Chapter 12 ﹝1﹞: Giving something to others is difficult when people are in poor

(Chapter 12 ﹝1﹞  ) A Brief Talk about The Scripture of Forty-Two Chapters Said by Buddha

Co-translators in the time of Eastern Han Dynasty, China(A.D. 25 - 200) : Kasyapa Matanga and Zhu Falan (Who translated the said Scripture from Sanskrit into Chinese. )

Translator in modern time (A.D.2018: Tao Qing Hsu (Who translated the said Scripture from Chinese into English.)

Teacher and writer for explaining the said Scripture: Tao Qing Hsu

Chapter 12: List the difficulties and exhort to practice   

The Buddha said,” There are twenty difficulties for people. Giving something to others is difficult when people are in poor. Learning the Dao is difficult when people are in the huge wealth and are the nobility. It is hard to the people when they must die because their lives have to be abandoned. Being able to see the scripture of Buddha is difficult. Being born in the time of Buddha is difficult. Enduring the erotic and desire is difficult. Seeing the self-interest and not to pursue it is difficult. No resentment when being humiliated is difficult. When having the authority and not to draw near to ordinary people  is difficult. When contact with things and no heart  is difficult. Learning widely and researching extensively are difficult. Removing the ego-arrogance is difficult. Not to despise the un-learner is difficult. Practicing the equality in heart is difficult. Not saying its right or wrong is difficult. Meeting the good-knowledge person is difficult. Seeing the Nature and learning the Dao are difficult. According to conditions to reform people so as to save them is difficult. Seeing the circumstance and unmoved in heart are difficult. Good at understanding the convenience is difficult.

Chapter 12 ﹝1﹞: Giving something to others is difficult when people are in poor

Poverty in mental is the real poverty.

”Giving something to others is difficult when people are in poor.” In general speaking, what we have known about the poor is meant to the shortage in material matters in its life. That is also the meaning of the poor in this sentence.

But, we have little known about “poverty” in mental realm. If people are not poor in material matters, but “poor” in mental realm, they would be not willing to give what they have owned to others. I think that such persons are really the poor. Why? According to my observation from the history and the society, such persons would experience the material realm from good to bad; that is from rich to poor. In Buddhism, stinginess or mean in money in material or in mental realm is the bad reason for our current life and our future life, because it would really result in the poverty in material.

On the contrary, if people are poor in material matters, but are not “poor” in mental realm, it is possible for them to give something to others. I think that they are really the richer. Why? According to my observation, such persons would experience the material realm from bad to good; that is from poor to rich. In Buddhism, generousness in material or in mental realm is the good reason for our current life and our future life. And it would thus result in the wealth in material.

Therefore, those who are both “poor” in material matters and in mental realm, and those who are not poor in material matters, but “poor” in mental realm, are really the poor. That is what I define about the poor in here.     

In material and in mental, to be the recipient is not as good as to be the giver.

The recipient here is mean to those persons who are the poverty in material or in mental, and are happy to receive money or anything from others. Why to be the recipient is not as good as to be the giver? If you have choices, which one would you hope to be? Think about it.

Some people like to be the recipient and might think what they have from others is reasonable, even though they are not poor in the material life. In psychology, we found that the personality of such person is cline to have the ready-made and comfortable life, but not the upright and hard working life relying on self. If we profoundly observe them, we could find that they are not abounding in the mental life or even un-contented in the material life, and it is thus easy to make them have the anxiety and depression.

Only when we are rich in the mental and material life, and healthy in mental, it could be possible for us to be a generous giver. According to the research and my personal observation, the generous givers are more positive at ease in their life, and it thus makes them have a longevity life.    

Three kinds of giving in Buddhism

As we have mentioned in chapter 10, there are three kinds of giving in Buddhism. That is as follows:

A.     Giving money or belongings to others. Money or belongings could also be replaced by food, clothes, medicine, or to be the volunteer and so on.

B.     Giving Buddha-law to others. Buddha-law contains all of the law which is good for people, including the worldly and unworldly creation. In a word, it means giving the wisdom to others in any ways.

C.    Giving fearlessness to others, which includes helping people get rid of fear with our courage, saving them from the dangerous situation, and consoling them with soft words so to let them abandon the fear. Who is the fearlessness-giver (Who gives people the fearlessness)? Which you can make a reference in this article: A Brief Talk about Pusa World-Sounds-Perceiving in Universally Door Chapter

If people are the poor as defined, it is really hard for them to give any one of the three kinds of giving. On the contrary, if people are not the poor as defined, it would be more willing to give any one of the three kinds of giving to others unconditionally.

Once people are “poor” in mental realm, it would be possible to cause them to be the really poor person in material matters. There is the reason and the consequence for it as we have mentioned above. In a word, it is because of shortage of the virtue and wisdom.

The Profoundly Meaning of Giving

So, how to change the situation of poverty in present life and in the future life? The Key is to give something to others unconditionally. The said principle is easy to know, however, it is hard to do, especially, when we are in the stingy mind.

Someone might disagree to this idea. Most people think that to resolve the problem of personal poverty is to work and to earn money. However, we have ever heard that being busier in work would lead to be poorer. Why?

Giving something to others is the basic teaching in Buddhism and is also the basic learning. It is the first method in six kinds of salvation about how to self-saving and how to save others people to liberate from the suffering. I tell you why.

First, giving something to others unconditionally and with no-expecting and no-demanding, it could eliminate our selfish mind and the arrogant-ego. The selfishness is the imprisoned mind. It would cause the suffering in mind and any affliction in life. However, most people have no such self perceiving. When we have taken the first step as said giving, it could decrease our selfish mind and arrogant-ego little by little, and it is also meant to release our imprisoned mind.

Secondly, giving something to others unconditionally could eliminate our heart of desire and greedy. Selfish people desire more in heart and are greedy in anything. Generally, they demand more from others. However, they would not give something to others unconditionally. Once their desire and greedy are not contented, it would cause them to have the emotion of wrath and hatred in heart.

In this situation, they would bring the disaster and affliction to themselves and others. For example, as we know, the war could bring the more death and more poverty, the reason of war is because of the desire, greedy heart, selfish mind and arrogant-ego that the person who owns any power to start the war. Do you have ever heard who gain a lot of fortune because of the war? Only a few people, right? And sometimes, most of them are scolded by the public. That is because of the selfishness of people to cause the poverty of most people.

In the history, most of those who start the war are death in suicide in the end, due to that they could not bear the pain in life. Or they have been killed by those persons who are more selfish or have the more desire. All such persons are lack of wisdom.

Therefore, once we have taken the first step as said giving, it would also mean to remove our desire and greedy heart, and also mean to prevent any disaster and affliction. A good thought and a good deed would affect the world peace and bring the wealth of a society and a country.

Third, it could increase our wisdom. When we have removed our selfish mind, desire and greedy heart, our wisdom would be thus arisen at the same time. Once our wisdom is arisen, wealth and bliss are waiting there for us. Why? I tell you a secret. There is a saying, ”God help those who help themselves.” To increase our wisdom is to help ourselves. That is why God would help us. As we have mentioned in chapter 10, such wealth and bliss are never ended. That is also why I have said that giving something to others would let us have the wealth. The name “God” could be also replaced by “Buddha” or “Bodhisattva”.

A true story about being lack of wisdom to lead to the poverty

When we have the wisdom, we could thus avoid any cause to lead to the poverty. I tell you a true story in our society about being lack of wisdom to lead to the poverty.

As we know, a judge is paid very well in the work. There is a judge who has a lot of lust for women. Therefore, he has four wives and eight children, which is having two children with each wife. His children do not work and still depend on the economic support from their father, even his children have grown up. That is because his children are used to the ready-made and comfortable life and the huge living expense is offered by his father- the judge. His four wives also rely on the husband's financial support in huge living expense.

We question why he has so much money to raise his family-the four wives and eight children? For supporting so many family members in economic, the salary of the said judge is not enough to pay the living expenses. Then, he begins to do the dirty thing, taking bribes. And he does the corruption from his work.

Do you know? When he seems to be responsible to his wives and is a good father to his children, he really is not responsible to his job, the public and the country.

Finally, he is in jail, lost his work and his salary. Meanwhile, he has to give back his illegal gains to the government. In other word, he is from the rich to the poverty. That is because he is lack of wisdom. When a person is lack of wisdom, it is impossible for him to save himself to liberate from the suffering. That is, the shortage of wisdom would push him in the sea of suffering.

Giving is the first method in six kinds of salvation in Buddhism.

So, when we have the wisdom, we would have the ability to save us liberate from the suffering little by little. Once we have totally liberated from the suffering, we would have the ability to liberate others from the suffering. That is why giving something to others is the first method in six kinds of salvation in Buddhism. It is the one of the basis to go into the path of Buddha.  

Giving something to others also means to offer something to others. As we know, the problem about the unequal in poverty and wealth in the world is always existed. The 80% wealth of the world is owned by the 20% population of the world. In other word, more than half population in the world is in the poverty. In my opinions, that is because most people are lack of wisdom, let alone to be ignorant.

A lot of ideology is fooling people. But, it is valued as the knowledge in the academic. Only the human are improved in wisdom and remove the ignorance, the real equal wealth could be possible to be achieved.

To eliminate the poverty is not so difficult. The easy way is mentioned above. However, for the people who are suffering the poverty, how many of them would be willing to give something to others? Let alone to mention that they have the chance to read this article.

Giving something to others is more blessed than accepting something from others. Which one would you like to be? If we wish we are the person who has the ability to give something to others, we would then be more blessed and richer in life.

Supplementary note: Dao is transliterated from Chinese, meaning way and method, deeper meaning as a system of learning or religion. Dao is Tao, which is transliterated from Chinese. The original meaning of Dao is the way and path, and it is extended to be the truth of life that we can learn and practice in our lives.