The first of the six perfections of the bodhisattva, giving, is as Lama Tsongkhapa says, “the wish-fulfilling jewel with which you fulfil the hopes of all sentient beings.” It opens the door to working for others.
We’re meeting people a thousand times a day, all kinds of people and creatures and ants and dogs – you know, sentient beings. So if we’re trying to be of benefit, the particular practice here is, “What do they need? What can I give?”
There’s three levels of giving. The first one is giving material things, the second is giving spiritual advice, and the third is giving protection.
Giving material things, is a very powerful practice, incredible practice. So how do you cultivate it? Well, you start in your mind.
Your hand won’t take a five-dollar note from your pocket if you don’t think it first. The first step is thinking it: “What can I give them?”
Right now we see others through the lens of attachment, we see them in terms of how they benefit us, isn’t it? That’s how it is.
Here, it’s a different framework completely: every sentient being you meet, you’re seeing them in terms of, “What can I give? How can I give? What do they need?”
Already this is an incredible shift. It’s the first step, Tsongkhapa says, in benefiting sentient beings. You’re seeing them in terms of, “How can I help them?” And the first one is give – first one is give, you know?
We give now – we do give – but who do we give to? Our beloveds. Or you give your secondhand things, your leftover things: you buy a new coat, “Oh, have my old coat,” like you’re so generous. How about giving the new coat?
The thought of giving to people we don’t even know sounds too weird. Or we’ll give if we get a tax break – and that’s a good system, but the only reason you give is you get a tax break, you understand? Better than nothing.
Lama Zopa was famous for his generosity. The aspect he showed as a bodhisattva was giving. He’s got these hundreds of projects: Tibetan old people’s homes, animal homes, he saves the goats, and they get to live happy lives before they get slaughtered – the buffaloes in Kathmandu, the goats, the ants, the fish, the creatures. He’s famous for this. He gives material things, which is the first one, and then when he’s saving their lives you could call that one the third level, “giving protection.”
There’s one story that Venerable Roger told about Rinpoche. This was up in Lumbini, you know, in Nepal, during the rainy season where the mosquitoes just run the show, and Rinpoche would meditate all night when he wasn’t helping others – that’s what he did all his life.
Venerable Roger went in during the early morning to give Rinpoche a cup of tea or something, put it on the table, and there’s Rinpoche with his shirt over his head, and his body naked and all the mosquitoes feeding, you know, on his blood. That’s called “giving.”
But look at the panic attack when we discover a mosquito taking my blood – “My blood,” you know, we literally panic. As Lama Zopa says, “All it wants is one tiny, tiny drop of blood.” So try it with one mosquito, one drop of blood, good start: give a mosquito what it needs.
Or he’d have fleas in his socks, and he’d happily let the fleas eat his blood. One day he came out from his room and he had a little milk bottle top, old-fashioned, and he was trying to work out what scorpions liked. So he tried to give the scorpions what they needed.
We think that’s so cute, but for him it’s serious: they’re real mother sentient beings and if he’s clairvoyant he knows it was his mother 42 lives ago. It’s a sentient being, what do they need? They need a drop of blood, give it to them.
The second one, giving spiritual advice, is meant to be more difficult, but I think it’s easier for us – we love giving advice! You know, you’ve heard a few bits of teachings and you think you know something, you start a group: “Oh, I’m going to give teachings, I’m going to help other people. Oh, I’m helping other people, aren’t I noble.” You know nothing, you know? We love to give advice – we’re so rude and arrogant – but give one dollar? I’m not so sure. Really, it’s how we are, I’m sorry.
We have a tendency to just blurt advice out like we’re God, you know, but a person mightn’t want our advice. That’s where wisdom comes in.
This is true even just giving advice about nutrition. You see a person who’s unhealthy, and you know all about nutrition, and you start shoving it down their throat. Back off and mind your own business, please! They’re not ready for it. You might know how to advise many people, but most of the time they don’t want your advice, they’re not ready for it, so shut up, you know?
The third level of generosity is called “giving protection.” It’s like helping an old person across the road. As Alex Berzin says, picking up your auntie at the airport, you understand? That’s giving protection.
The starting point with all three of these levels of giving has to be your mind: I want to give, I want to see others in terms of how can I give. That’s the framework for the bodhisattva’s path: you see others in terms of not what they’re doing for you, not how they benefit you or whether they don’t benefit you. It’s trying to see them in terms of how can I give to them? What can I give? What do they need? What do they need, you know?
So give them food if they need food, money if they need money, bananas if they need bananas, advice if they need it – if you’re qualified, and they need it.
Instead of giving the homeless person a lecture, give them a banana, yeah, give them 10 dollars or whatever, 20, 30, why not? It’s the wish to give.
Or notice: every time you see a homeless person, you don’t want to give, you think, “Go away, leave me alone, you know?” So even watch that one. Even if you haven’t got anything to give, don’t do that one. Instead, have the thought, “I wish I could give.” That’s different, that’s powerful: you’re training your mind. Even having the thought every day: “If I could give more, I would. I want to give.”