The Good Person

Translation of འཕགས་པ་སྐྱས་བ་དམ་པའ་མད (འཕགས་པ་སྐྱེས་བུ་དམ་པའི་མདོ)

Language: English
Translators: Artur Przybysławski, Ācārya Choying Tendar, Paul Partington, Phusar Penpa Dhondup
Extent: 16 passages, 1,061 words
Text: complete digital text
Source: 84000 · Published by 84000 (v 1.0.3 2024). 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha,… · CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha). Shown whole and unaltered, with its notes, on a…

intro 84000's introduction — 5 parts
1
2
3
notes Notes — 8 parts

Text

84000's introduction

intro.1

While staying in Śrāvastī, the Buddha gives a short teaching on five ways in which gifts are given and discusses the karmic results of giving them.

The Good Person ¹ is a concise sūtra on karma in which the Buddha explains the results of generosity. He lists five ways in which gifts are given: with trust, respectfully, with one’s own hands, at the right time,² and without harming others.³ Since this analysis does not refer to key karmic factors such as intent, but rather to the ways in which gifts are given, the differences between the karmic results of each type of giving are relatively minor.

intro.3

There are no commentaries on this sūtra, and we have not yet found discussions of it in other Buddhist texts. According to the colophon, it was translated by the Indian paṇḍita Dharmākara and the Tibetan translator Zangkyong,⁴ and was revised by Kawa Paltsek. If that attribution is correct, the translation can be dated to the late eighth or early ninth century ce. The text is also included in the Denkarma catalog, dated to 812 ce, further confirming this dating.⁵

intro.4

There is no extant Sanskrit version of this text, nor is there a Chinese translation. The text has a Pāli parallel, however, namely the Sappurisadānasutta from the Aṅguttaranikāya (5.148).⁶

intro.5

The basis for this translation was the Degé version in consultation with the Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma) and the version included in the Stok Palace Kangyur.

1

Homage to the noble youthful Mañjuśrī.

Thus did I hear at one time. The Bhagavān was residing in Prince Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍada’s park at Śrāvastī. Then the Bhagavān said to the monks, “Monks, these five are the gifts of good people. What are the five? Monks, good people give gifts with trust.⁷ They give gifts respectfully, with their own hands, at the right time, and without harming others.

“Monks, what karmic results should good people expect from giving gifts with trust? By giving gifts with trust, they become rich. They have abundant riches and great wealth. They have abundant precious materials. They have many properties. They have abundant riches, grains, jewels, gold, depositories, and reserves. They have many servants, maids, workers, and casual laborers. They have many friends, ministers, kinsmen, and relatives. Monks, they should expect such karmic results from giving gifts with trust.

“Monks, what karmic results should good people expect from giving gifts respectfully? By giving gifts respectfully, they become rich. They have many friends, ministers, kinsmen, and relatives, as before. Children, wives, servants, maids, workers, casual laborers, friends, ministers, kinsmen, and relatives also pay them respect. Monks, they should expect such karmic results from giving gifts respectfully.

2

“Monks, what karmic results should good people expect from giving gifts with their own hands? By giving gifts with their own hands, they become rich and then have many friends, ministers, kinsmen, and relatives, as before. They also enjoy the great wealth of householders. They enjoy an enormous wealth of food, an enormous wealth of animal-drawn carts, an enormous wealth of clothes, and an enormous wealth of bedding. They enjoy forms, sounds, smells, tastes, and tangibles. Monks, they should expect such karmic results from giving gifts with their own hands.

“Monks, what karmic results should good people expect from giving gifts at the right time? By giving gifts at the right time, they become rich and then have many friends, ministers, kinsmen, and relatives, as before. They also receive jewels accumulated in great numbers. Monks, they should expect such karmic results from giving gifts at the right time.

“Monks, what karmic results should good people expect from giving gifts without harming others? By giving gifts without harming others, they become rich and then have many friends, ministers, kinsmen, and relatives, as before. They obtain whatever wealth they wish for through diligence. It is achieved with power; it is achieved without sweating, and while a pleasant aroma pervades.⁸ Those things obtained by Dharma practitioners through the Dharma are not obstructed by kings, thieves, fire, water, unfriendly people, the sharing of goods, or any other activity. They should expect such karmic results from giving gifts without harming others.”

3

Thus spoke the Bhagavān. After the Sugata had said this, the Teacher accordingly spoke again:

“The wise ones give with trust, respectfully, with their own hands,
At the right time, and without harming others.
After giving vast and great gifts,
They who always give in this way take fortunate rebirths.”

When the Bhagavān spoke thus, the monks rejoiced and praised what the Bhagavān had said.

Colophon

Translated by the Indian preceptor Dharmākara and the translator Bandé Zangkyong, and revised by Bandé Paltsek.

Notes

notes.1

1. In this text, this is a person who practices the five ways of giving.

notes.2

2. As McCombs points out, “giving ‘respectfully,’ ‘from one’s own hand,’ and ‘at the right time’ are customs of South Asian gift etiquette” (McCombs 2014, p. 266).

notes.3

3. In Mahāyāna literature, this quite common division is discussed, for example, in the Yogācārabhūmi—in particular, the Dānapaṭala chapter of Bodhisattvabhūmi. Cf. Wogihara, 132.19–22 [ tatra katamad bodhisattvasya satpuruṣasya satpuruṣadānaṃ / yad bodhisattvaḥ śraddhayā dānaṃ dadāti satkṛtya svahastena kālena parān anupahatya / idaṃ bodhisattvasya satpuruṣasya satpuruṣadānam ity ucyate /]. Cf. also the interpretation of that fragment in McCombs (2014), p. 265ff.

notes.4

4. In addition to texts found in the Kangyur, Dharmākara and Zangkyong also translated two commentaries in the Tengyur (Toh 4015 and 4038).

notes.5

5. See Herrmann-Pfandt 2008, pp. 157–58, no. 285. Note, however, as pointed out by Herrmann-Pfandt, that the length of the text as given in the Denkarma catalog (200 ślokas) does not match the length of this text. Herrmann-Pfandt suggests that this text may either be an excerpt from a longer version, or that the length given in the Denkarma is incorrect.

notes.6

6. Cf. Sappurisadana Sutta: A Person of Integrity’s Gifts, trans. Thanissaro Bhikkhu, https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an05/an05.148.than.html

notes.7

7. For more on the term śraddhā (Tib. dad pa), translated here as “trust,” see Rotman (2009), pp. 29ff.

notes.8

8. There are two alternative readings of this fragment, namely rngul zhing dri ma chags chags in most of the editions and rngul med zhing dri ma chags chags in the Stok Palace version. chags chags is probably a misspelling for chag chag (“to sprinkle”). Also, the negation med provides a better meaning in the context, referring to easy achievement of the results. Thus, we read this line as rngul med zhing dri ma chag chag and translate accordingly.