The Good Person
Toh 327
Degé Kangyur, vol. 72 (mdo sde, sa), folios 253.b–254.b
- Dharmākara
- Bandé Zangkyong
- Bandé Paltsek
Imprint
![84000 logo](https://cached-fe.84000.co/imgs/logo.png)
First published 2024
Current version v 1.0.0 (2024)
Generated by 84000 Reading Room v2.23.4
84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha is a global non-profit initiative to translate all the Buddha’s words into modern languages, and to make them available to everyone.
![Logo for the license](https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-nd/2.0/88x31.png)
This work is provided under the protection of a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND (Attribution - Non-commercial - No-derivatives) 3.0 copyright. It may be copied or printed for fair use, but only with full attribution, and not for commercial advantage or personal compensation. For full details, see the Creative Commons license.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
This text was translated by the Kagyu Translation Project Group. Artur Przybysławski wrote the introduction.
The translation was completed under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha. Rory Lindsay edited the translation and the introduction, and Dawn Collins copyedited the text. Martina Cotter was in charge of the digital publication process.
Introduction
The Good Person1 is a concise sūtra on karma in which the Buddha explains the results of generosity. He lists five ways in which gifts are given: trustfully, respectfully, with one’s own hands, at the right time,2 and without harming others.3 Since this analysis does not refer to key karmic factors such as intent, but rather to the ways in which gifts are given, the differences between the karmic results of each type of giving are relatively minor.
There are no commentaries on this sūtra, and we have not yet found discussions of it in other Buddhist texts. According to the colophon, it was translated by the Indian paṇḍita Dharmākara and the Tibetan translator Zangkyong,4 and was revised by Kawa Paltsek. If that attribution is correct, the translation can be dated to the late eighth or early ninth century ᴄᴇ. The text is also included in the Denkarma catalog, dated to 812 ᴄᴇ, further confirming this dating.5
There is no extant Sanskrit version of this text, nor is there a Chinese translation. The text has a Pāli parallel, however, namely the Sappurisadānasutta from the Aṅguttaranikāya (5.148).6
The basis for this translation was the Degé version in consultation with the Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma) and the version included in the Stok Palace Kangyur.
Text Body
The Good Person
The Translation
Homage to the noble youthful Mañjuśrī.
Thus did I hear at one time. The Bhagavān was residing in Prince Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍada’s park at Śrāvastī. Then the Bhagavān said to the monks, “Monks, these five are the gifts of good people. What are the five? Monks, good people give gifts with trust.7 They give gifts respectfully, with their own hands, at the right time, and without harming others.
“Monks, what karmic results should good people expect from giving gifts with trust? By giving gifts with trust, they become rich. They have abundant riches and great wealth. They have abundant precious materials. They have many properties. They have abundant riches, grains, jewels, gold, depositories, and reserves. They have many servants, maids, workers, and casual laborers. They have many friends, ministers, kinsmen, and relatives. Monks, they should expect such karmic results from giving gifts with trust.
“Monks, what karmic results should good people expect from giving gifts respectfully? By giving gifts respectfully, they become rich. They have many friends, ministers, kinsmen, and relatives, as before. Children, wives, servants, maids, workers, casual laborers, friends, ministers, kinsmen, and relatives also pay them respect. Monks, they should expect such karmic results from giving gifts respectfully. [F.254.a]
“Monks, what karmic results should good people expect from giving gifts with their own hands? By giving gifts with their own hands, they become rich and then have many friends, ministers, kinsmen, and relatives, as before. They also enjoy the great wealth of householders. They enjoy an enormous wealth of food, an enormous wealth of animal-drawn carts, an enormous wealth of clothes, and an enormous wealth of bedding. They enjoy forms, sounds, smells, tastes, and tangibles. Monks, they should expect such karmic results from giving gifts with their own hands.
“Monks, what karmic results should good people expect from giving gifts at the right time? By giving gifts at the right time, they become rich and then have many friends, ministers, kinsmen, and relatives, as before. They also receive jewels accumulated in great numbers. Monks, they should expect such karmic results from giving gifts at the right time.
“Monks, what karmic results should good people expect from giving gifts without harming others? By giving gifts without harming others, they become rich and then have many friends, ministers, kinsmen, and relatives, as before. They obtain whatever wealth they wish for through diligence. It is achieved with power; it is achieved without sweating, and while a pleasant aroma pervades.8 Those things obtained by Dharma practitioners through the Dharma are not obstructed by kings, thieves, fire, water, unfriendly people, the sharing of goods, or any other activity. They should expect such karmic results from giving gifts without harming others.” [F.254.b]
The Noble Sūtra on the Good Person is complete.
Colophon
Translated by the Indian preceptor Dharmākara and the translator Bandé Zangkyong and revised by Bandé Paltsek.
Notes
Bibliography
Tibetan Sources
’phags pa skyes bu dam pa’i mdo. Toh 327, Degé Kangyur vol. 72 (mdo sde, sa), folios 253.b–254.b.
’phags pa skyes bu dam pa’i mdo. bka’ ’gyur (dpe bsdur ma), [Comparative Edition of the Kangyur], krung go’i bod rig pa zhib ’jug ste gnas kyi bka’ bstan dpe sdur khang (The Tibetan Tripitaka Collation Bureau of the China Tibetology Research Center). 108 volumes. Beijing: krung go’i bod rig pa dpe skrun khang (China Tibetology Publishing House), 2006–9, vol. 72, pp. 719–22.
’phags pa skyes bu dam pa’i mdo. bka’ ’gyur (stog pho brang bris ma). Smanrtsis Shesrig Dpemzod, 1975–80, vol. 67, pp. 577–80.
pad dkar bzang po. mdo sde spyi’i rnam bzhag. Edited by Mi nyag mgon po. Par gzhi dang po, Mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 2006.
sgam po pa bsod nams rin chen. dam chos yid bzhin gyi nor bu thar pa rin po che’i rgyan. In bstan rim gces btus (Institute of Tibetan Classics vol. 10). Delhi: bod kyi gtsug lag zhib ’jug khang, 2009.
Translations
84000. Upholding the Roots of Virtue (Āryakuśalamūlasamparigrahanāmamahāyānasūtra, Toh 101). Translated by the Dharmachakra Translation Committee. Online Publication. 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2020.
________. The Teaching on the Benefits of Generosity (Dānānuśaṃsā, Toh 183). Translated by the Sakya Pandita Translation Group. Online Publication. 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2021.
Gampopa. The Jewel Ornament of Liberation: The Wish-fulfilling Gem of the Noble Teachings. Translated by Khenpo Konchog Gyaltsen Rinpoche. Ithaca: Snow Lion Publications, 1998.
Thanissaro Bhikkhu, trans., Sappurisadana Sutta: A Person of Integrity’s Gifts, https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an05/an05.148.than.html. Last modified 3 July 2010.
Wogihara, Unrai. Bodhisattvabhūmi: A Statement of the Whole Course of the Bodhisattva (Being the Fifteenth Section of the Yogācārabhūmi). Tokyo: Seigo Kenkyūkai, 1930–36.
Secondary Sources
Tibetan Language
bod rgya tshig mdzod chen mo. Zhang Yisun et al. Beijing: Mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1985.
gangs can rig brgya’i chos kyi rnam grangs mthong tshad kun las btus pa ngo mtshar ’phrul gyi lde mig chen po. Beijing: khrun go’i bod rig pa dpe skrun khang, 2008.
dung dkar tshig mdzod chen mo. Beijing: China Tibetology Publishing House, 2002.
English Language
Ariyabuddhiphongs, V. “Buddhist Generosity: Its Conceptual Model and Empirical Tests.” Archive for the Psychology of Religion / Archiv für Religionspsychologie 38.3 (2016): 316–44.
Eck, Diana L. “The Religious Gift: Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain Perspectives on Dāna.” Social Research 80.2 (2013): 359–79.
Heim Maria, Theories of the Gift in South Asia: Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain Reflections on Dāna, New York: Routledge, 2004.
McCombs, Jason Matthew. “Mahāyāna and the Gift: Theories and Practices.” PhD diss., University of California, Los Angeles, 2014.
Rotman, Andy. Thus Have I Seen: Visualizing Faith in Early Indian Buddhism. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.
Tashi Dorjey. “An Aspect of Mahāyāna Buddhist Ethics: The Culture of Generosity (dāna).” Soshum: Jurnal Sosial dan Humaniora 8.2 (2018): 176–84.
van der Kuijp, Leonard W. J. “On the Vicissitudes of Subhūticandra’s Kāmadhenu Commentary on the Amarakoṣa in Tibet.” Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies 5 (2009): 1–105.
Glossary
Types of attestation for names and terms of the corresponding source language
Attested in source text
This term is attested in a manuscript used as a source for this translation.
Attested in other text
This term is attested in other manuscripts with a parallel or similar context.
Attested in dictionary
This term is attested in dictionaries matching Tibetan to the corresponding language.
Approximate attestation
The attestation of this name is approximate. It is based on other names where the relationship between the Tibetan and source language is attested in dictionaries or other manuscripts.
Reconstruction from Tibetan phonetic rendering
This term is a reconstruction based on the Tibetan phonetic rendering of the term.
Reconstruction from Tibetan semantic rendering
This term is a reconstruction based on the semantics of the Tibetan translation.
Source unspecified
This term has been supplied from an unspecified source, which most often is a widely trusted dictionary.
Bandé Paltsek
- ban de dpal brtseg
- བན་དེ་དཔལ་བརྩེག
- —
Bandé Zangkyong
- ban de bzang skyong
- བན་དེ་བཟང་སྐྱོང་།
- —
Prince Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍada’s park
- rgyal bu rgyal byed kyi tshal mgon med zas sbyin gyi kun dga’ ra ba
- རྒྱལ་བུ་རྒྱལ་བྱེད་ཀྱི་ཚལ་མགོན་མེད་ཟས་སྦྱིན་གྱི་ཀུན་དགའ་ར་བ།
- jetavanam anāthapiṇḍadasyārāmaḥ AD