The Perfection of Giving (1st)

Homage to him, the blessed one, the perfected one, the fully awakened Buddha!

“For a hundred thousand eons

and four incalculable ages,

all my conduct in that period

ripens in awakening.

Setting aside my conduct

in past eons through different lives,

I shall speak of my conduct

in this eon, hear me.

When I lived having plunged

into the formidable jungle

of empty thickets and glades,

my name was Akitti the mortifier.

Then, burned by the fires of my mortification,

the sovereign of the Third Heaven,

came to me for alms

in the form of a brahmin.

I had gathered leaves from the forest

without oil or salt,

and seeing him standing at my door,

I placed them in his pot.

After giving him the leaves

I turned over my plate,

and having given up on seeking more food,

I entered my hut of leaves.

A second and a third time

he came to me.

Undisturbed, ungrasping,

I gave in just the same way.

That is the reason why

my body is not discolored.

In rapture and bliss free of relishing

I spend the day.

If even for a month or two

I were to find a worthy recipient,

undisturbed, unattached,

I would give the supreme gift.

While giving him that gift

I did not wish for fame or profit.

Wishing for omniscience

I performed those deeds.”