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This was said by the Blessed One,
said by the Arahant, so I have heard: "I am a brahman, responsive to requests,
open-handed, bearing my last body, an unsurpassed doctor & surgeon. You are
my children, my sons, born from my mouth, born of the Dhamma, created by the
Dhamma, heirs to the Dhamma, not heirs in material things.
"There are these two kinds of
gifts: a gift of material things & a gift of the Dhamma. Of the two, this
is supreme: a gift of the Dhamma.
"There are these two kinds of
sharing: sharing of material things & sharing of the Dhamma. Of the two,
this is supreme: sharing of the Dhamma.
"There are these two kinds of
assistance: assistance with material things & assistance with the Dhamma.
Of the two, this is supreme: help with the Dhamma.
"There are these two kinds of
mass-donations: a mass-donation of material things & a mass-donation of the
Dhamma. Of the two, this is supreme: a mass-donation of the Dhamma."
He who, unstinting,
made the mass-donation of Dhamma,
the Tathagata,
sympathetic to all beings:
to one of that sort
-- the best of beings, human & divine --
living beings pay homage --
to one gone
to the beyond
of becoming.
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