RAINCLOUDS
“This was said by the Blessed One, said by the Arahant, so I
have heard: "These three types of persons can be found existing in
the world. Which three? One like a cloud without rain, one who
rains locally, and one who rains everywhere.
"And how is a person like a cloud without rain? There is the
case where a person is not a giver of food, drink, clothing,
vehicles, garlands, scents, ointments, beds, dwellings, or lights
to any brahmans or contemplatives, to any of the
miserable, the homeless, or beggars. This is how a person is like a
cloud without rain.
"And how is a person one who rains locally? There is the case
where a person is a giver of food, drink, clothing, vehicles,
garlands, scents, ointments, beds, dwellings, & lights to some
brahmans & contemplatives, to some of the miserable, the
homeless, & beggars, and not to others. This is how a person
one who rains locally.
"And how is a person one who rains everywhere? There is the case
where a person gives food, drink, clothing, vehicles, garlands,
scents, ointments, beds, dwellings, & lights to all brahmans
& contemplatives, to all of the miserable, the homeless, &
beggars. This is how a person one who rains everywhere.
"These are the three types of persons who can be found existing
in the world."
Not to contemplatives,
to brahmans,
to the miserable,
nor to the homeless
does he share what he's gained:
food,
drinks,
nourishment.
He, that lowest of people,
is called a cloud with no rain.
To some he gives,
to others he doesn't:
the intelligent call him
one who rains locally.
A person responsive to requests,
sympathetic to all beings,
delighting in distributing alms:
"Give to them!
Give!"
he says.
As a cloud — resounding, thundering — rains,
filling with water, drenching
the plateaus & gullies:
a person like this
is like that.
Having rightly amassed
wealth attained through initiative,
he satisfies fully with food & drink
those fallen into
the homeless state.”
- The Buddha, in the Itivuttaka of the Pali Canon, Iti 3.26