THE ANUD¢PAN¢
In another instance, the Buddha persuaded King PasenadÊ of Kosala to change his mind
about permitting a monastery for ascetics of another faith to be built close by the Jetavana
monastery. The King had been bribed by the ascetics for granting land to build their
monastery. Foreseeing endless disputes that would later arise, the Buddha first sent the
Venerable Œnanda and other
bhikkhus
and later the two Chief Disciples, the Venerable
SÈriputta and the Venerable MahÈ MoggallÈna, to dissuade the King from taking the bribe
and granting the land to the ascetics. The King gave some excuse to avoid seeing the great
Disciples. Consequently, the Buddha Himself had to go to the King and told him the story
of King Bharu, mentioned in the Duka NipÈta, who, in a similar situation, had caused much
suffering through taking bribes. Fully convinced of his wrong doing, King Passenadi made
amends by withdrawing the grant of land and appropriating the building materials gathered
on it by the ascetics. The King then had a monastery built with those materials on the very
site and donated it to the Buddha.
As stated above, there is no offence when a donor changes his first intention for a good
reason and makes the offer to another person. This has direct reference to one of the
attributes of the Ariya Sangha. If a donor prepares gifts for
bhikkhus
who would be visiting
him, and if, in the meantime,
bhikkhus
who are well-established in the higher Dhammas
and who are members of the Ariya Sangha come into the scene, he may change his mind
and offer the gifts to the newcomers to his better advantage. And they may also accept
such gifts. They may also make use of the gifts so received. Being worthy of accepting
such gifts originally intended for visitors is known as the
pÈhuneyya
attribute of the Ariya
Sangha.
Type of DÈna in Groups of Tens and Fourteens
As in the case of
dÈna
in Groups of Fours, Sixes, or Sevens there is no direct mention of
type of
dÈna
in groups of Tens in the Texts. But the Commentaries provide a list of ten
material things which may be offered as
dÈna
.
Likewise the Dakkhina Vibhanga Sutta gives a list of
dÈnas
which come under the
category of fourteen kinds of gifts by individuals (see item 19 of types of
dÈnas
in groups
of Twos).
5. WHAT ARE THE ELEMENTS THAT STRENGTHEN THE BENEFICIAL RESULTS
OF DŒNA
6. WHAT ARE THE ELEMENTS THAT WEAKEN THE BENEFICIAL RESULTS OF
DŒNA
The DÈna Sutta, the seventh discourse of the DevatÈ Vagga, in the Chakka NipÈta
,
A~guttara NikÈya, explains the elements that strengthen the beneficial results of
dÈna
and those that weaken them.
At one time, the Buddha was residing at the Jetavana Monastery in SÈvatthi. At that time,
He saw, by His supernormal psychic power of divine sight, that a certain female follower
of His Teaching by the name of NandamÈtÈ, was making an offering to the two Chief
Disciples and the Sangha
,
in the distant town of Velukandaki. He said to the
bhikkhus
:
‚
Bhikkhus
, NandamÈtÈ of Velukandaki is right now making a great offering to the
Sangha headed by the Venerables SÈriputta and MoggallÈna. Her offering has the
distinguished feature of the donor possessing three special qualities of volitional
purity, namely, (a) feeling happy before the act of offering; (b) having a clear, pure
mind while making the offering and (c) rejoicing after having made the offering,
and of the recipients possessing three special qualities of mental purity, namely, (a)
being free of attachment (
rÈga
) or practising to be liberated from it; (b) being free
of ill will (
dosa
) or practising to be liberated from it, (c) being free of
bewilderment (
moha
) or practising to be liberated from it.
‚
Bhikkhus
, just as the water in the ocean is immeasurable, the benefit that will
accrue from an offering distinguished by those six features is also immeasurable.