RAIN: If I give, where should I give? (sutra)

Ven. Thanissaro; Crystal Quintero, Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly, Issattha Sutra (SN 3.24)

Novice helps bathe younger boy (500px Nuttawutjaroenchai/Engin Türker/flickr.com)

(Ken Snyder) Two minutes of thunder, lightning, hail, and heavy rain in the Los Angeles foothills and watershed (Hahamongna) recorded at Rose Bowl Aquatics Center, Pasadena, LA, California

.

Buddhist India, Rizong Fest, Ladakh (Mag Brinik)

[Thus have I heard.] SAVATTHI, ancient India - Sitting to one side, King Pasenadi Kosala said to the Blessed One: "Venerable sir, where should a gift be given?"

 

"Wherever the mind/heart feels confidence, great king" [the Buddha answered].

"But a gift given where, venerable sir, bears great fruit?"
 
"This is one thing, great king -- 'Where should a gift be given?' while this, 'A gift given where bears great fruit?' is something else entirely.

"What is given to a virtuous person, as opposed to an unvirtuous one, bears great fruit. In that case, great king, I will ask you a counter-question; answer as you see fit.
 
"Great king, what do you think: In one case there is a war at hand, a battle imminent. A warrior caste (kshatriya) youth would come along -- untrained, unpracticed, undisciplined, undrilled, fearful, terrified, cowardly, quick to flee. Would you take that person on? Would you have any use for a person like that?"
 
"No, venerable sir, I would not take that person on. I would not have any use for a person like that."
 

Buddhist novices paddle flat-bottom boat across lotus and lily pond (flickr.com).

 
"Then a Brahmin caste youth... a merchant caste youth... a laborer caste youth would come along -- untrained, unpracticed, undisciplined, undrilled, fearful, terrified, cowardly, quick to flee. Would you take that person on? Would you have any use for a person like that?"
 
"No, venerable sir, I would not take that person on. I would not have any use for a person like that."
 
"Now, what do you think, great king? In another case there is a war at hand, a battle imminent. A warrior caste youth would come along -- trained, practiced, disciplined, drilled, fearless, unterrified, not cowardly, not quick to flee. Would you take that person on? Would you have any use for a person like that?"
 
"Yes, venerable sir, I would take that person on. I would have use for a person like that."
 
"Then a Brahmin caste youth... a merchant caste youth... a laborer caste youth would come along -- trained, practiced, disciplined, drilled, fearless, unterrified, not cowardly, not quick to flee. Would you take that person on? Would you have any use for a person like that?"
 
"Yes, venerable sir, I would take that person on. I would have use for a person like that."
 

Kshatriyas: the Buddha's son, Ven. Rahula, the Buddha, and his cousin, Ven. Ananda

.
"In the same way, great king, when someone has gone forth [become a Buddhist monastic] abandoned a home-bound life for homelessness [a life of wandering asceticism] -- no matter from what clan -- and that person has abandoned five factors and is endowed with five other factors, what is given to that person bears great fruit.

"Which five factors has that person abandoned? That person has abandoned [these Five Hindrances]:

1. sensual craving...
2. ill will...
3. sloth and torpor...
4. restlessness and worry...
5. uncertainty (doubt, skepticism, misgivings, lack of confidence/saddha/faith).

These are the five factors abandoned. And with which five factors is one endowed? One is endowed with:

1. the aggregate of virtue of one beyond training...
2. the aggregate of concentration of one beyond training...
3. the aggregate of wisdom of one beyond training...
4. the aggregate of liberation of one beyond training...
5. the aggregate of knowledge-and-vision of liberation of one beyond training.

The Buddha, Bentota Gama, Sri Lanka

These are the five factors with which he is endowed.

  
"What is given to one who has abandoned five factors and is endowed with five factors in this way bears great fruit."
 
That is what the Blessed One said. Having said so, the Teacher, the Wayfarer (the Well-Come and Well-Gone One), summed up:
 

As a king intent on battle would hire a youth

in whom there are skills, persistence, and strength

and not, on the basis of caste/birth, a coward --

so, too, should one honor a person of noble conduct,

wise, in whom are established composure and patience

even if this person's birth were humble and low.
 

Let donors build pleasant hermitages and there invite

the learned to stay. Let them build reservoirs in dry forests

and walking paths where terrain is rough. Let them -- with

a clear, calm mind/heart -- give food, drink, snacks, clothing,

and lodgings to those who have become straightforward.

 

Just as a 100-peaked, lightning-garlanded, thundering cloud 

raining on the fertile earth fills the plateaus and gullies,

even so a person of confidence and learning, wise --

having stored up provisions -- satisfies wayfarers with food

and drink. Delighting in the distribution of alms:
 

'Give to them! Give!' one says. 

That is one's thunder,

like the thunder of a raining cloud.

That shower of merit, abundant,

rains back on the one who gives.

• See also AN 3.57, Iti 76
• Kid-monks/nuns? No one under 20 can ordain as a Buddhist monk/nun but only "novice," śrāmaṇeras/śrāmaṇērīs

India's caste system violence, 2016
(News World Today) Violence in Haryana state, India as the relatively well off agricultural Jat caste or community agitates for more perks in the national quota system, February 22, 2016.

With a billion+ pop, India is vast

The Buddha rejected the Vedic, Brahminical, Hindu caste system as inherently unjust and put in its place a kind of meritocracy -- judging individuals based on their actions (karma) rather than their dharma (social obligations dictated by birth into a permanent caste position). Dalits (formerly called "Untouchables") are so disgusted with their terrible treatment today within Hindu-dominated India that they have been converting to Buddhism en masse for social relief. But India has a quota system that many feel is not as fair to their group as it is to others, so violence breaks out from time to time just as communal violence (between religions) does when Hindus go on the rampage, usually against Muslims or Sikhs.

(Inside India) Far from a peaceful nation of Hindus practicing ahimsa (harmlessness, nonviolence) and vegetarianism, the world's largest democracy gets crazy with sexism, caste-ism, racism, patriarchy, conservatism, partisanship, intolerance, and self-interest. The ideals of Dharmic Religions are excellent, the living up to them by lay followers not so much.

• VIDEO: Blood red rain in India explained by science (chemtrail "red blood cells" with missing DNA?)