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INTENTION IN DOING MERIT

One’s will and intention is accounted for a success of doing merit.

1. Bhuppa chetana: the pre-intention.
This means that before doing merit, one should have will and intention and feel happy with the merit we are going to do.
First, we have to prepare things for alms giving. The alms should be found or bought in a morally clean way and with clean money. This means those materials for alms have to be morally clean.
When we prepare or go to buy things for alms giving, we should be happy and pleased with what we are doing no matter how much we spend for this. We should bare in mind that we are doing the right thing. This means the will and intention to do so is good and pure.

2. Munchana chetana: the intention-in-between.
After the things are prepared, now we are ready to do alms-giving. Suppose we want to offer the alms to a certain monk in a certain Wat. We will first come to see him, pay homage to the Buddha image and to the monk. We might formulate our intention to observe the 5 precepts, expressing them in a vow (“I undertake the 5 training rules: to refrain from taking life, from stealing, from sexual misconduct, from lying and from taking intoxicants”.) This is to purify ourselves. The monk, as a receiver, has to be pure too which is completed with the monk’s 227 precepts.
If both the donor and the receiver are morally pure and ready, then we present the alms to the monk respectfully, and mindfully. We will discuss how to present things to the monk later.

3. Aparapara chetana: the post-intention.
When the monk receives the alms already, he will willingly bless us and we will heartedly receive the blessing. We always feel happy whenever thinking of the good deed we have done. This is so-called Aparapara chetana or good feeling after doing merit.
The most important thing in doing merit is one’s will and intention. No matter how much the alms cost or how great in quality and quantity, the alms has to be morally pure, we must have good intentions, and the one who receives it has to be pure and have good intentions too. If all the three components are united correctly, then we will receive a great deal of merit. That means we always feel happy whenever thinking or talking about the alms giving we have done.
After that we should extend our good feelings, which means dedicating our merit and wishing all beings to be well and happy like we feel in that good experience.

HOW TO PRESENT THINGS TO MONKS

According to the Vinaya or monasterial disciplines, the monk cannot take things withdot being presented them. It is an ecclesiastical offence. Therefore, knowing what to do in presenting things to the monk is necessary for us, the Buddhists.
First, the size and weight of the object presented should be portable by Qne person. It should not be too heavy which is inconvenient to both the monk and the presenter. There is no problem with lighter and smaller things.
When both the monk- and the presenter are ready, he or she should be about an arm-reach or one metre away from the monk, and presents the alms nicely and respectfully to the monk. The monk has to receive the alms nicely and respectfully too.
On presenting the object to the monk, if it is done by two hands it will be received by both hands too.
The monk cannot receive things from a woman’s hand directly. He will use a piece of cloth to receive the presented object by placing the cloth in front of him. Then the woman places the object presented on that piece of cloth. Again, if it is presented by one hand, the monk will receive it with one hand as well. Both the presenter and the receiver have to do this nicely and respectfully too. This makes a correct, nice and beautiful gesture in presenting things to the monk.

PRESENTING FOOD ON THE ALMSROUND

Monks are forbidden to hoard food, and they cannot do cook. Therefore, alms gathering is the monk’s daily routine. Some of them take only one meal a day in the morning, and some have two meals -- in early morning and pre-noon. They are not allowed to eat after midday, except if sick.
In the morning, the monk is expected to go for alms gathering as his routine. The Buddhist layman personally contributes toward the daily food requirements of the monk and novice as an act of religious merit, as well as a means to support Buddhism.
Offering food to the monk on his alms round should be done correctly too. One who wants to do this should prepare the food and get ready. Make it seen that you want to offer almsfood to the monk. When the monk comes, he stops in front of you and opens the lid of his alms bowl. Then, we will carefully place the articles of food, one after the other, into the alms bowl. The monk will receive the food peacefully and respectfully. He also will bless us at that moment as well.
The monk does not wear shoes while doing the alms round. Therefore, during this alms round presenting we ought to take off our shoes too. Otherwise we will be in a higher place than the monk, and this is considered to be improper or impolite. This is excepted of the government officials, soldiers and police officers in their uniform.
However, if the monk is standing on a platform or on a mat which is considered to be in higher place than we, taking off one’s shoes is not necessary.

THE ALMS, THE MONK AND THE DONOR

The result of doing merit depends on the qualification of the three components. These are the receiver, the alms and the donor.
The result of doing merit would depend very much on how the alms-receiver is. If we offer alms to the monk, the purer and more observant the monk is, the more merit one will receive.
If we give food as alms to animals, in terms of merit, we will receive very little. The reason is that an animal is in a lower position than human beings. The animal cannot observe religious precepts. The Buddhists believe that observing precepts is moral training or a purification process. For the same reason, if we give alms to those people who do not have the 5 precepts in mind, for example, mischievous people, we will receive very little merit, but more than the offering to animals. We offer alms to those mischievous people in order to help them to improve in terms of morality. There is still some hope because a human being is a teachable animal, or in a higher position than animals in terms of virtue or morality.
Offering alms to those who observe the 5 precepts in mind (to refrain from killing, from stealing, from sexual misconduct, from lying and from taking intoxicants), we will surely receive more merit than offering alms to those who do not accept or observe the 5 precepts.
We will gain even more merit when offering alms to those with a higher degree of precepts observed, like 8 or 10 precepts. And, this will be even more with the monk who observes his 227 precepts completely.
So, it will be the best of the best to give alms to the perfected one (Phra Arahant), and the top most is to give alms to Lord Buddha. When we give alms with someething morally unclean, i.e., we get it by a mischievous way, we as a donor are immoral, or if the monk who receives the alms is not observing well his 227 precepts, we will receive very little merit. In this example, all three components are morally unclean.
Let us take another case. If the alms is morally clean, we as donors observe well the 5 precepts, but the monk is not perfect with his precepts, then we will receive very little merit as well. This can be compared to planting rice in sand or on the seashore without fertiliser. The plant cannot grow well’. (The alms are plant seed, and the receiver is the ground.) The monk without morality or perfection by not well observing his religious precepts is like the soil without fertiliser. If we do merit to such a monk we will receive very little merit, like planting in the soil without fertiliser.
Now, when we are ready with alms objects, we as alms-givers are morally clean and have good intentions, and so is the monk who observes his religious precepts perfectly, this alms-giving will result in a full and perfect merit.

Unclean alms, immoral donor and different levels of monks.

Suppose we do not observe well religious precepts, the offering objects are not quite morally clean, but the monk who receives the alms is perfect with his precepts; we still can receive some good merit. Let say half of the merit should be of value in this case. Comparing this perfect monk with third class soil, the plant can grow and be fruitful for about 2 or 3 ears of corn per a plant.
Now, if we are not morally clean, as well as the stolen alms-giving objects, but the monk presented is perfect with his precepts plus having good meditation practice, we will receive more merit than in the previous case, but still not perfect merit. The monk in this case, with perfect precepts and good meditation practice, can be compared to the second class soil with some fertiliser.
On the other hand, if we as well as the offering objects are not morally clean, but we give alms to Phra Arahant, a Wholly Perfected One, we will receive a great deal of merit. This is compared to planting in first class soil. Each plant may produce many ears of corn, and each ear bears plenty of grain.

When we cannot find a perfect monk.

Now, suppose we want to make merit but we cannot find any good and perfect monk as we wish. We still should give alms to any monk, or do alms-giving as much as we can. This is a way to accumulate our merit.
It is like scooping up water from a sandy place which can fill up a jar if we keep trying. If we keep on giving alms to any monk happily and think that we offer alms to our Lord Buddha and any perfected monks, we will receive a great deal of merit and happiness. Therefore, whenever we do merit, we should have a happy mind and feel pleased with what we have done.

Doing merit with the disabled.

Nowadays we give alms to the blind, the deaf, the disabled, as well as the aged. We will receive merit according to how morally good they are. Lord Buddha teaches all the Buddhists to have a sharing mind. We should share what we can afford with our poor fellow men and other beings.

Doing merit and our intention.

In alms giving, our intention is very important: -
1. At the beginning, our good intention in doing merit is more crucial than how much or how expensive the things are. This is called Bhuppa chetana or the pre-intention, having good intention in doing merit.
2. If the monk who receives the alms is observant of his religious precepts, and the donor and the objects are thoroughly clean, then we will receive a great deal of merit, no matter how little we present to the good monk. It is the same practice to give any thing to any person. We should be doing it willingly with a nice, kind and respectfully gesture. This is called Munchana chetana, or the intention-in-between, willingly and respectfully of doing merit.
3. When the monk intentionally gives blessing to the alms-givers who also intend to receive the blessing happily and extend good feelings or dedicate the merit to all beings. This is called Aparapara chetana or the post-intention, a good feeling after doing merit.
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