Dāna

A Sanskrit noun stem derived from the root da, give. It means “gift” or “giving” (including giving a teaching) and is the first of the Northern (i.e., Mahayana) Buddhist steps in the “Perfection of Wisdom” (prajñaparamita). Helena P. Blavatsky translates it, in The Voice of the Silence, as “charity and love immortal.”

© Copyright by the Theosophical Publishing House, Manila