about the offerings made to him. Merit will accrue according to the gift.” “I may be
poor in this life,” thought the woman, but if only I can accumulate merit now, I
need not be so poor in the next life.” And she was determined to give generously
however she could. She asked the monks to wait for her, and she went to her
husband to discuss it with him, telling him of the benefits of generosity and
encouraging his own sense of giving. He reminded her that he had nothing hidden
away and that the only thing they possessed was the cloth. They agreed to give the
cloth to the Buddha and subsequently gave it to the monks. Later, in the evening,
when the assembly made offerings of gold, silver, pearls, brocade, and so on, to the
Buddha, the monks made an offering of the filthy piece of cloth, full of lice and
nits. Buddha requested them to bring the cloth to him, and he joyfully placed it
under his feet. Asked by the king for the reason, the Buddha replied, “Among the
offerings of the day, the cloth of this poor couple is the best. They gave it with pure
faith and without attachment or concern for name or fame. Through the power of
this couple’s generosity, they will take rebirth in rich families for eighty lives, and
from the moment of their birth, they will be covered with white cloth. At the end
of their eightieth life, they will hear the Buddha Shakyamuni’s teaching, and they
will attain arhatship.” So impressed were the king and queen that they gave the
couple each a set of clothes, and food to eat, and they became rich in that very
lifetime.
The root of that couple’s huge benefit was the absence of any attachment to their
offering and the complete absence of expectation of any reward, particularly in
terms of reputation. The generosity was pure, and within their lifetime they could
see some result. Moreover, their final achievement of arhatship through the merit
of generosity was due to the power of absolute nonattachment in the event of
giving, with no selfish thought of any personal benefit, and quite without
attachment to the gift as a material object.
Generosity, moral discipline, meditative patience, constant perseverance,
equanimous concentration, insight into the empty selflessness inherent in every
thought—the merit of these is the unfailing cause of the attainment of the most
excellent and the very highest quality of buddha, and so we train in it.
3.14 ADDICTION TO WEALTH LEADS TO SUFFERING
Once in the kingdom of Sravasti, India, there was a poor man called “Nyepa.” He
had few needs and was content with what he had. One day, by the grace of the
gods, he found a precious stone. His first thought was that he would give the
fortune that it represented to the poorest person in the village. Going from house to
house in search of the poorest person, at last he discovered him at the palace of
Selgyel, the king—for the king was the poorest of all relative to his desires, which
were insatiable. Nyepa gave the stone to the king, because, as he said, the king was
the poorest. But the king was unhappy with Nyepa and told him that there was no
one more powerful, rich, or famous than him in the whole kingdom, so the stone
should be given to someone else. Nyepa insisted that since no one in the kingdom
had so little compared to his demands, it was therefore appropriate for the king to