Kathina Is Discipline, Harmony Is Dhamma, and the Kathina Cloth Must Be Pure
Kathina is discipline, but the Buddha's true aim was harmony, which is Dhamma. It is about cloth, not money: monks cannot accept cash, only its value.
Key points
- The kathina is a discipline laid down by the Buddha, but his true aim was for the monks to gain harmony, which is Dhamma.
- Without loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy and equanimity, a kathina that brings stress and suffering yields only discipline, not Dhamma.
- Monks cannot accept money or gold, but they can accept value; the donor pledges the four requisites and leaves the money with a steward.
- The principle is that whoever holds the money has no right to use it, and whoever has the right to use it cannot hold it.
- Cloth obtained by asking, telling or hinting, borrowed cloth, or cloth kept overnight cannot be kathina cloth, because it is not pure.
This is an English translation of the Thai original. Where they differ, the Thai text is authoritative: อ่านต้นฉบับภาษาไทย
Kathina is discipline, harmony is Dhamma
The kathina ceremony is a matter of the monastic discipline (vinaya) that the Buddha laid down, but his true intention was for the monks to gain harmony (sāmaggī), which is Dhamma, from seeking the cloth, cutting, sewing and dyeing it, to spreading the kathina and rejoicing in it. When monks act toward one another, they must establish bodily acts of loving-kindness (mettā), that is, treat one another with love and goodwill; verbal acts of loving-kindness, so that before speaking to one another they first bring up a mind of loving-kindness and then speak with love and goodwill; and mental acts of loving-kindness, that is, thinking of one another with loving-kindness. This extends to bodily, verbal and mental acts of compassion (karuṇā): when someone needs help, or meets with suffering or hardship, one brings up a mind of compassion, wishing that person to be free of suffering, free of all problems and obstacles; and to bodily, verbal and mental acts of sympathetic joy (muditā): when someone meets with happiness and success, one’s heart rejoices as they do well and grow happier. This is how harmony comes about.
Now, when laypeople see monks treating one another with loving-kindness, they gain faith and confidence and want to take part in this wholesome activity too. So they ask the monks for the chance to be the ones who find the cloth and cut, sew and dye it correctly according to the Dhamma and Discipline of the Perfectly Self-Awakened Buddha, and to bring that cloth and lay it down, that is, offer it to the Saṅgha without singling out any individual.
When the laypeople have joined together and helped one another to find the cloth, cut, sew and dye it, and bring it to lay down, others who wish to take part bring various things to join in: food, water, the eight requisites of a monk, umbrellas, sandals, various utensils, and also funds, which join the kathina as its accompanying offerings. Harmony among the monks spreads to harmony among the Buddha’s lay followers.
Especially as kathina merit-making grows larger and larger until it becomes a major annual event, more and more people come, and organizing it becomes more and more difficult. So if we do not bring out and use the Buddha’s Dhamma, namely loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy and equanimity (upekkhā), we come to make kathina merit but end up with stress, worry and suffering. Then we get only the discipline, not the Dhamma.
So when we come to do wholesome activities like this, what is more important than the cloth, more important than wealth, is to bring wholesome states of mind into being. Treat one another with love, goodwill and care. Before each word, first bring up a mind of loving-kindness, then utter words that are true, timely and beneficial; speak gently, and let loving-kindness push the words out. When you think of one another, think with loving-kindness; when you look at one another, first let a loving gaze arise, then look.
From loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy and equanimity, we develop the bases of social harmony (saṅgahavatthu), namely:
- Dāna: giving, relinquishing, sharing.
- Piyavācā: speaking with kindly speech.
- Atthacariyā: doing what benefits one another, without reluctance or resentment, truly helping one another.
- Samānattatā: binding together with wholesome minds.
Until at last one develops from harmony in the Dhamma at the worldly level to harmony in the Dhamma at the world-transcending level, that is, the coming together of the noble eightfold path.
Hence the saying: the kathina, which is discipline, develops into harmony, which is Dhamma.
Kathina is about cloth, not money
The kathina really is about cloth; it is not about money. But those who object to kathina merit-making on these grounds need to look at the bigger picture and understand the social context correctly.
The kathina is about cloth, and in earlier times it was the monks’ affair. But when laypeople saw the monks cultivating the wholesome together and bonding with one another, they wished to share in this merit too. So they asked the monks for the chance to take part in finding the cloth and cutting, sewing and dyeing it, because lay people are more skilled at making cloth than monks, and can find cloth more easily.
Now, as more and more of the Buddha’s followers came to join the kathina, yet only a single piece can be the kathina cloth, others who wished to widen this kathina merit and take part brought accompanying offerings, such as sets of the triple robe, the eight requisites and various utensils. In time, money came into it as well, because monasteries have various projects, such as restoration work or building an ordination hall, a vihāra, a chedi (stupa) or other buildings.
When money is involved, laypeople must handle it correctly according to the Dhamma and Discipline.
Monks cannot accept money or gold, because consenting to money and gold is an offense entailing forfeiture and confession (nissaggiya pācittiya). But monks can accept value.
For example, a lay person who wishes to offer 1,000 baht comes to the monk they wish to offer it to and says: “Venerable sir, I wish to offer a value of 1,000 baht. The funds will be left with the steward (veyyāvaccakara). If you, venerable sir, wish for any of the four requisites suitable for a monk’s use within this value of 1,000 baht, please call on the steward for it.”
This means the lay person offers the four requisites to the value of 1,000 baht (the four requisites are not money; they are clothing, food, lodging and medicine) by making an invitation (pavāraṇā) to the monk they wish to offer to, while the money itself is left with the steward, or with a lay person who looks after that monk, for example.
The monk must understand clearly that the lay person has not offered money but the four requisites. So the monk has no right to ask for cash, but may ask for the four requisites or other necessary things, up to the value the lay person has pledged.
What if the monk has no steward?
If that monk has a driver or lay people who came with him, the money can be left with them. Or if the monk has a lay person who looks after an account for him, one might transfer it to that account. Otherwise, the donor can become the steward themselves by telling the monk: “I pledge funds to the value of 1,000 baht. If you, venerable sir, need anything, please call on me.”
The principle is: whoever holds the money has no right to use it, and whoever has the right to use it cannot hold it.
Kathina cloth must be pure cloth
If cloth that is to become kathina cloth was obtained by asking, telling or hinting, for example, “This year our monastery still has no kathina host. Please find some cloth to offer,” this is making a request (viññatti), that is, asking directly. Cloth obtained that way cannot be used as kathina cloth.
The reason is that such cloth is not pure.
But a monk living at one monastery may tell a lay person he knows, or a lay person who has invited him to ask for requisites, to find cloth to offer as kathina at another monastery. That can be done.
Here, in more detail, is the cloth that cannot be used as kathina cloth:
- Borrowed cloth: cloth borrowed from another person, or borrowed from another monastery to use in the ceremony. Such cloth cannot be used as kathina cloth.
- Cloth obtained improperly: a monk has spoken, or made signs to let others know, that he wants that cloth to make into kathina cloth. Even asking his own parents makes it unusable.
- Cloth kept overnight: cloth that donors brought and offered that day, where the Saṅgha did not chant the act of giving the cloth that day but kept it to spread the kathina the next day; or where the Saṅgha chanted the act of giving the cloth but the monk spreading the kathina did not spread it that day.
- Cloth subject to forfeiture (nissaggiya): cloth the monks are still sewing or dyeing and cannot finish that day, or cloth a monk has bought himself, for example.
- Cloth with no panels (khaṇḍa), or with fewer than five panels: cloth not cut and sewn correctly according to the Dhamma and Discipline.
Source: กฐินสู่ธรรม ดำเนินตามอริยชน (Kathina Toward the Dhamma: Following the Noble Ones) by The Dhammasomthob team, E-book, November 2023, pp. 13–19.