me rid myself of possessions I've clung to, and also helping me to develop this opposite quality of generosity.

The other side is the beneficial practice of giving. We're encouraged to arouse joy in three cases: when a dear person asks us for something, when a neutral person asks us for something, and when a hostile person asks us for something.

All three are meant to arouse joy. If a dear person asks us for something, we can arouse joy based on the thought, "Oh, this one I care for so much is asking me for something, and I have the opportunity to give."

If someone neutral to us—an acquaintance we might not know so well—asks us for something, we can arouse joy knowing that giving so often supports and develops a relationship.

And I love this: he encourages arousing joy when a hostile person asks us for something. The rationale is that, "My foe is asking me for something. Though he is hostile to me, by means of this gift, he will surely become my friend." I hope that's true! I hope so.

In all three cases, we arouse joy, loving-kindness, and compassion when we give. One good quality brings another along.

Sīla Pāramī

A few words about Sīla^[10]—virtue in practice and quality. Its function is said to be blameless conduct. That's the ideal we're headed toward, even though we practice it imperfectly.

Dhammapāla uses a series of beautiful metaphors to communicate the power of the practice of Sīla: a fragrance that pervades all directions, a staircase ascending to the heavens, a highway leading to nibbāna^[11]. He says even the waters of the Ganges cannot wash away the stain of hatred, but the water of virtue is able to do so.

He communicates the power of Sīla with these rich metaphors, and we can think for ourselves of the benefit of Sīla as a protection. It is a basis for our own security. One of the ways that Sīla and generosity support each other is that when our Sīla, our virtue, is well-developed, we are said to give the gift of fearlessness to all beings. No one need fear or distrust me.

Daily Practice

As an encouragement to bring the practice of the pāramīs into your day today, I suggest you observe and take note of a few straightforward questions for yourself: Where does generosity show up in my life today? And where does its opposite show up? Where do I notice that? What are the conditions for its arising?

Do the same with virtue or ethical behavior. If you know the list of the precepts or the ten skillful actions^[12], how does virtue play a role in my life? And where does its opposite show up? Again, it's not for any sort of judgment or push toward perfection that we're practicing the Perfections. Right now, just play, experiment. Get to know what this mind and heart are, and how they manifest in the world.

We'll begin here at the start of the session tomorrow. There may be some time to share in the chat what you found, and then we will proceed with the third and fourth pāramīs: renunciation and wisdom.

Thanks so much for being here. It's a joy. See you in the morning.