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# The Exemplary Tale of Puṇyabala 1.2

བསོད་ནམས་ཀྱི་སྟོབས་ཀྱི་རྟོགས་པ་བརྗོད་པ 1.2

- **Language:** Classical Tibetan

### [1.2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.avadana.avadana.punyabalavadana*bo.1.2)

པར་བླངས་ཏེ་གནས་པར་མ་བྱས་པས་ལུས་ཞིག་སྟེ་ཤི་བའི་འོག་ཏུ་ངན་འགྲོ་ལོག་པར་ལྟུང་བ་སེམས་ཅན་དམྱལ་བ་རྣམས་སུ་སྐྱེ་བར་འགྱུར་རོ། །དགེ་སློང་དག་སྐྱེས་བུ་དམ་པ་ཆོས་གསུམ་དང་ལྡན་པ་ནི་སྦྱིན་པ་དག་སྦྱིན་ཞིང་བསོད་ནམས་དག་བྱེད་ལ་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་ཡང་དག་པར་བླངས་ཏེ་གནས་སོ། །གསུམ་གང་ཞེ་ན། འདི་ལྟར་མ་ཆགས་པ་དང་། སེར་སྣའི་དྲི་མ་དང་བྲལ་བ་དང་། བག་ཡོད་པ་རྣམས་སོ། །དགེ་སློང་དག་ཆོས་གསུམ་པོ་འདི་དག་དང་ལྡན་ན་སྐྱེས་བུ་དམ་པ་སྦྱིན་པ་དག་སྦྱིན་ཞིང་བསོད་ནམས་དག་བྱས་ལ། ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་ཡང་དག་པར་བླངས་ཏེ་གནས་པས་ལུས་ཞིག་སྟེ་ཤི་བའི་འོག་ཏུ་བདེ་འགྲོ་མཐོ་རིས་ཀྱི་འཇིག་རྟེན་དུ་ལྷ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་ནང་དུ་སྐྱེ་བར་འགྱུར་རོ། །བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་ཀྱིས་དེ་སྐད་ཅེས་བཀའ་སྩལ་ཏེ། བདེ་བར་གཤེགས་པས་དེ་སྐད་ཅེས་གསུངས་ནས། དེའི་འོག་ཏུ་གཞན་ཡང་སྟོན་པས་འདི་སྐད་ཅེས་གསུངས་སོ། །གང་ཕྱིར་སེར་སྣ་བག་མེད་པས། །སྦྱིན་པ་སྦྱིན་པར་མི་བྱེད་དེ། །དེ་ཕྱིར་བསོད་ནམས་འདོད་པ་ཡི། །ཤེས་པས་སྦྱིན་པ་སྦྱིན་པར་བྱ། །སེར་སྣ་ཅན་གྱི་འཇིགས་པ་ནི། །བཀྲེས་དང་སྐོམ་པ་འདི་ཡིན་ན། །གང་གིས་འཇིགས་པས་འདིར་མ་བྱིན། །དེ་ཉིད་མ་བྱིན་འཇིགས་པ་སྟེ། །འཇིག་རྟེན་འདི་དང་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ། །དེ་ཡི་བྱིས་པ་གོས་པར་འགྱུར། །གང་དག་སེར་སྣ་སྤངས་ནས་ཀྱང་། །དུས་སུ་སྦྱིན་པ་སྦྱིན་བྱེད་ན། །ཤི་ཡང་དེ་ནི་ཤི་མ་ཡིན། །རྒྱགས་བཟང་བ་ཡི་འདྲོན་པོ་བཞིན། །གང་དག་ཤིན་ཏུ་གཏང་དཀའ་བ། །ཉུང་ངུའམ་མང་པོ་གཏོང་བྱེད་ན། །གཏང་དཀའ་གཏོང་བ་དེ་དག་ནི། །དཀའ་

> maintain discipline after taking it on. As a result, when their bodies fail and they die, they will fall into lower realms and be reborn in the hell realms.  
>   
> “Monks, those worthy people who have three qualities of the sacred Dharma practice generosity, engage in merit, and maintain discipline after taking it on. What are these three qualities? They are nonattachment, freedom from the stain of miserliness, and conscientiousness. Monks, those sublime beings who have these three qualities will practice generosity, engage in merit, and maintain discipline after taking it on. As a result, when their bodies fail and they die, they will meet happy destinies and take birth in the higher realms, among the gods.”  
>   
> These words were proclaimed by the Blessed One. After the Well-Gone One had said these words, he, the Teacher, went on to say this:  
>   
> “Due to miserliness and carelessness,  
> You do not practice generosity.  
> Therefore, with a mind that yearns for merit,  
> You should practice generosity.  
>   
> “The fears of the miserly are such that  
> Due to their fears of hunger and thirst,  
> They do not give in this life.  
> Thus, these childish ones are tainted  
> By their fear-induced lack of generosity,  
> Both in this world and in the hereafter.  
>   
> “But those who forsake miserliness  
> Will give when it is right to give.  
> So for them, death is not really death.  
> They are like well-provisioned travelers.  
>   
> “Those who give what is hard to give up,  
> Making offerings, large or small,  
> Of what is very hard to relinquish,  
> Such people  
> — Ruth Gamble & Tenzin Ringpapontsang, The Exemplary Tale of Puṇyabala

> are the purifiers of difficult karma.  
> Unworthy ones do not understand this.  
> Worthy ones do not do things that transgress the Dharma.  
>   
> “So it is for the worthy and the unworthy,¹⁴  
> That when they have passed from this life,  
> The unworthy go to hell,  
> And the worthy go to heaven.  
>   
> “There is no refuge from the ravages of old age.  
> As life shortens, the moment when your life force is taken draws closer.  
> It is reasonable for those who see this terror of death  
> To engage in acts¹⁵ that bring merit and happiness.¹⁶  
>   
> “Making hundreds of thousands of offerings  
> Will not amount to a sixteenth fraction  
> Of the small acts of joyous giving performed  
> By those who relinquish women and live as a renunciant.  
>   
> “How can it be that making vast and prodigious offerings  
> Does not necessarily qualify as the path of appropriate offering?  
> How can it be that making hundreds of thousands of offerings  
> Does not amount to a sixteenth fraction of a renunciant’s offering?  
>   
> “It is so because here, in this life, some childish fools kill and shackle others,  
> Brutally ruining them, while donating their wealth to others.  
> Such generosity accompanied by tear-stained faces and punishment  
> Does not qualify as the path of appropriate offering.  
>   
> “Even if such offerings are vast and prodigious,  
> They do not qualify as the path of appropriate generosity.  
> This is why even hundreds of thousands of offerings  
> Do not amount to even a sixteenth fraction of a renunciant’s offerings.  
>   
> “Those who are not hypocritical  
> And who give away righteously acquired wealth  
> Let go of things that are hard to relinquish.  
> They will go to the gods’ realms because of their merit.”  
>   
> After speaking thus, the Blessed One rose from his seat and proceeded toward a dense forest. He stayed in the dense forest for the day, sitting beneath a tree.  
>   
> During that time, many monks gathered in the assembly hall and took their seats. The elders began to discuss the issue of the most valuable quality of human beings.¹⁷ Among those seated in the assembly were the Blessed One’s cousin, his aunt’s son, venerable Nanda, along with venerable Śroṇakoṭīviṃśa,  
> — Ruth Gamble & Tenzin Ringpapontsang, The Exemplary Tale of Puṇyabala

- [Previous: 1.1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.avadana.avadana.punyabalavadana*bo.1.1)
- [Next: 1.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.avadana.avadana.punyabalavadana*bo.1.3)
- [Up: 1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.avadana.avadana.punyabalavadana*bo.1)

## Translations (1)

- [The Exemplary Tale of Puṇyabala](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.avadana.avadana.punyabalavadana*bo~en-84000.1.2) — Ruth Gamble & Tenzin Ringpapontsang, English

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Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.avadana.avadana.punyabalavadana*bo.1.2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.avadana.avadana.punyabalavadana*bo.1.2) · Pramāṇa