Dana and Generosity in Buddhism

In this essay I will highlight the importance of practices motivated by forces of compassion, Dana, and selflessness through analyzing examples from the Buddha's life, and the dharma he prescribed. Feeding of the hungry ghosts takes place simply because it employs the antithesis characteristics of the greed and selfishness that got the hungry ghosts where they are. (Prebish & Keown, 2010, 15)

In Buddhism, virtues of generosity and compassion provide a core for everyday life. The monastic community depends on the lay population for daily meals, and the laity depends on the monastic community to provide them with Dharma teachings. ( Prebish & Keown, 2010, 62)

Striving to generate merit is key to Buddhist life. The doctrine of the Four Noble Truths asserts that life is suffering, and that the origin of suffering is attachment. Selflessness shows detachment and a more whole spiritual state. The end of suffering comes from detachment and the practice of taking a portion of one's only meal for the day to feed the cursed hungry ghosts shows just that. There is detachment from the worldly need to nourish oneself. (Prebish & Keown, 2010, 43-46)

The centrality of the principles of compassion, Dana, and selflessness that motivate practices such as the feeding of hungry ghosts can be seen in stories of Buddha's own lives. In his last life, Sidharata left his comfortable courtly life to become a sramana. He depended on the laity for his daily nutrition. (Prebish & Keown, 2010, pg 27 & 31) However, he gave back much more than he ever consumed in the form of alms. Despite his earlier reluctance, the deity Sahampati inspired enough generosity in the Buddha to spend his entire life wandering and spreading his knowledge of what is really so. He did so even though he had achieved his goal and did not go into parinirvana until he had passed on all the doctrines required for Buddhists for centuries to come. (Prebish & Keown, 2010, 35-36). The forces that compel practitioners to feed hungry ghosts have therefore been threaded into each of these doctrines. Additionally, a Jataka tells the story of Buddha as Prince Vessantara. This prince was in exile and sacrificed his whole family into slavery. Deities were so impressed by the magnitude of his generosity that his family was returned to him and he returned from exile. (Prebish & Keown, 2010, pg 36).

It could also be argued that practices such as the feeding of hungry ghosts are carried out for the good of the performers as well as the world as a whole. Buddhist cosmology asserts that time is cyclic and the worlds exist in extended periods of time called 'Kalpas'. The amount of time a world exists for is determined by the nature of people who exist in it. If the people are greedy and selfish, and if they indulge in warfare and hatred the life of their world is shortened. Thus practices such as the feeding of hungry ghosts lengthen the life of a world. (Prebish & Keown, 2010, 11)

Buddhist doctrine asserts that there are six realms of rebirth: the realm of the hungry ghosts is a lower realm and the realm of humans is on a higher level, and is arguably the best realm to be born into because of its balance of good and bad. (Prebish & Keown, 2010, 16) The ghosts' crossing over from their realm, which is characterized by negative forces alone, allows them to benefit from the goodness that exists in the human realm.

Another possible reason for feeding hungry ghosts is its role in dependent origination and determining karmic states. The more merit a person gains, the more desirable their next rebirth will be. Thus merit-making acts such as feeding hungry ghosts determine a more desirable fate, meaning that when positive things happen positive things arise. Karmic states are extremely important because they decide everything about a person's future lives, from their physical appearance to the realm they are born in. (Prebish & Keown, 2010, 17-18, & 49)

The Buddha stressed the importance of Cetana (will) behind everything. (Prebish & Keown, 2010, 18) The authors of the prescribed text talk about the nature of merit making practiced by certain people who think about it in almost monetary terms, calculating their 'balance' of good and bad deeds on a regular basis. The authors assert that this kind of merit making is against orthodox Buddhism teachings because the Cetana behind it seems to be too materialistic. (Prebish & Keown, 2010, 20-21) Thinking about the feeding of hungry ghosts in light of this view is interesting because on one hand it gains a limited amount of merit

...