Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Thoughts on Nineteen
As Red Pine points out in his commentary, this chapter begins as does Chapter Eight. However, in Chapter Nineteen the Buddha does not compare dharma gifts with spiritual gifts. Rather, he focuses only on dharma (material) gifts. Perhaps this is renewed emphasis on the dharma eye which we might be tempted to neglect once we have advanced to a certain stage. Another way to say this, perhaps, is that material charity can pave the way for spiritual charity. The spiritual effects that our charity has on people is the true body of merit, but since these effect are not physical, we can say that they `have no substance.'
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This rather insistent formulation is really starting to trip me up:
"Because blessings are nonexistent, therefore the Realized One says many blessings are gained"
Because there is no desk, therefore is it called a desk. Huh?
This passage seems to say that the merit of someone who gave much would be great, though it would really be as all else: no great thing. I suppose you could say that, dharma-wise, it is great, but to the giver, it should probably be nothing special??
And a question for you, Vacuous: why are some passages omitted from Pritkin?
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