Chapter 15: Purification of Possessions and Merit
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- Chapter 1: Giving One's Body, Possessions, and Virtues
- Chapter 2: Upholding the Dharma from the Perfection of Discipline
- Chapter 3: Perfection of Discipline: Protecting the Dharma Teacher
- Chapter 4: Perfection of Discipline: Discussion of Major Harms in the Sūtras
- Chapter 5: Perfection of Discipline: Avoiding the Harms
- Chapter 6: Protecting the Body
- Chapter 7: Protecting the Possessions and Merit
- Chapter 8: Expiation of Sinful Actions
- Chapter 9: Perfection of Patience
- Chapter 10: Perfection of Effort
- Chapter 11: Praise of Wilderness
- Chapter 12: Purifying the Mind
- Chapter 13: Mindfulness
- Chapter 14: Purification of the Body
- Chapter 15: Purification of Possessions and Merit
- Chapter 16: Enhancement of Body, Possessions, and Merit
- Chapter 17: Benefit of Prostration and Other Practices
- Chapter 18: Recollecting the Three Jewels
- Chapter 19: Enhancing Merit
Continuing the discussion of purification, the third of the four main activities discussed in this book, Śāntideva argues that a bodhisattva who is a householder must seek a right and wholesome livelihood to make their possessions or enjoyments pure. They should not comport their body out of hypocrisy, such as having a very disciplined comportment when seen by patrons, but should behave with genuine humility and placidity. They should not use their speech with ingratiation, such as speaking humbly and softly in order to gain something, but should speak with genuine politeness and softness. They should not engage their minds with sycophancy, such as pretending to be content in the eyes of patrons, but should have genuine contentment and love. A bodhisattva must avoid all five forms of unethical gains, avoid taking what was offered to a stūpa, scripture, or a sangha, avoid taking what was not given, and be free from attachment. They must not greedily own, cherish, and preserve possessions but give things away to others, using them only occasionally without attachment and clinging. Such a bodhisattva can automatically avoid the impurity of possessions.
The purity of merit can be achieved through the awareness of emptiness that is endowed with compassion. The Treasury of Space Sūtra (Gaganagañjasūtra) states that giving is pure if one gives without clinging to the self or to what belongs to self, gives without characterization, gives without expectation of return or result but with pure motivation, pure view, and a mind that, like space, is open, boundless, pervasive, and nonconceptual. Giving is pure when given with the wisdom that eliminates the afflictive emotions of sentient beings and with compassion that does not forsake sentient beings. With such purity, wisdom, and compassion, a bodhisattva may even give alcohol and weapons depending on the benefit and circumstances.
Similarly, the discipline of a bodhisattva is pure when observed without separation from bodhicitta and with the aim to purify sentient beings. Discipline that, like space, is stainless, peaceful, incorruptible, and indestructible is pure discipline. Just as space is not upset, patience without any annoyance is pure patience. Just as the sala tree does not have the thought that it is being cut or is angry about it although someone may cut it, so too a bodhisattva will not have the notion of harm while observing pure patience. Pure effort is to engage in practice while also viewing the body to be like an optical illusion or a reflection, words to be inexpressible, and sentient beings to be in utter peace. To have the armor of loving-kindness while abiding in the sphere of compassion and pursuing emptiness with all aspects is pure meditation. Emptiness with all aspects refers to awareness of emptiness while also possessing the complete practice of giving, loving-kindness, compassion, joy, equanimity, mindfulness, introspection, and the many other values, principles, and practices associated with the Mahāyāna path to buddhahood. Such awareness of emptiness and the many other aspects of the Mahāyāna practice are both purified meditation and purified perfection of wisdom. Engaging in all forms of merit with such awareness, according to Śāntideva's formulation, amounts to the purification of merit.
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