Dana: The First Teaching

Generosity is the foundation for transformation.

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Jan 23, 2024

“People who exude love are apt to give things away. They are in every way like rivers; they stream. And so when they collect possessions and things they like, they are apt to give them to other people. Because, have you ever noticed that when you start giving things away, you keep getting more?” — Alan Watts

Generosity is a foundational aspect of Buddhism, yet it’s not spoken of directly in the Four Noble Truths or the Noble Eightfold Path. But in many ways, dana (Sanskrit) or jinpa (Tibetan) is the first step on the Buddhist path. When the Buddha taught in the countryside to householders, it is said that he always began with a teaching on dana in the teaching style known as the gradual path (anupubbasikkhā). “Then the Blessed One gave the householder a progressive, gradual instruction — that is to say, he spoke on liberality or giving (dāna), on moral conduct (sīla) and on the heaven (sagga);…When the Blessed One perceived that the listener’s mind was prepared, pliant, free from obstacles, elevated, and lucid; then he explained to him that exalted teaching particular to the Buddhas (buddhānam sāmukkamsikā desanā), that is, (The Four Noble Truths), suffering, its cause, its ceasing, and the path.”

In Buddhist terms, dana means that giving requires nothing in return, be it dharma teaching given freely or the financial or other support received by a dharma teacher, monk, or institution from a person or group. Dana is not transactional. Instead, it is an ineffable quality of the ultimate nature of reality. It is both a virtue in the early stages of the Buddhist path and a fruition in the later stages. And ultimately, it transcends the gift itself. As Chogyam Trungpa writes in The Bodhisattva Path of Wisdom and Compassion: The Profound Treasury of the Ocean of Dharma, Volume Two, “The nature of generosity is nonattachment.” Lewis Hyde writes in The Gift, “A market exchange has an equilibrium or stasis: you pay to balance the scale. But when you give a gift there is momentum, and the weight shifts from body to body.” “When the gift moves in a circle its motion is beyond the control of the personal ego, and so each bearer must be a part of the group and each gift is an act of social faith.”

Nonetheless, dana is seemingly one of Buddhism’s least known and understood aspects in the Global North. Capitalist cultures that commodify health care, family care, and spiritual care may accept donations through non-profit institutions, but donation differs significantly from dana. For one, a donation is often a tax right off, so something is returned for the gift. Also, many non-profits provide other perks or services to their biggest donors, including membership, material goods, or special treatment. And this is where the confusion lies, as the culture of donation is often confused with the expression of dana. Chogyam Trungpa writes, “It is the strength to work with others and to relate with other people’s energy as well as with your own.” that differentiates donation from dana.

Trungpa continues, “Generosity takes place in stages. There are domestic, cultural, linguistic, and educational barriers, so it takes some time to give in to generosity.” And perhaps he points to something obvious in our culture. Giving freely without expectation is difficult because our culture creates little freedom and opportunity to give without it running into a barrier or burden. Conversely, this lack of faith in feeling safe, abundant, and free creates a self-fulfilling cycle of give and take. Lewis Hyde writes, “Out of bad faith comes a longing for control, for the law and the police. Bad faith suspects that the gift will not come back, that things won’t work out, that there is a scarcity so great in the world that it will devour whatever gifts appear. In bad faith, the circle is broken.”

Chogyam writes, “Generosity is based on both parting with and giving: you are parting with what is precious, and giving what is precious.” With donation, we give “what we can” — in essence, we give our abundance, with the return of feeling good about being a person who gives. But with dana, we give beyond what we have with no expectation for anything in return. Dana is not just the process of giving but the underlying energy of the exchange and the psychology of the giver and receiver. “Buddhist teaching devotes special attention to the psychological basis of giving,” writes Susan Jootla. She continues, “Generosity associated with wisdom before, during, and after the act is the highest type of giving.” “Three examples of wise giving are giving with the clear understanding that according to the karmic law of cause and effect, the generous act will bring beneficial results in the future; giving while aware that the gift, the recipient, and the giver are all impermanent; and giving with the aim of enhancing one’s efforts to become enlightened.”

Dana is also essential in the completion stages of the path and is the first of the paramitas, or perfections. Bihhku Bodhi writes, “It (dana) does not come at the apex of the path, as a factor constituent of the process of awakening, but rather it serves as a basis and preparation which underlies and quietly supports the entire endeavor to free the mind from the defilements.” Generosity is essential in the practice of awareness. To see the arising of phenomenon as dependent origination, or in order to see the fine detail of mental formations charted and mapped by the Abhidharma, it requires a generosity of experience to include all phenomena.

Lily de Silva writes, “Buddhism teaches a gradual process of emptying oneself. It starts with giving away one’s external possessions. When the generous dispositional trait sets in and is fortified by the deepening insight into the real nature of things, one grows disenchanted with sense pleasures (nibbindati).” Therefore, even generosity, in its essence, is empty. “The instructed noble disciple attends closely and carefully to dependent origination itself thus: ‘When this exists, this comes to be, with the arising of this, that arises. When this does not exist, that does not come to be; with this cessation, that ceases.” In other words, giving and taking are aspects of the conceptual mind, and it’s possible to transcend this altogether.

De Silva writes, “In the lists of virtues required for liberation, such as those included among the thirty-seven requisites of enlightenment (bodhipakkhiya dhamma), dana never occurs as a required virtue. Instead of dana, caga or generosity is included in some of the lists, such as the five qualities — faith, virtue, learning, generosity, and wisdom.” Caga is the ‘spirit” of generosity, versus dana more specifically being the “action” of generosity. Therefore, dana transmutes into caga, which transmutes back into an enlightened form of dana, and so on. Trungpa writes, “True generosity is the enlightenment mind dedicated to giving happiness and relief from suffering to all beings.”

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