Generosity in Buddhism

overfilling the stomach, the peril of 'whirlpools' or the five strands of sense pleasures, and the peril of 'fierce fish' or women. How fluid non-renunciant/renunciant ties really are is illustrated in stories of two different monks, Sudinna and Ratthapala. While the stories begin in the same way with the same dilemma, they have different conclusions: the "bad" Sudinna is expelled from the Sangha while the "good" Ratthapala, knowing the proper place of wealth acts wisely. Sudinna is the son of a great merchant who, hearing the Dhamma one day, decides to go forth. When he asks his parents, however, they refuse on the grounds, first, that he's their only child and, second, that he can't possibly want to leave behind all the comforts they've provided him. Sudinna persists and, in the face of continued opposition, lies down on the ground to fast unto death. When neither his parents nor his friends can dissuade him from the fast, his parents give in and agree to his ordination. As an almsman, Sudinna eventually encounters a shortage of alms food and decides to go back to his relatives. A woman slave of the family recognizes him as he petitions for scraps and tells his parents.

Hoping to entice him back into the householder's life, his parents invite him to a meal in their home now heaped with gold coins (including his mother's treasure) and housing Sudinna's former wife dressed in all her ornaments. When presented with the family's wealth and with his father's argument that as a layman he can still enjoy riches and perform good actions, Suddina consistently declines. His mother then asks the former wife to go to the monk and, successfully seducing Sudinna, she in due time bears a son, Bijaka. The remorseful Sudinna, rebuked by his fellow renunciants and by the Buddha, is charged with a parajika offense (sexual misconduct) and is expelled from the Sangha.

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