Note: Parts of the following text have been adapted from www.quietmountan.com/dharmacenters/buddhadendo/DANA.HTM.
Chinese characters come from www.tunglinkok.ca/9603/sources/glossary.htm.
1. Dana (DAH-nah) - Giving, generosity
(The word “donation” comes from this root.)
The great concept of Dana is interrelated with many other aspects of the Dharma. It will relieve suffering and bring happiness. It expresses love and selflessness. It is linked with all of the Paramitas, the Bodhisattva way of life. The four types of Dana are:
1. Giving material things, such as food and clothing
2. Giving the Dharma
3. Giving kind and gentle words
4. Creating a life in harmony with the dharma
2. Giving the Dharma
3. Giving kind and gentle words
4. Creating a life in harmony with the dharma
As well as donation, offering, and giving, Dana has been variously translated as bestowing and liberality, making gifts, relinquishing, abandoning, and providing for people’s needs and benefits.
2. Sila (SHEE-lah) - Moral Precepts
Laypeople are asked to do their best to avoid engaging in five types of wrongs:
1. Killing for pleasure or sport, includes killing people’s spirits
2. Taking what is not given, includes not paying fairly for people’s labor
3. lying, bullying or wasting other people’s time with one’s words.
4. abuse of intoxicants, not just limited to substances, but also applies to mind-numbing experiences, such as watching too much TV or reading trashy publications
5. sexual impropriety, i.e., breaking promises, exploiting other people for one’s selfish pleasure, causing other people to break their promises
3. Ksanti (k’SHAHN-tee) - Patience 2. Taking what is not given, includes not paying fairly for people’s labor
3. lying, bullying or wasting other people’s time with one’s words.
4. abuse of intoxicants, not just limited to substances, but also applies to mind-numbing experiences, such as watching too much TV or reading trashy publications
5. sexual impropriety, i.e., breaking promises, exploiting other people for one’s selfish pleasure, causing other people to break their promises
Waiting to find out what’s behind the outward appearances of a situation or occurrence instead of jumping to conclusions and reacting in haste. If there’s no time to wait, one can still practice Ksanti by remembering that he/she is never in full possession of the facts regarding any situation. Of the many English words used to render Ksanti, possibly the best is endurance, but also used are: surrender (giving up), and forgiving. We also practice Ksanti when we refrain from forcing our opinions, and give people some space.
4. Virya (VEER-yah) - Effort
(The words “virile” and “vigor” come from this root.)
The Dhammapada says that doing something half-heartedly is worse than not doing it at all. We also have the scriptural explanation: continually working on giving up greed, anger, and ignorance.
5. Dhyana (dJAH-nah) - Meditation
(The Chinese word “ch’an” and the Japanese word ”zen” are translations of this word.)
i.e. stilling the mind and accepting life the way it is. This, however does not imply passive acceptance of intolerable conditions, rather it requires a realistic appraisal of their causes in order for one to work to overcome them.
6. Prajña (PRAHZH-nyah) - Wisdom
The sutra Tan Butsu Ge says that all of the preceding five paramitas “lead to the highest wisdom.” Wisdom is not the same thing as knowledge. If anything, it’s the recognition of one’s lack of knowledge. In the Prajñaparamita Sutra (a.k.a. Hannya Shingyo or Heart of Wisdom Sutra), Avalokiteshvara teaches Shariputra that all things have Sunyata nature and are essentially empty, i.e. that we are already in the Pure Land, and thus there is no attainment (nothing to get). He ends by transmitting (giving) the Prajñaparamita mantra (Gyate, gyate, hara gyate, hara so gyate, Bodhi sowa ka), leading to the far shore of enlightenment. Furthermore, Shakyamuni compares the Dharma to a raft which enables one to cross to the far shore, and once there, the raft, no longer needed, is given up.