The Four Samgrahavastus

This talk was given at the London Buddhist Centre, January 2001

Skilful means (upaya kausalya) is how a Bodhisattva communicates the Dharma to people who need it but are too spiritually ignorant to be receptive. This is the seventh of the ten perfections. The first six perfections may be more familiar to most of us. They are generosity, ethics, patience, energy, meditation and wisdom. Then this seventh perfection is all about the compassionate response of a Bodhisattva to those who need the Dharma. A Bodhisattva uses skilful means to enable us to listen and take in the message of the Dharma. Traditionally skilful means is seen as consisting of a number of different practices and these are broken down into the four Samgrahavastus, the four pratisamvids and the dharanis. Pratisamvid means something like analytical knowledge and the four pratisamvids are the knowledge of principles, the knowledge of meaning, knowledge of etymology, and the knowledge of courage. The dharanis are somewhat like mantras. They are usually longer than mantras and have more conceptual content. A dharani is used by a Bodhisattva as a sort of protection from danger or evil.

The four Samgrahavastus are the other element of skilful means and are somewhat more accessible. Although skilful means is the practice of a Bodhisattva, to help people understand the Dharma, the four Samgrahavastus can also be related to our own more mundane level of practice and even used as a measure of the effectiveness of our practice. The four Samgrahavastus are generosity (dana), kindly speech (priyavadita), beneficial activity (arthacarya), and exemplification (samanarthata). Samgrahavastu is translated in different ways but the translation which Bhante Sangharakshita prefers is "means of unification of the Sangha". The Samgrahavastus involve the practices of generosity, kindly speech beneficial activity and exemplification as a means of unifying the spiritual community, a means of creating harmony between people. I will look at the last three Samgrahavastus first.

Kindly Speech

Kindly speech as a means of creating harmony in the spiritual community, involves rejoicing in merits. We need to rejoice in each other continuously. We need to look out for what is good and praise it. And rejoicing like this can be either to the person concerned or behind their back, so to speak. Either way rejoicing in one another creates harmony. It is very pleasant to be praised and perhaps even more pleasant to hear that you have been praised in your absence. Kindly speech also includes expressions of gratitude. Anybody who is meditating and practising the Dharma, has much to be grateful for. It is good for oneself to give expression to that gratitude and it is another way to enhance the harmony of the Sangha. Another form of kindly speech that brings about harmony is passing on compliments or praise that you have overheard. This helps to keep up a flow of goodwill through the Sangha, that continues to grow the more it is expressed. Kindly speech is also encouraging speech. It is easy to criticise. It is easy to see faults in ourselves, in others and in situations. But if we really want ourselves, others and the situations around us to improve, then we need to be encouraging. Encouragement helps people to grow. This is clear when you consider how you yourself respond to encouragement. It helps enormously and a spiritual community that is constantly mutually encouraging will be a spiritual community that grows in strength and confidence.

Kindly speech, of course, represents communication generally. It is the sort of communication that creates and develops the Sangha, creates and develops the feeling of fellowship and mutual helpfulness between us. This communication includes truthfulness, appropriateness and openness. It excludes gossip and slander and all kinds of cynical and malicious speech. We need to be ever mindful of our speech because what we say can have a huge effect and can cause the breakup of friendships and years of bitterness and resentment. What we say can also bring about harmony and friendliness and add to the pool of goodwill in the world. Another aspect of communication is listening and as well as kindly speech we need kindly listening. There is no communication without listening and yet listening is quite rare in the world. To really listen you have to take an interest in the other person, you have to want to know them and understand them. You have to listen to their whole being, not just their voice or the content of what they are saying. Listening is quite an art and we need to practice it in order to get good at it and in order to really communicate. If you are too intent on getting across what you feel and what you think and what you need, you may succeed in getting the information out but you may fail to communicate. Communication requires awareness of the other person and that awareness involves listening and being aware of them. Even in the Sangha people can carry on for years not communicating because they haven't understood the importance of listening. Kindly speech is a big topic and obviously very necessary for the health and vitality of the spiritual community.

Beneficial Activity

The next Samgrahavastus is beneficial activity (arthacarya). This is activity for the spiritual benefit of others. To benefit others spiritually means to help them to attain higher or more expansive states of being. To do this we have to benefit ourselves spiritually, we have to get ourselves into higher and more expansive states of consciousness. To get ourselves into higher and more expansive states of being we need to feel motivated and we need to be inspired to act. If we experience this motivation, this inspiration to act in our spiritual interests then we will be able to engage in the Samgrahavastu of beneficial activity because it is essentially about communicating our motivation, and inspiration, to others. This does not necessarily mean talking about what inspires us, but rather through our actions communicating our sense of excitement and inspiration. Our sense of the adventure of the spiritual life. If we are moping around doing very little in terms of Dharma practice, nobody will believe us anyway, no matter how much we talk about the wonderful Dharma. The communication of emotional positivity and a sense of inspiration through how we live our lives is the essence of beneficial activity as a Samgrahavastu. The image that comes to mind here is from the Threefold Puja when we speak of "incense whose fragrance pervades the air". The fragrance of the perfect life, that is the spiritual life, spreads in all directions throughout the world. This means that if we practice the spiritual life quite wholeheartedly and fearlessly we will have an influence, a beneficial influence, that spreads in all directions. Bhante Sangharakshita talks about the Bodhisattva being "like a candle that lights thousands upon thousands of other candles after which they go on burning on their own fuel. Not only that: all of them in their turn light thousands upon thousands of other candles". (Complete Works, Vol.16, p.487)

This is how the Sangha grows, this is how the message of the Dharma spreads, this is how the world changes. If we share our joy and inspiration we will be practising beneficial activity and we will be contributing to the harmony and unity of the spiritual community.

Exemplification

The next Samgrahavastus is samanarthata, which is translated as 'exemplification'. Perhaps this seems to be too much to ask. For most of us there is going to be a discrepancy between what we sincerely believe and our ability to embody it. But what we need to exemplify is not perfection, we don't have to be Enlightened, we don't have to exemplify perfect Wisdom and perfect Compassion. We don't even have to exemplify perfect mindfulness and perfect Metta. What we need to exemplify is our willingness to change and our honest efforts to change. The process of the spiritual life is what is important and that is what we can exemplify, that is what we can embody to some extent. We simply need to be honest about ourselves, our thoughts and feelings and our virtues and successes. If we are honest and willing to change then we are well and truly on the spiritual path and we will be contributing to the creation of spiritual community. Honesty and willingness to change are the hallmarks of the individuals whose mutual cooperation creates spiritual community. Exemplification does not mean pretending to be something you are not, it does not mean putting on a show or always being very nice. Exemplification is a matter of engaging with the struggle to change yourself for the better and being honest about the ups and downs of that process. This honesty and engagement and willingness to change are the energy and muscle of the Sangha.

Generosity

Now we come to Dana Samgrahavastu; generosity as a means of unifying the spiritual community, generosity as a way of creating harmony between people. Generosity is a very fundamental practice for the spiritual aspirant. It involves the first steps towards self transcendence and has no limits to its practice. That is why generosity is encountered at every stage of the path. One never goes beyond generosity as a spiritual practice. If one is progressing spiritually, then one will become more and more generous. You can measure your spiritual progress by the degree of your generosity.

Generosity appears first as a precept. As a precept generosity is part of our spiritual training. We may not feel naturally inclined to be generous. We are still very attached to things and people and it is an effort to let go and give. It is an effort to be aware of other people's needs and an effort to respond appropriately. But it is an effort we are willing to make because we know in our hearts that generosity is good, good for us and good even for humanity. At the level of the precept generosity is a practice. We are making an effort to be generous as part of our spiritual training. The effort involves not taking what is not given to us and also openhanded generosity with what is ours. It is an effort to be less greedy or covetous about what we don't have or don't own. It is an effort to be less attached to what we do have and do own. That applies to money, possessions, ideas, opinions, lovers, friends, time, energy, territory and so on. The practice of generosity as a precept involves less of wanting what we don't have and less of holding on to what we do have.

Generosity is also one of the six perfections. It is one of the expressions of the compassion of the Bodhisattva. At this level generosity is much more spontaneous, much more just an expression of our being. We may not even think of it as generosity. Giving would be so natural that our whole way of being would be a flow of non-attachment, and natural outgoingness in terms of time, energy, money, possessions, opinions and ideas. There would be no closing down, no defensiveness. Just letting go and letting go and letting go all the time.

Dana or generosity as a Samgrahavastus is when that spontaneous generosity is particularly channelled into creating and maintaining a spiritual community. It's generosity that brings about harmony between people. We can talk about different levels of generosity and perhaps even different motives for being generous, but in fact we don't need to concern ourselves with that. If we practice generosity we will progress spiritually. If we progress spiritually we will become generous to the core of our being. We will be naturally and spontaneously generous hearted and when we are naturally and spontaneously generous we don't even think about being generous, no more than we think about breathing. The main thing is just to be as generous as we can and keep moving beyond the limits of our current generosity. Generosity implies moving more towards a simple life of few wants and away from a life of over-consumption and greed. This does not mean a life of austerity and self punishment. In fact the generous life is a very rich life.

I meditated on the Buddha Ratnasambhava for many years. Ratnasambhava is the archetype of generosity. His mudra is the gesture of supreme generosity, the open-handed gesture. When I have reflected on what I have learned from my years of reflecting and meditating on Ratnasambhava I have come to encapsulate the message of Ratnasambhava in three words. The three words are 'generosity generates abundance'. That is the message of Ratnasambhava as I understand and experience it. This probably seems very simple, obvious even, but the implications are vast. If we really believed it and lived by it, it would turn our lives upside down. If generosity generates abundance then it is perverse to be less than generous. What I have also understood and experienced as a result of my meditation and reflection on Ratnasambhava is that generosity is not about giving. What generosity is really about is letting go, not holding on. The difference may seem subtle but it's a difference worth reflecting on. It's worth noticing the difference between, say, giving someone a gift for their birthday and letting go of some possession that someone else likes or needs. Or the difference between giving advice and letting go of opinions or views.

Sometimes it is said that Buddhism begins with the Enlightenment of the Buddha. Of course this is true, but another very significant event that came before that was what is called the going forth. Siddhartha Gautama went forth from the household life to become a wondering mendicant, a seeker after truth. This was a very radical thing to do. Even today in our society and culture this is a radical and revolutionary thing to do. It is not something that would be condoned by government and church. After all the family is seen as the basic unit of society, the foundation on which everything else rests. But Siddhartha didn't see things this way. He said: 

“Friends, before my self-awakening, when I was still an unawakened Bodhisatta (Sanskrit: Bodhisattva) being subject to birth, to sickness, to aging, to death, to sorrow, regret, pain, distress, despair, to greed, to aversion, to delusion, I was seeking happiness with what is subject to birth, to sickness, to aging, to death, to sorrow, regret, pain, distress, despair, to greed, to aversion, to delusion.

Then the thought occurred to me, ‘Why do I, being subject myself to birth, to sickness, to aging, to death, to sorrow, regret, pain, distress, despair, to greed, to aversion, to delusion, seek what is likewise subject subject to birth, to sickness, to aging, to death, to sorrow, regret, pain, distress, despair, to greed, to aversion, to delusion? What if I, being subject to birth, were to seek to understand the suffering of birth, seeking the unborn and the unexcelled release of the yoke, the unbinding. What if I, being subject to sickness, to aging, to death, to sorrow, regret, pain, distress, despair, to greed, to aversion, to delusion, were to seek understanding of the suffering of sickness, to aging, to death, to sorrow, regret, pain, distress, despair, to greed, to aversion, to delusion? What if I were to seek the unborn and the unexcelled release of the yoke, the unbinding? So, at a later time while still a young man, black-haired, early in my life, my parents crying, I shaved off my hair, put on a robe made of rags, and went forth from home to homelessness." (Majjhima Nikaya, Sutta 26)

This is the going forth and what this represents is non-attachment. It represents letting go of mundane pleasures and acting for the greater good. Letting go or non-attachment is there right from the beginning in Buddhism. This going forth was a great act of generosity. He was giving himself completely, giving his whole life to the pursuit of truth, the attainment of wisdom. It is easy for us to take things for granted and allow others to make efforts, while we settle into a sort of Buddhist suburbia of domesticity. Suburbia is urban sprawl, Buddhist suburbia is spiritual sprawl. The household life, where the focus is on domesticity and creating a nest, is still crowded and dusty. From a spiritual standpoint it is still as necessary as ever to go forth. It is necessary to loosen our attachments, to let go of worldly life and give ourselves to the path. We need to give ourselves to the pursuit of truth. Perhaps it is even more necessary for us to go forth from domesticity and nest making because it is so easy to fool ourselves into believing that we are just making a lifestyle choice. This is part of the curse of consumer culture: the triumph of choice over truth. But it's a choice that does make a difference spiritually.

People are of course at different stages of development and going forth in this radical way may not be appropriate for everyone. Going forth from the crowded and dusty household life may not necessarily be a literal going forth. It may be more a mental or emotional going forth. An emotional letting go of attachment and a willingness to broaden out beyond the exclusive relationship and the attitude of my home is my castle. This broadening out into friendship and sharing is essential to the spiritual life. This is one of the lessons I understand from Ratnasambhava's open-handed gesture. Generosity is a matter of letting go, a matter of not holding on. It is a matter of letting go of narrowness and limitations of every kind. Holding on or not letting go is an attitude of me, me, me and mine, mine, mine and letting go is an attitude of us and ours. Me, me, me, mine, mine, mine, is the opposite of generosity and us and ours is the essence of generosity. An individualistic attitude leaves us feeling a lack, it leaves us in the world of poverty mentality. Whereas a more sharing, community minded attitude generates abundance and a feeling of plenty.

A spiritual community that really embodies the spirit of generosity will be a spiritual community that is transcending egotism. It will also be a spiritual community where there is an atmosphere of giving and abundance. We can't expect that to happen overnight but it is something worth working towards. It is an ideal that is worth striving for. We can apply this idea that generosity generates abundance to lots of different areas of our lives. We can apply it to our own particular skills, talents, possessions and energy and try to let go a bit. We can try to share a bit more of what we usually hold on to. Of course we need to do this sensibly and appropriately and with awareness, but we shouldn't be so cautious that we don't do anything. If everybody is too cautious, if everybody is waiting to see how generous the next person is going to be, then a spirit of generosity is not generated. If Siddhartha had waited to see if someone else was going to go forth first, there would be no Buddhism. Some people have to take a risk, be more confident and take the plunge into a life of greater and ever greater generosity. In that way you give confidence to others as you give of yourself. In short, generosity does indeed generate abundance.