諸經要集 10.6

10.6

Now, the practice of dāna is the very wellspring of the myriad practices. It is marked as the first of the six pāramitās and placed at the head of the four means of embracing. For this reason, Anāthapiṇḍada scattered yellow gold without stinginess, and King Sudāna gave away the white elephant without regret. They could even rescue others from dire distress, forgetting their own physical bodies. Thus Sattva cast down his body to save the life of a starving, emaciated [tigress], and Śibi cut his flesh to take the place of the falcon's meal. How much less should kingdoms, cities, wives, or children be kept in mind! How could precious goods and granaries be held dear? Secular books still say: 'Strip off one's robe and push forward one's food,' 'rubbing from head to heel,' and 'carriages, horses, clothes, and furs shared with friends until worn out.' None failed to make light of wealth and value righteousness, to cherish the worthy and love the noble. Moreover, material wealth is inherently impermanent; what does it have to do with human affairs? Striving painfully to accumulate it, what use is it in the end? Beset by the four terrors, fought over by the five houses—how could any wise person treat it as a precious plaything? Recently we see ordinary, foolish people who begrudge and hoard their family wealth, without a single thought of renunciation, and thereby lose their lives. Merely out of greed for life, they constantly worry about not surviving, thus causing wives and children to glare at each other, brothers to feud within the walls, relatives to be estranged, and kinsmen and friends to be cut off. Truly, this is because the causes, conditions, phenomena, and karma of stinginess run contrary to the mind of a bodhisattva and obstruct the path of maitrī-karuṇā; they give rise to no thought of rescue and protection, but produce only sentiments of harm and annoyance. Faults such as these are indeed rooted in stinginess and greed.