The Beauty of Giving

This talk was given at the London Buddhist Centre in June 1995

This is my fourth talk on the subject of Dana or Generosity in the course of a year. I am quite happy to speak on the subject of Generosity again and again. There are two main reasons why I am happy to speak on this subject. The second reason is because I believe words have an effect and that if I extol the virtues of Generosity often enough and with enough conviction it will encourage myself and others to take the practice of Generosity more seriously, to be more generous, which is the basis of the spiritual life, the starting point for spiritual evolution as opposed to psychological integration. William Wordsworth said: “Words are too awful an instrument for good and evil to be trifled with: They hold above all other external powers a dominion over thoughts.” (Stephen Gill, William Wordsworth, A Life, OUP 1989) I am happy to talk about generosity again and again because I want all of us to be more generous and I hope that talking about it helps to bring that about.

But the first reason, the main reason why I like to talk about generosity, why both the concept and practice of generosity appeals to me, has to do with the Buddha Ratnasambhava. As many of you will know, when someone is ordained into the Triratna Buddhist Order they are given or take up a new meditation practice called a Sadhana which involves the visualisation of an archetypal Buddha or Bodhisattva. In my own case the practice I took up involves the visualisation of the Buddha Ratnasambhava.

Ratnasambhava is an archetypal Buddha, one of the Mandala of five Buddhas. An archetypal image expresses more than words or concepts can ever express. That is the great value of an image. It is a higher level of communication, a more subtle and sophisticated level of communication, than mere words and concepts. An archetypal image engages our whole being; body, speech and mind. An archetypal Buddha communicates Enlightenment, communicates the Enlightened mind. Every archetypal Buddha or Bodhisattva communicates Enlightenment in its entirety. However, usually a particular aspect of the Enlightened mind is highlighted or emphasised. It is easier for us, in our limited state of consciousness to relate to an aspect of Enlightenment, to a particular quality of the Enlightened mind. We are limited by our personality and temperament, by our likes and dislikes. Some qualities in us are more emphasised, more clear to us and these qualities respond to their own perfection in the form of an archetypal Buddha or Bodhisattva.

The aspect or quality of the Enlightened Mind which Ratnasambhava communicates is the quality of Generosity. Ratnasambhava is sometimes called the Buddha of Giving. He is associated with riches, with abundance, jewels, exuberance, expansiveness, with the Wish Fulfilling Gem. His mudra is the Varada Mudra, the gesture of supreme generosity.

When we engage with an archetype our imagination and intuition is activated. Deeper levels of our being become involved. If we engage with Ratnasambhava we will be influenced on a deeper level of our being to act generously. Our intuition and imagination will provide the foundations for a more thorough and spontaneous life of giving. Generosity will become more natural to us. As we move towards Ratnasambhava the beauty of generosity will be revealed more and more to us and the urge to give will become a strong influence in our lives. If we are to practise generosity we need to engage with it. We need to have a vision of the heights to which generosity can carry us and engage with that vision from the depths of our being. I hope that by introducing you to Ratnasambhava today, I will be able to help you make that stronger, more intuitive and imaginative, connection with the beauty of giving.

In the rest of my talk I am going to describe Ratnasambhava and try to give you a taste, a glimpse, of what Ratnasambhava represents. Ratnasambhava is golden yellow in colour. He is seated in the full lotus posture. His right hand is extended in the gesture of Supreme Generosity, the Varada Mudra. His left hand rests in his lap holding the Wish Fulfilling Gem. His body is a body of light, golden yellow light. His face expresses compassion, he has blue/black hair and around his head is an aura of green light. Around his body is an aura of blue light. He wears richly embroidered robes. He is seated on a moon disc, in the centre of a yellow lotus. His lotus throne is supported on the backs of four beautiful yellow horses. In the Sadhana practice this whole image is visualised in the midst of a vast clear blue sky.

The lotus is a symbol of the Transcendental, a symbol of Insight, of consciousness that has broken free from the gravitational pull of the mundane and is experiencing a pure vision of things as they really are. So what is above the lotus pertains to the transcendental and what is below the lotus pertains to the mundane. What is below the lotus indicates the mundane qualities that have to be developed and perfected as a basis for the experience of the higher transcendental qualities represented by the archetypal figure of the Buddha or Bodhisattva. In the case of the Ratnasambhava the Buddha of Generosity, the lotus throne is supported by horses.

The horses represent the highest qualities of the mundane world which need to be perfected as a basis for transcendental generosity. Spontaneous, free flowing, natural generosity that makes no distinction between giver and receiver. So what does this mean and what do the horses represent? What do the horses suggest to us?

Just try to imagine these horses. These four magnificent, golden yellow horses, galloping through the clear blue sky. Here is a poem about horses by the South American poet Pablo Neruda, to help our imagining;

I saw horses from the window

I was in Berlin, in winter. The light

was without light, the sky without sky.

The air, white like soaked bread.

And from my window I saw a desolate arena

bitten by the teeth of winter.

Suddenly, conducted by one man

ten horses stepped out of the fog.

Gently wavering, they emerged like flames,

yet for my eyes, they filled the whole world,

empty until this hour. Perfect, burning,

they were like ten gods on large, chaste hooves

with manes like the dream of salt.

Their rumps were worlds and oranges.

Their colour was honey, amber, blazing.

Their necks were towers

cut from the stone of pride,

and energy, like a prisoner,

rose up in their furious eyes.

And there in silence, in the middle

of the day, in a dirty and dishevelled winter,

the intense horses were the blood,

the rhythm, the inciting treasure of life.

I looked and looked and so returned to life: not knowing

there was the fountain, the dance of gold, the sky,

the fire that lives in Beauty.

I shall forget the winter of that dark Berlin.

I shall not forget the light of those horses. (Pablo Neruda, Estravagario 1958)

Some of these lines convey wonderfully the quality of the horses; “energy like a prisoner, rose up in their furious eyes”, and, “the intense horses were the blood, the rhythm, the inciting treasure of life.” Or, “Gently wavering, they emerged like flames”, and again, “Perfect, burning, they were like ten gods on large, chaste hooves.”, “Their colour was honey, amber, blazing”, “I shall not forget the light of those horses.” Pablo Neruda uses the imagery of fire and flames and light and energy to convey something of what the horses meant to him, that intense energy, that burning energy, they symbolised life itself to him, “the force that through the green fuse drives the flower” to quote another poet.(Dylan Thomas, Collected Poems, Everyman 1978, p.8) He says, “I looked and so returned to life”.

The beautiful powerful horses communicated “the inciting treasure of life” to him. And the horses of Ratnasambhava also communicate the “inciting treasure of life”, that intense energy burning with a passion for Beauty, Ratnasambhava’s horses are energy raised to its highest level, sublime energy, channelled, harnessed, ready to burst out into the joy of Transcendental Insight and pour forth in a spontaneous flow of generosity.

To practise generosity we need energy. We need to have a passion for the beautiful vision of the spiritual life in order to rise above the mud swamp of our fears and anxieties. Our hearts, our intuition, our imagination must leap with joy at the vision of a world of unceasing generosity. We must fall in love, fall in love with the ideal of generosity. Then we will have the energy, then we will have the interest, the motivation, to embrace with open hearts the open-handed practice of generosity. The beautiful, powerful, wild horses of our untamed energy can become the sublime passion for Beauty that draws us towards the ideal of our intuition and imagination.

When we bring our attention to our ideal, when we discipline ourselves to focus on the highest in our lives, when we take the risk of abandoning the known for the unknown, when we take the risk of abandoning the security of sex and possessions for the insecurity of Metta and generosity, then we will begin to experience that intense energy surging through us in fierce pursuit of the Highest, of the most Sublime. That energy which enables us to be generous without feeling impoverished, that energy which feels like wealth itself, the wealth of life exploding into abundance and exuberance.

The horses of Ratnasambhava are energy intensified, sublimated and refined. They are the energy of meditation and the energy of artistic creativity. Meditation and intense artistic activity are two different avenues leading to the beautiful city of the spiritual life. Generosity is the gateway to the city of the spiritual life and energy is the key to that gateway, refined, intense energy, the energy of the horses of Ratnasambhava.

Resting on the backs of the beautiful golden yellow horses is a yellow lotus, an enormous, sublime, delicate lotus. The lotus is one of the most universal and profound symbols in Buddhism. Beginning in the dark mud at the bottom of the lake the lotus grows and rises slowly gradually towards the light, eventually it breaks free of its watery element and opens out in its full glory, its breathtaking beauty, it opens out to the light of the sun, it unfolds to its fullest capacity. We too begin in the mud of our mundane experience, the, “foul rag and bone shop of the heart”(WB Yeats, Collected Poems, Macmillan 1978, p.392) and in response to the call of the transcendental, in response to the call of the meaningful, the ideal, we rise towards the light of wisdom, towards the warm rays of compassion. We open out to reveal our full potential, becoming bigger and more beautiful as we practise the Dharma. We learn to know ourselves and gain strength and courage enough to raise ourselves with all our tenderness and softness out of the waters of the mundane into the bright light of the spiritual.

To be a lotus, delicate, tender and open-hearted, standing alone above the safe waters, is a vision that is both inspiring and frightening. As we practise the spiritual life we will grow upwards and outwards like the lotus and our unique beauty will reveal itself and have an inspiring influence on all who see it. The lotus of spiritual Insight delicate and tender as it may seem, rests on the firm foundation of the intense and refined energy represented by the horses of Ratnasambhava. The lotus is also connected to its roots in the dark depths and is nourished from below, the energy being constantly transformed into the pure elixir of higher states of consciousness.

In the centre of the lotus is a white moon mat. This is the radiant pure heart of the fully opened lotus, the radiant purity of the mind expanded with Insight into Reality. And seated on this moon mat, resting on this radiant purity, is the archetypal Buddha Ratnasambhava, the “Jewel Born One” or the “Jewel Producing One”, the Buddha of Generosity with his body of golden yellow light. The yellow of Ratnasambhava is intensely alive and vibrant, and it is also a ripe rich yellow. It is a colour of abundance, of wealth and an expansive alive colour that moves towards you and embraces you in its warmth and penetrates to the core of your being, like the warm yellow rays of the noon day sun warming you to the heart and awakening the seeds of joy and exuberance in the depths of your being. These seeds of joy and exuberance grow and blossom and ripen and bear fruit in acts of love and kindness, in warm laughter and compassionate smiles and in a spontaneous overflowing generosity of spirit. The golden yellow of Ratnasambhava awakens the vibrant life in us, that is the truly human life, the life that exults in warm, loving connection with all beings that live, all beings that share this rich, vibrant life.

Ratnasambhava’s left hand resting in his lap holds the Wish Fulfilling Gem. The beautiful scintillating, light-shattering jewel, blindingly beautiful, emanating radiant streams of light and colour. The jewel is an inexhaustible symbol for the inexhaustible treasure of spiritual riches waiting to be released from the coffers of our fear and ignorance. The Jewel of Ratnasambhava is a Wish Fulfilling Jewel. When you reverence this jewel all your deepest wishes are granted. The Wish Fulfilling Jewel is the Threefold Jewel of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. When you reverence the Threefold Jewel of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha all your dearest wishes are granted. The Threefold Jewel of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha is reverenced by making an effort to change, making an effort to grow, making an effort to overcome limiting fears and limiting ideas and expanding into the freedom of wisdom, compassion and commitment.

“We reverence the Buddha and aspire to follow him. What the Buddha overcame we too can overcome. What the Buddha attained we too can attain.” When we recite these lines of the Threefold Puja we are expressing confidence in ourselves. We are seeing the connection, the inevitable connection, between the Jewel-like nature of the Buddha and our own precious jewel-like nature. Here there is no doubt, here there is no hesitation, no self-pity, only confidence, strength, nobility, dignity. “What the Buddha overcame, we too can overcome.”

And then, “We reverence the Dharma and aspire to follow it, The Truth in all its aspects, the Path in all its stages. We aspire to study, practise, realise.” After our confidence in our ability to grow comes our determination to act. Our determination to unlock the jewelled treasures of our hearts. Our determination to realise the essence of that ‘Jewel in the Heart of the Lotus’ which is the Perfection of Wisdom and Compassion. Our determination, to wholeheartedly and single-mindedly realise the magnificent jewel of Transcendental Insight through study and practice. So, “We reverence the Dharma and aspire to follow it, with body, speech and mind until the end.”

Then, “We reverence the Sangha and aspire to follow it, the fellowship of those who tread the Way. As, one by one, we make our own commitment, an ever-widening circle, the Sangha grows.” “One by one, we make our own commitment”, this then is another facet of the Threefold Jewel, after the brilliance of confidence and determination we have commitment. The word commitment comes from a root meaning “to join together”. So, we could use this root meaning to remind us that making a commitment includes the confidence in our ability to change and the determination to make an effort. But more than that, it is that confidence and determination joined together in common cause with others who have similar confidence and determination. Commitment includes both direction and context. It is joining together with others in common cause and with confidence and determination. The incandescent light beams of confidence and determination mingle and blend with the rays of commitment to produce the blazing fire of spiritual passion that burns up all impurities and illuminates the way to Wisdom and Compassion.

The Wish Fulfilling Gem in the left hand of Ratnasambhava emits the blazing light of confidence, determination and commitment. The eternal universal principle of Karma ensures that all our dearest deepest wishes are granted when we strive with diligence to maintain confidence in the Buddha and confidence in ourselves. The Law of Karma ensures that our wishes are granted when we practise with determination to overcome our fears, anxieties and our limiting pride and when we join together in commitment to the most valuable precious Ideals enshrined in the Threefold Gem of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. The universal Law of Karma is our guarantee that our efforts will make a difference, and the more we realise the true nature of life, the more we attune our lives to the changing process of life, to the changing process that is life, the more we will experience the freedom of higher states of consciousness.

The Wish Fulfilling Jewel also represents the attitude of wealth and richness with which we can approach life. All too often we have a poverty mentality, we see ourselves as emotionally impoverished or on the verge of emotional bankruptcy and we feel that we have to hoard our precious reserves of love and generosity for ourselves or we will collapse in a heap, and this attitude of emotional miserliness can lead to actual miserliness as we confuse inner wealth and emotional richness with money and possessions. We project our inner wealth and richness onto objects and other people and then we feel we must possess them and hold onto them for our own happiness and well being. The Wish Fulfilling Jewel of Ratnasambhava suggests that we should turn this attitude upside down. Our real happiness and well-being lies in an attitude of abundance, rather than an attitude of impoverishment. An attitude of abundance manifesting in an open-hearted and open-handed sharing of ourselves and our possessions with others.

The Wish Fulfilling Jewel is an image of self-replenishing abundance, constantly pouring out. The pouring out and the replenishment are the same thing. Generosity and the happiness of giving are the same thing. Loving and the joy of loving are the same thing. If your love and your generosity is an overflowing from the abundance of your friendliness and goodwill it will replenish your heart’s happiness. If your love and generosity is a miser’s attempt to bargain with the Law of Karma, you will feel the pain of loss and loneliness.

The Wish Fulfilling Jewel of Ratnasambhava is a symbol suggesting that the only real wealth is inner wealth. The way to nourish inner wealth is to develop confidence, determination and commitment in our Going for Refuge to the Three Jewels. The way to develop confidence, determination and commitment is to give, to give ourselves, to give our possessions, to share our lives with others to the best of our ability, to be open-hearted and open-handed in our interactions, especially within the Sangha.

The right hand of Ratnasambhava is extended in the mudra or gesture of supreme generosity, the Varada Mudra. The right hand does know what the left hand is doing. The lavish richness of the Wish Fulfilling Jewel in the left hand is inextricably linked to the open-handed, outward-looking gesture of the right hand. The spontaneous ceaseless downpouring of compassionate activity that is supreme generosity is the source of the fountain of riches and abundance represented by the Wish Fulfilling Gem. That same spontaneous ceaseless downpouring of compassionate activity is also the activity of the Wish Fulfilling Gem.

The inner abundance that allows us to be unstintingly generous is nourished by our actions and thoughts and words of generosity and it gives rise to further generosity. It is like a circle of generosity feeding generosity or more than a circle, it is a spiral. A spiral in which a little generosity gives rise to more generosity and greater generosity and a greater and greater ability to be generous. The more we give the more we can give. The first drops of generosity become a shower of generosity and eventually we become a veritable monsoon, a joyous downpouring of generosity, nourishing the seeds of spiritual birth in ourselves and others. In this way the spiral of generosity grows and blossoms into a Pure Land, the glorious pure land of Ratnasambhava, where all is abundance and richness and beauty and nobody possesses anything because there is no concept of possession, there is only sharing.

This is the kind of Pure Land that the archetypal image of Ratnasambhava suggests to us. This is the kind of Pure Land that the human realm can become. Ratnasambhava is especially associated with the human realm. It is said that the great failing of the human realm is pride. Pride is the poison of the human realm. Our pride is what holds us back, our pride limits us. Pride could be extended to include all negative comparisons.

We could say that the great failing of the human realm is making negative comparisons. By comparing ourselves with others we limit ourselves and we inhibit the growth of Sangha. We compare ourselves in three main ways. We think of ourselves as superior to others or inferior to others or equal to others. All of these comparisons are unhelpful to us in our striving to live the spiritual life. They are too self-orientated, self-obsessed even. The characteristic quality that moves away from the psychological towards the spiritual is an awareness of others as individuals and a caring for them growing out of that awareness.

To be constantly thinking of ourselves as superior to others or inferior to others or equal to others is to limit ourselves and dwell in a world of self-centred pride. We are not superior to others or inferior to others or equal to others. We are all unique. We are all unique individuals with unique combinations of good and bad qualities. As we grow and develop spiritually, our uniqueness will manifest more and more, our individuality will become more manifest. So it is not helpful to make comparisons with others. If we are really changing, if we are really progressing spiritually any such comparisons become more and more nonsensical.

Acknowledging spiritual hierarchy, the fact that some people are more developed than us, is not the same thing as making negative comparisons. Ratnasambhava comes into the human realm with the message of Generosity and the Wisdom of Equality as antidotes to our tendency to make comparisons. Generosity works against self-centredness in a very obvious way, to give we need to be aware of others and their needs.

The Wisdom of Equality sees the common features of human experience. It sees our “common humanity”. We are all subject to impermanence, unsatisfactoriness and we are all ever-changing processes. We all can develop higher states of consciousness and we are all capable of experiencing Insight into the nature of Reality. In this respect we are all equal, but as personalities, with temperaments and qualities and abilities and conditioning we are all different, all unique, and Reality will manifest through us in a unique and individual way. This is what the parable of the rain cloud in The White Lotus Sutra teaches. Here is what Sangharakshita says in The Drama of Cosmic Enlightenment:

“Now, although the rain falls on all alike, and the sun shines on all alike, the plants themselves are all different and they grow in different ways. A nut grows into a tree, and a seed into a flower; a rose bush produces big red blossoms whereas a crocus bulb produces small yellow ones. Some plants shoot up in the air, others creep along the ground, and others clasp bigger and stronger plants. They all grow according to their own nature. And it is just the same, the parable suggests, with human beings. They all receive the same truth, they all hear what is in principle the same spiritual teaching, and they all grow. But the strange, astonishing, and wonderful thing is that they all grow in different ways. They all grow according to their own nature. People may all hear the same teaching, believe in the same teaching, and follow the same path, but they do what seem to be completely different things. Some become more and more deeply involved in meditation, so that in the end they are spending most of their time meditating and have hardly any contact with other people. Others take up social work. Others burst into song, write poetry, or paint pictures. And others, perhaps the majority, simply go on being themselves. They do not display any specific talent, but just become more and more individual. The paradox is that although we each develop, at the same time we also become more and more like one another: more aware, more sensitive, more compassionate; in a word, more alive.

This means that in the spiritual life there can be no question of regimentation. It is reasonable to expect that, with a little endeavour, all human beings will grow, but it is unreasonable to expect all human beings to grow in the same way.” (Complete Works, Vol. 16, p.126)

The Wisdom of Equality is about having an equal attitude to all, being equally kind, and caring towards all, equally mindful towards all, because all can grow spiritually. It sees sameness in diversity, but it does not try to obliterate the diversity. In the human realm we need to beware of making comparisons which are unhelpful to ourselves and others and instead we need to try to relate to other people as unique individuals sharing in a common humanity. And we need to try to relate to the best in others and in ourselves.

We are not superior to others, we are not inferior to others, we are not equal to others; we are all unique. Some people will, of course be further along the Path than others. The Pure Land of Ratnasambhava begins to arise when we go beyond the self-centredness of making negative comparisons and out of recognition of the value of other people and our interconnectedness with them, we start to rejoice wholeheartedly in their successes and their qualities and we are moved to share our experience, our abilities, our possessions. In The Pure Land of Ratnasambhava, which is called The Glorious, there is no calculation, there is no need for calculation. There is abundance and an exuberant giving out of that sense of abundance. There is a wealth mentality which knows that giving and receiving are the same and therefore has no fear of loss.

Can we transform our Buddhist community into a Pure Land? A Ratnasambhava Pure Land, where there is a culture of abundance, a culture of generosity. A Pure Land pervaded by an atmosphere of friendliness and hospitality. An atmosphere of human kindness. Can we envisage our Buddhist community as a society in which generosity, helpfulness, hospitality and kindness are the natural and spontaneous way for all of us to behave towards each other and towards new people coming into contact with us?

Can we envisage our Buddhist community as a society in which our differences of temperament are acknowledged and valued as part of the rich and vibrant life of the mandala of practitioners?

Can we envisage our Buddhist community as a society in which the spirit of generosity and outgoing expansiveness is so all-pervasive that we feel no need to seek security in possessiveness, whether possession of other people or of things? Can we envisage our Buddhist community as a society in which our sense of security is firmly founded in an experience of interconnectedness and interdependence that manifests as friendliness, kindness, generosity and hospitality? Can we envisage our Buddhist community as a community of people motivated by their highest ideals and aspirations coming together to create an atmosphere of harmony and delight?

If we are to create a better world for ourselves and for future generations we need to have large dreams, we need to imagine the unimaginable and we need to dare to live by the ideal truths of our dreams. If we can let our imagination soar into the Glorious Pure Land of Ratnasambhava, and follow our intuition on wings of courage and commitment we will change ourselves and through ‘the fragrance of the perfect life’ we will change the world. If we want to fly we have to flap our own wings. If we want to make spiritual progress it takes an effort, a dedicated and wholehearted effort. As Sangharakshita puts it in his poem Secret Wings:

“We cry that we are weak although

We will not stir our secret wings;

The world is dark – because we are

Blind to the starriness of things.

Oh cry no more that you are weak

But stir and spread your secret wings,

And say “The world is bright, because

We glimpse the starriness of things”.

Soar with your rainbow plumes and reach

That near-far land where all are one,

Where Beauty’s face is aye unveiled

And every star shall be a sun.” (Complete Works, Vol.25, p.185)

In the spiritual life the next step is the most important step. Without the next step there are no steps. So you need to ask yourself, what is the next step for me? What effort do I have to make now? If you can imagine greatly and are willing to make the effort to take the next step in the direction of your aspiration then spiritual progress is assured.

If we all imagine greatly and make the effort to take the next step we will be building the foundations of our Pure Land, we will be transforming our Buddhist community into a society that supports the spiritual life very fully, a society which encourages us to spread our secret wings and soar towards the pure crystalline peaks of Wisdom and Compassion.

I would like to finish this talk on a slightly different note by reading you a little anecdote told by Sangharakshita in one of his study seminars:

“In 1956 I was invited by the government of India as one of the fifty-seven ‘distinguished Buddhists from the border areas’ to visit Delhi for the 2500th Buddha Jayanti celebrations. In the course of our travels we came to Benares, and one of the other distinguished Buddhists from the border areas, a friend of mine who was a lay Nyingmapa Buddhist, took me into Benares to see a Tibetan Lama – not an incarnate Lama, an ordinary monk – who was living there to learn Sanskrit. His name was Tendzing Gyaltsho. He was over seventy. The Dalai Lama had wanted him to start teaching, but he had refused. He told the Dalai Lama that he was far too busy learning; he hadn’t finished his studies. So he settled in Benares to study Sanskrit. We found him at a place almost like a typical Hindu ashram. He had a little room at the top, but it was quite bare. He was sitting on the floor with a tin trunk in front of him which served as his desk and table, with just a little text on it which he was studying. He was very pleased to see me and we talked for about an hour. As we rose to depart, he said, “I really must give you something”. He looked around the room, but there was absolutely nothing. I could see that he was almost desperate. He had nothing but his mala, so he broke his mala and gave me one bead and said, “Please take this. I must have said many millions of mantras on it. It’s all I have to give you”.(Mitrata, The Bodhisattva Ideal, Altruism and Individualism in the Spiritual Life 2, p. 47)

And that is all I have to give you now too.