Dāna: Embracing the Practice of Generosity in Buddhism
A self study course to cultivate a living generosity practice- What is dāna and why cultivate it as a practice?
- Why is generosity so important in many wisdom traditions, including Buddhism?
- What does a living practice of generosity look like in a modern Western context?
- How does dāna relate to our lives, communities and planet?
Finding our explorations on dāna over the last 20 years so fruitful, we developed this short online course to support you explore the incredible practice of generosity.
The Practice of Dāna/Generosity:
Generosity is a very central part of Buddhism, as well as other wisdom traditions. In Buddhism, generosity is known as dāna. It was often the first practice that Buddha would give to beginning students and you may know it as the first parami or paramita.
The course explores:
- The classical foundations of dāna practice in Buddhism, including how dāna is traditionally practiced, and why the teachings are offered on the basis of dāna.
- Dāna as a powerful ancient principle for re-imagining how we relate to each other, society, and our planet.
- Unpacking the cultural assumptions around generosity that many of us have grown up with in consumerist capitalist societies
- How to cultivate a living dāna practice of giving and receiving, drawing on both traditional Buddhist teaching and modern Integral Spirituality approaches
- What to give, motivations for giving, who to give to, and the many complex questions that come up as we reflect on how to be generous.
- How dāna improves how we communicate, share, listen, and relate.
We warmly invite you to join us exploring this course and journey of generosity.
Generosity Resources
- Short article on what is dāna?
- Practical guidelines on how, when, and how much dāna of offer
- Free Paramis reference sheet – generosity is the first parami.
- Videos and other resources on the paramis
Left: Qapel with Sayadaw Utila Wanta, photo courtesy of Catherine Sensei. Offering dāna is the traditional way teachers and teachings have been supported for 2500 years.
I’ve now come to accept that no matter how much money I earn or how many times I start afresh, generosity will always have something more to teach me. It’s supposed to be that way. It isn’t supposed to be a formula that we can calculate and then apply. Although it seems humbling to continuously go back to the first Parami, even after 20 years of practice, I do so with a knowledge that this is a life’s work. Generosity, like all of the Paramis, is meant to gently rub off our rough edges and leave us shinier and make our true selves more transparent. And while I have breath, I bow my head, and open to generosity. Again.
The course is brilliant. It’s really accessible, the videos are really well done, There’s amazing stuff in there – it covers the shadow, our relationship with money, and also self-care especially for the helping professions.
Congratulations on a beautiful course! I found myself very moved and touched at many stages of the journey of this course. I feel my heart more opened and am excited to continue in expanding in the practice of dana as a result of taking part in this very beautiful, loving, and diverse arrangement of teachings. Thank you!
Study Dāna Online
Dāna: Embracing the Practice of Generosity in Buddhism
What you’ll learn
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Develop the beautiful and powerful practice of dāna / generosity
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Understand the role of dāna or generosity in spiritual teaching
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Explore and bring a greater range and wisdom around who you give to, what you give, and why
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Cultivate a real, living and growing practice of generosity in your daily life
Meet the Teachers
This course was created by students of Planet Dharma’s teachers Qapel and Catherine Sensei.
Qapel and Sensei “live by the bowl”. This means they are supported by dāna offerings from their student body. Over the last twenty five years Qapel, Sensei and their students have explored offering the teachings on the traditional basis of dāna in a modern Western context. This brought much learning and helped us discover the incredible benefits of dāna as a spiritual practice. Seeing this, Qapel and Sensei felt a dāna course created by students for other Dharma students would be a great asset to Buddhist and other spiritual practitioners, as well as to Dharma centers and communities.
The course was primarily created by Duncan Cryle, with support from Michelle Heinz, and special contributions from Karen McAllister on the topic of money and dāna. With thanks for personal stories of dāna exploration from Jasmine Nathaniel, Cara Conroy-Lau, Ava MacLean, and Evangelos Diavolitsis.
Generosity / dāna is the first parami. Sign up here to receive a free Paramis Reference Sheet for remembering the key aspects of each parami, and posting on your wall!
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