Aṅguttara Nikāya
Pañcaka Nipāta
IV: Sumanā Vagga

The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha
V. The Book of the Fives
IV. Sumanā

Sutta 36

Kāla-Dāna Suttaɱ

Timely

Translated from the Pali by Bhikkhu Bodhi.

© 2012 Bhikkhu Bodhi
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[41] [661]

[1][pts][than][olds] "Bhikkhus, there are these five timely gifts.

What five?

(1) One gives a gift to a visitor.

(2) One gives a gift to one setting out on a journey.

(3) One gives a gift to a patient.

(4) One gives a gift during a famine.

(5) One first presents the newly harvested crops and fruits to the virtuous ones.

These are the five timely gifts."

At the proper time, those wise,
charitable, and generous
give a timely gift to the noble ones,
who are stable and upright;
given with a clear mind,
one's offering is vast.

Those who rejoice in such deeds
or who provide [other] service
do not miss out on the offering;
they too partake of the merit.

Therefore, with a non-regressing mind,
one should give a gift where it yields great fruit.
Merits are the support of living beings
[when they arise] in the other world.