MERIT-MAKING vs ROBES-OFFERING CEREMONY !

Composing starts on 28 September 2018.

 ***信不信由你*** 

MERIT-MAKING vs  ROBES-OFFERING CEREMONY

“Should a person merit make

Let him do it time and again And turn his heart to delight therein,

For happiness is the accumulation of merit”. 

The general desire of all beings throughout life is to escape painful and undesirable experiences and seek circumstances giving rise to happiness. Merit, the Buddha declared, is one thing that fire nor even an earthquake can destroy, nor can water drown its effect. Thieves cannot steal it nor can the State take it away by levy of a tax. In other words, merit is indestructible by others.  Merit has the power of purifying the mind of greed, hatred and delusion. Thus, merit can be looked upon as those actions that improve the quality of the mind. It is the making of merit that ensures one to lead a balanced and a harmonious life. 

So how does one acquire this merit? The Buddha preached that there are ten ways of making merit. There are: 

1. Giving or generosity (Dāna-mayaŋ puñña-kiriya-vatthu) 

2. Moral conduct or virtue (Sīla-mayaŋ ...........................  ) 

3. Meditation or mental development (Bhāvana-maya….)

4. Respect or reverence (Apaciti-sahagataŋ .... )

5. Service in helping others ( Veyyāvacca-sahagataŋ .... ) 

6. Transference of merit (Pattānuppadānaŋ .................. )

7. Rejoicing in other’s merit (Abbhanumodanaŋ ......... )

8. Expounding or teaching the dhamma (Desana-mayaŋ .....) 

9. Listening to the dhamma (Savana-mayaŋ ................. )  

10. Correcting one’s views (Diññhijjukammaŋ puñña-kiriya-vatthu) 

In the Suttas, there are only ‘three ways of making merit’ explicitly mentioned by the Buddha, namely,

1. Giving (dāna-mayaŋ puñña-kiriya-vatthu), 

2. Moral conduct (sīla- mayaŋ puñña-kiriya-vatthu) 

3. Meditation (bhāvana-mayaŋ puñña-kiriya-vatthu) 

The other seven ways are also mentioned in the Suttas but not explicitly. Thus the seven ways of making merit should be understood as being included in the above three. Thus the ways of making merit in brief are three and in detail ten. 

Kathina Robes  Offering Ceremony

 

In Thailand and Malaysia, The Kathina festival is a major observance of Theravada Buddhism. It is a time for laypeople to offer cloth for robes and other necessities to the monastic sangha. The Kathina ceremony provides one of the most popular occasions for merit-making with this robes-offering ceremony with profound respect and devotion to the monks, who have just spent three months in the monastery observing the Vassã (Khao Pansã ) – the Rains Retreat.

Merit-Making or Contributing Merits in general doesn’t come in sizes – ( neither in RM nor MATERIALS ). What really counts and matter are FAITH, SINCERITY & CAPABILITY of CONTRIBUTION   !   The recent popular trend in Malaysia, most of devotees will throng to the so-called RICH temple during Khatina Robes Offering Ceremony with “RICH MONEY TREE”  ( Huge amount of bank notes were stacked and hung onto it ) and the POOR temples will struggle with local folks and their “POOR MONEY TREE” ( Money tree with only small amount of bank notes ). During the procession, the RICH MONEY TREE will lead the procession. They will get all the FAMES and PREVILLEGES, the banner was printed out with the emphasis on the VVIP donators and the sum of donation, the Thad-Yao group ( Thai traditional long drum ) will lead them in full force while the POOR MONEY TREE will left behind – some may not get any attention at all ! 

Isn’t that little stray from the real Khatina Robes Offering Ceremony ? As we can see in Thai particularly, the Khatina ceremony procession will lead by the ROBES procession and not the “MONEY TREE” ! Whereas, in our beloved country, procession was led by the “MONEY TREE”. It’s Khatina Money Tree Offering Ceremony instead of Khatina Robes Offering Ceremony !

The photo to the left was the photo captured on 10/11/2018, during the grand annual Thod-Khatin ceremony (Khatina Ceremony), in Wat Prakchumchontara or widely know as Wat Chau Khun Onn @ Wat Sungai Padi. As we can see the Thod-Khatin ceremony in Wat Sungai Padi was led by the ROBES-PROCCESSION and then followed by the money-tree carriers and absolutely not led by the MONEY-TREE as we can see in the local temples. As for me, this is the real Khatina @ Robes Giving Ceremony should be. 

Photo to the right is another photo taken from different angle showing how the procession was led by the ROBES and not by the MONEY-TREE. Kudos to Chau Khun Onn and Wat Prakchumchontara's committees and devotees !  

Please don't get me wrong here, i'm neither promoting nor provoking any temples / parties. I'm just sharing my thought and personal P.O.V regarding the real Khatina Robes Giving Ceremony should be ! Absolutely personal okay !

“RICH MONEY TREE ?” Well for me, it is just  ‘HOO-HA’ and ‘HULLABALOO’ ! MONEY TREE is just a symbol during khatina. During our great Buddha era, there’s no money tree at all. The only things that they offered to the Buddha dan Sanghas are ROBES as well as FOOD. That’s why we called it as Khatina Robes Offering Ceremony and NOT Khatina Money Tree Offering Ceremony.

“MONEY TREE” is just the new trend to indicate the modern style of merit-making, SHOW-OFF to be exact ! Thus, MONEY TREE should not be considered as the sincerity or priority of acceptance. Nowadays, many temples are likely stray from their real existence / roles and most of devotees kinda confuse with the RULES OF MERIT-MAKING, therefore………

1.  RICH temples will remain RICH with throng of URBAN and RICH devotees during Khatina – Robes Offering Ceremony. 

2. POOR temples will remain POOR with throng of LOCAL and POOR devotees during Khatina – Robes Offering Ceremony.

The rich temples getting richer and richer whereas the poor temples struggle to survive with limited fund to run its activities – spreading Dhamma and stacks of unsettled utilities and maintenance fees.

In Kelantan ( these recent years ), after the demised of the prominent and rich temple’s abbots, the committees finally discovered there was millions of RM in temple current account that haven’t been used as it should be and they even secretly discovered millions of RM in monk personal account too. This MILLIONS of RM finally creates dispute among committees and monk’s relatives, some even seek legal action to retrieve the fund - money ! BINGO ! The demised monk relative’s then become an instant millionaire ! My questions are, isn't that ( owning huge amount of bank notes ) is prohibited to a monk and monk should leave behind all the luxuries life ? Proceeds  donated to the temple should be spent / used wisely and not to be kept in the temple / monk personal account regardless of any reasons, right ? 

Some of the irresponsible parties kinda "menangguk di air keruh" as "to fish in trouble waters" in English, which to indicate someone who is trying to take advantage of a confused situation by producing mass votive tablets @ amulets to be sold during the khatina ceremony. Some of them claimed that it was made by the temple by using special materials but the truth is NOT ! Don't get me wrong okay, i'm talking about mass amulets produced by laypeople and claimed to be the finest works of the temple abbot for the sake of Dollars and Cents !. I'm not referring to the real stuffs by the temple. 

Kindly click the link below for the article on the bhikku's belongings - the possessions ( the obligatory things, the authorized things, things that bhikkhu must not possess and as well as the forbidden things ).

http://en.dhammadana.org/sangha/monks/belongings.htm

Phor Than @ Than Noon, present abott of Wat Ariyakiri, Pauh Lima Aril. Used to say ( when he was resided in Wat Sungai Soi in late 1990’s )…………..

 “If you really want to make merit go to the poor temples @ samnak. Resource and rebuilt them, channel the proceeds to the temples in order to help them to spread the Dhamma and enable them to channel all proceeds from the merit-making to the needy”.

 The Buddha preached that …………………..

“Let therefore a man (advises the Buddha) train himself 

in merit-making that yields long-lasting happiness. 

Let him cultivate the practice of giving, 

virtuous conduct and a mind of mettā. 

By cultivating these qualities the wise man arrives

in untroubled and happy states. 

Hence, do not fear merit-making.

 ‘Merit-making’ is a term denoting happiness,

 what is desirable, pleasant, dear and charming.”

 As stated in the 10-Way of Making Merit, “dāna-mayaŋ puñña-kiriya-vatthu”,  giving or generosity is the ONLY one of the ten ways of making merit. As I said before, “dāna-mayaŋ puñña-kiriya-vatthu” through the “MONEY TREE” is just the new trend to indicate of merit-making. Thus, “MONEY TREE” should never be considered as the sincerity or priority of acceptance. 

No worries if your money tree is not as rich as others because as I said before Merit-Making doesn’t come in sizes – ( neither in RM nor MATERIALS ). What really counts and matter is “FAITH”. As I always believe,  in order to FULLFIL our “dāna-mayaŋ puñña-kiriya-vatthu” during Khatina Robe Offering ceremony  a single complete set of ROBES will do, as it’s Khatina Robes Offering Ceremony and IT”S NOT @ NEVER Khatina Money Tree Offering Ceremony !

Sadhu Sadhu Sadhu ….. Saaadhu !

“No Hard Feeling. Merely sharing @ Perkongsian Semata………….”

 sabbe satta sukhita hontuk !

Wiesukhihotu Din Daeng 18 !

Composing ends on 10 November 2018.

 ***信不信由你*** 

****************Muhasabah Diri *******************

JANGAN RIAK,

JANGAN TAKBUR,
JANGAN JADI HAMBA DUIT !
KALAU BETUL, KATAKAN BETUL.
KALAU SALAH, KATAKAN SALAH.
USAH BERMUKA-MUKA,
USAH MENJADI TALAM DUA MUKA,
USAH KERANA DUIT, PANGKAT, DAN KUASA,
KITA JADI HIPOKRIT,

MAKA..............

               YANG BETUL DIKATAKAN SALAH,
                              YANG SALAH DIKATAKAN BETUL !

********************Muhasabah Diri *****************