The Buddha is the Religious Leader who Made the Greastest Sacrifices for Mankind

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From Buddhist Encyclopedia

• From a chapter in the book - The Greatest Man Who Ever Lived by Ven. Weragoda Sarada Maha Thero

Supreme Enlightened is a status that should be achieved by making endless sacrifices over an unthinkably long period of time, spanning aeons.

Among the ten perfections that should be fulfilled to become a Buddha, generosity takes the first place. A Bodhisatta (an Aspirant Buddha) should sacrifice wealth, time, effort, possessions, wife and children, eyes, heads, flesh of one's own body, blood, and the total body, not just once or twice but tens of thousands of times. Therefore, there is no other human being more generous than the Bodhisataa. There is nothing that one can say as not been scrificed by a Buddha. The only great person who has known the value of generosity is the Buddha. The Buddha said,

"O Monks, if others know as much as I do, about the value of giving and distributing, no one will eat without giving at least a handful of rice. They will not remain miserly. If there is someone to take, they will give even the last portion of rice on one's plate."

(Itivuttaka Pali)

There is no one who is clever enough to state the number of sacrifices made by the Bodhisatta aspiring to Buddhahood. There is no one who is quite capable of quantifying the sacrifices made by the Bodhisatta (The Aspirant Buddha) to acheive Buddhahood. In short, there is hardly any sacrifice that he did not make. In Sivi Raja Birth Tale, King Sivi spoke thus;

"If a beggar were to ask me for any organ or any part of my body, I will consider it even nobler than being crowned. If a beggar were to ask me for my heart, I will cut open my chest with a sword, I will take out my heart, as if plucking a lotus, and will present it while blood oozes drop by drop. If someone asked for my flesh, I will cut my body with a sharp weapon, and give it to him. If someoneasked me for blood, I will crush the whole of my body and will donate buckets full of blood. If one were to ask me for my eyes, I will take them out like the kernel of a nut and give them to the beggar. There is nothing I have not given out of these that could be donated." So saying, he gave both his eyes to the blind Brahmin.

(Siviraju Birth Tale()

When the Bodhistta (The Aspirant Buddha) was born as King vessantara, the tears that issued from the eyes of his two princely children, began to fall on the Bodhisatta's feet which were like fully blossomed red lotuses. The tears from the eyes of the Bodhisatta (The Aspirant Buddha) fell on the children's backs which were like red slabs. Then the Bodhisatta got the children to stand up and said, comforting them,

"Children, I want to cross overto the other side of this ocean of becoming(samsara) which is difficult to cross. I will cross over, and then I will get you and all the beings, including the gods, to cross over, Children, are you not aware of my charitable intentions? Children, please allow me to fulfil my perfection of generosity."

Comforting them that way, he took the hands of the children and said,

"Brahmin, come here. I give my children not because I do not love them. To me, attainment of supreme Enlightenment is worth ten-thousand times more. I will give my children away and with the merits of that action, I will attain supreme Enlightenment in the future and do good to the whole world."

So saying, He poured water from his water-vessel on the Brahmin's hands, and gave away the children. The children went away weeping and wailing,

"Don't you see the blood oozing from our backs? did you bring up up applying red powder bathing us in perfumed water, placing us upon jasmine flowers only to make us suffer this way?"

When they wept and wailed like that The Aspirant Buddha was immensely saddened. His heart melted. As the nose was incaple of coping with the force of inhalling and exhaling, extremely hot breath went in and out of his mouth. Tears began to rain from his eyes. A tremendous sorrow that nearly split his heart on rising. But he subdued the sharpness of the pain by continuing to contemplate Supreme Enlightenment

(Vessatara Birth Tale)

One can become aware of the sense of sacrifice of the Aspirant Buddha from the above two Birth Tales of Siva Raja and Vessantara. Prince Siddhartha,who enjoyed the highest luxuries a human being could enjoy, gave up his wife and his only son and went into the forest, took a rag that wrapped a dead body fully infested with worms, washed it, dried it in the sun, put it on, and became an ascetic. There is no other human being with the exeception of Prince siddhartha, who made such an overwhelaing sacrifice, in the whole of human history. He made this unparalleled sacrifice, this incomparable renunciation, not for anything else, but for Supreme Enlightenment - for the welfare of others - for the service to the world, inquest of truth.

Considered this way, the primary quality of an Aspirant Buddha is generosity. No greatness can be achieved without a sacrifice. No service can be rendered without generosity. Service, done without any sacrificce, is not the right kind of service. It is not a genuine sevice.

Ascetic Sumedha was a very affluent guild leader before he became an ascetic. He found that his ancestors had hoarded wealth in their treasury over a period of seven generations, but these ancestors never took that wealth along when they passed away. What did he do deciding to take that wealth with him? He summoned the people by beat of drum, and asked them to take away the whole wealth as they wished. He had all the doors of his palace opened, took a seat in the courtyard, and enjoyed the sight of people taking away the wealth.

Giving has a tremendous power. There is hardly any achievement that is not possible through generosity. There is no greatness on earth that cannot be obtained through generosity. No one can realize Supreme Enlightenment without the highest possible sacrifice. On the one hand, generosity helps others. On the other, "the blemish number one" in the human mind, which is craving, gets reduced.

The greatest obstacle to the realization of Nibbana is craving. The Buddha said that the people entrenched in craving tremble just like a hare that had run fast. the Buddha extolled the virtues of generosity in various places, in a variety of ways. The Buddha said, "The world exists and is maintained by craving. All are under the sway of this one force -craving."

Tanhaya niyati loko

Tanhaya parikassati

Tanhaya ekadhammassa

Sabbeva vasaman vagu

Those who possess wealth should not think of hoarding, adding more and more to one's wealth. Instead, they must give to those who do not have. They must exert for the well being of others. They must think of others. They must work for others.

This way, anyone can become generous. Those who are not generous are unfortunately dominated by craving. there is hardly anyone who suffers mentally, as the miserly and the stingy. Even though he may be a millionaire, if he is miserly, he is an unfortunate person. Wealth is utilized as the measure of good fortune, because of the ignorance of Buddhism. When he saw a bundle of gold coins the Buddha showed it to Ven. Ananda, saying,

"Ananda, there is a serpent over there." The wealthier one is, greater the craving. Greater the craving, Nibbana is more and more distant.

Those who are fullyaware of the generosity of the Buddha will utilize one's wealth for one's own self, and will reap its best results by uing it for the well-being of others. When we comtemplate the Enlightenment One we can never forget his supreme generosity.