How to Practice Dāna to Accumulate the Greatest Merit?

Who gains greater merit: Shariputra making offerings to Shakyamuni Buddha, or Shakyamuni Buddha making offerings to Shariputra? If two people each give one dollar to the same person, who gains greater merit? If one person makes offerings of one dollar each to two different individuals, to whom should they offer to gain greater merit? How should these merits be measured? When a person makes offerings to the same individual with different states of mind, at what time do they gain greater merit?

When giving, the more non-action the mind and the less seeking there is, the greater the merit gained. When the Buddha gives, his mind is the most empty and the least seeking, thus he gains the greatest merit. Although Shariputra gives to the Buddha, the most supreme field of merit, it still does not compare to the merit gained from an empty mind. All sages and saints differ based on their realization of non-action. The non-action attained through the Hinayana teachings differs greatly in level from the non-action attained through the Mahayana teachings. Even among those who attain the Mahayana teachings, the level of non-action varies according to the degree of wisdom. All distinctions in the world are distinctions of the mind. Simply cultivate the mind well, and there is no need to manage anything else. Everything will be attained naturally. The less one seeks to gain, the more one gains; the more one seeks to gain, the less one gains.