Dana in Buddhism Essay

Dana is a term that in Buddhism connotes the virtue of generosity, charity or almsgiving. In Buddhism, Dana is a religious act that is directed to the spiritual development of a person as it is believed that through generosity, people enrich themselves with experiences of material wealth and eventually stop valuing such wealth as much and instead shift such love towards the other people. This is said to lead to such people being reborn again in spiritual taste. In Buddhism, dana is practiced in different ways apart from almsgiving. Generosity is manifested in activities like teachings and monetary offerings. For instance, teachings are given free because Buddhists consider the knowledge a priceless gift that Buddha gives. According to Buddhism, dana is more of liberality, an urge or inclination to give without expecting anything in return. It is the innate generosity.

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Dana is regarded as the core on which life since according to the teachings of Buddha, the best life of a human being is based on giving. For instance, in Buddha's "graduated exposition of the Dhamma" as written in Pali suttas, for instance, the danakatha or rather talk of giving is emphasized. It is explained that whenever Buddha delivered a discourse to an audience of people who had not come to accept Him as their teacher he normally could start by encouraging them to do acts of giving and stressed that it was of the greatest value and a basis of self-growth and spiritual development. Before such people came to terms with the act of giving and practiced it fully, Buddha would not introduce any other aspect of his teachings such as morality and the law of kamma and the four noble truths. Among the factors of the four noble eightfold paths according to Buddha, dana does not appear on its own right as it is understood as the basis of realization and understanding the four noble truths, a discipline that someone has to muster for peace of their souls and minds.

In societies where Buddhism is practiced such as Thailand, Dana is the face of everyday practice in the societal social, economic and political spheres. Buddhists believe in focusing on the inner peace and nourishment, inner healing whenever they feel disturbed and hence perfection or rather completeness of their souls. Their ideologies are founded on generosity because that is what according to their belief, brings inner peace and sustained the growth of their souls. Dana is, therefore, a very crucial component of the Buddhist ideologies. Moreover, dana is the first theme in the Buddha's system of gradual training and the first virtue that leads to paramita, perfection or completeness of a human being and one of the seven treasures. The Buddhists practice dana in their everyday life by helping those who need their help such as those less privileged in the society. They consider the act of giving as one of the most basic virtues in a human being. To them, it is a quality that signifies and testifies the in-depth character of humanity and their capacity for self-transcendence in a person. In their culture, they believe in the teachings of Buddha that practicing generosity claims a significant place of one's special eminence which is a critical seed of spiritual development which is an ideology that Buddhists believe the society is built on.

In the political arena, dana is applied for good governance so that politicians use the resources of a country in helping the citizens instead of benefiting themselves through greedy embezzlements and corruption. They gift people to win their hearts and keep them close. Every politician who believes in Buddhism must practice this virtue of giving if they have to be good leaders. Dana is thus one character which the nations in Southern Asia base their voting and election of political leaders on. If a certain politician fails to serve the people in line with the teachings of Buddha regarding dana, such leader is faced with resistance and loses the trust of the people and as it has been before this age, they might want to win the love of the people they are leading.

Vessantara Jataka is one of the stories in Thailand's Buddhist stories contained in the Apadana, a collection of biblical stories and scriptures of Buddhism. It is a story that exemplifies the generosity of the highest order in the history of Buddhism stories on dana as it displays the virtue of perfect generosity. It is a story of a compassionate prince, Vessantara who gave away everything he had inclusive of his children. Vessantara appeared as Gautama Buddha and told his past life story to his father and the members of the dynasty after he received the supreme enlightenment as Buddha. When he visited his father's kingdom, arrogant elders of the ruling dynasty did not respect him at first. He miraculously appeared in the air above them. His father, the then-king was the first to bow down in respect to his son. The members of the dynasty followed the king's bowing. As the elders accepted the religion of Buddhism, a cloud of rain gathered and a red-drop rain appeared. The elders were mesmerized and they inquired to know what kind of rain that was. Gautama Buddha then explained that the rain had appeared before in his past life and then went ahead and narrated the story of his previous life as king Vessantara. It was a story filled with actions of self-denial and absolute perfection of the dana/generosity virtue.

Patrick Jory's theory of Monarchy of Vessantara Jataka offers a compelling re-interpretation of Vessantara Jataka's story in terms of political, economic and social lives in the Idea of the perfect man. It is more of political theory. According to Jory, the story Vessantara should be understood as more than just a religious narrative but as the center of statecraft and ruling ideology in pre-modern Thailand. Jory seems to have tracked the rising popularity of Vessandara's story from the events of the early formation of Thailand to the end of the European empire in the country in the late 1800s. This is the time Thailand's elites took charge of the country's religion and focused on saving Buddhism. The European leadership had cast out other religions and the existing traditions which did not conform with their religious beliefs and teachings. Thailand's Jakata who upheld the relevance and cultural significance of the narrative had lost favor but still remained popular in the countryside. In this theory, Jory discusses gift giving or rather "perfection of giving" as he calls it and the conceptions of power in Southeast Asia based on the qualities of a perfect man as conceptualized from the story of Vessantara. During his life, Vessantara lived 'poorly' because he did not own anything. He gave all he had as alms. During one of his births, immediately after the rebirth, he said promised to give all that he had; all the wealth that he possessed to God through almsgiving (Jory, 2016). This connects the narration that Vessantara gave away his wife and the only two sons.

Vessantara was claimed that he could give away anything he had since his life was all about giving. He even stated that if someone could ask for his blood, eyes, and any other part of his body he would give generously. In this case, he argued that giving out his child or wife was just as giving out money to a beggar or a drunkard (Jory, 2016). For instance, Jory explains that before Vessantara became king, he was approached by Indra disguised as Brahmin and asked for his two children. He did not hesitate, but felt relieved even though he was moved by their cry as they begged him to save them when the Brahmin dragged them down like cattle. All he did was just to give away. He even gave away his kingship and kingdom to his father and went to live in the forest with his wife and children. As Jory explains, the ancient rulers in Thailand ruled people well by gifting them and not using force. They attracted the people they ruled closer to them so they could lead them well and benefit from their kindness. Dana was not just used by leaders from a religious perspective. They sometimes used dana to win the hearts of the people. the reason being that the forests were so dense and terrifying then such that no king was safe if he used compulsion and force to rule his people (Jory, 2016). He explains that anyone could harm such a king by using the bushy and dense forests as hideouts. Therefore, ancient Thai kings and rulers used dana to entice people and win their support. Moreover, when Vessantara returned to the city as a king and received gold and other precious metals from Indra, he gave the gold to people and kept the rest for gift-giving in the future.

According to Jory, political leaders ought not to amass wealth for themselves from the resources meant to benefit the common citizens or rather the people such leaders are serving. they should be generous enough instead. Such character will enable people to trade without high and oppressing tax tolls, travel conditions that suppress their movement and without loss of property to the state. Jory explains that by giving, the leaders will not just maintain the leadership by winning people's hearts but also perfect the art of giving which is essential in Buddhism (Jory, 2016). He uses the example of Vessantara by stating that he not only became a renowned and loved king of Sivi through his dana but also perfected his generosity to an extent of giving away his most precious things such as his children and wife and his white horse. Dana also brings good returns and joy in the end as shown by the return of Vessantara's white horse and a shower of rain that brings with itself jewels and other precious gifts and more importantly, a reunion of the Sivis' family through the doing of the gods.

Patrick Jory relates also draws a relationship between family and the State in regard to the individual duty to the society. The manner in which he explains the events of the story of Vessantara explains that dana is crucial in balancing between one's duty to the society, the state and family. In his analysis of the Vessantara's story, he sees Vessantara as a person whose character of generosity did not go to waste as all that he gave away was later restored at the end of the story. According to Jory (2016), Vessantara gave away his kingship to his father for the sake of the family. He wanted to respect his father and the family at large. He chose not to cause chaos in the royal family but instead ran away to the forest with his wife Matsi and their two children, Kanha and Jali leaving behind all his belongings. Additionally, Sonchai had a royal duty to exile Vessantara from the royal family as the citizens wanted, which he did despite the fact that they were a family. His duty to the society and state came first then the family as depicted in his action of escorting out Vessantara out of the royal family courtyard. In connection to Thailand's context and any other governance, Jory would advise leaders that sometimes their families come later after an individual's duty to society. For instance, leaders might want to imitate Vessantara and Sonchai to never put themselves or their families before their service to society.

Jory continues to explain the importance of using dana as a way to bring people closer by the leaders. He explains how Thai rulers of several kingdoms used the concept of gift giving in enticing the other leaders then tricking them to adopt their customs or later capturing their kingdoms and taking it over. He also explains how the use of military power was not enough to take over a given kingdom and in which case a ruler used dana in terms of gifts to pledge for peace between their kingdoms. Jory explains that use of dana was equally superior to the use of military force or impulsive governance to win over a kingdom through military action and collect revenue (...