The Merit of Offering the Kathina, and How to Set the Mind for the Most Merit

The benefits of making kathina merit

Kathina merit differs from other kinds of giving, because normally only the giver receives benefits, but in kathina merit the receivers gain benefits too.

The receivers’ benefits are five, and the giver’s benefits are also five.

Before we get to those, let us ask: who receives the kathina? The answer must be: the Saṅgha receives the kathina. And who offers it? Monks, nuns, laymen and laywomen can all bring cloth to offer.

The Buddha said that the giving of a good person (sappurisa) sees the fruit of giving first, and then gives. Giving brings these benefits:

1. The giver is dear to and pleasing to many people.
2. The wise associate with the giver (the Buddha will come to teach us).
3. The giver’s good name spreads far; even the devas (celestial beings) wish to take part.
4. The giver does not drift away from the householder’s virtues (truthfulness, self-control, patience and generosity: sacca, dama, khanti, cāga).
5. A good destination (sugati) awaits them in the next life.

Cittālaṅkāra dāna: giving that adorns the mind

The giving that the Perfectly Self-Awakened Buddha taught, giving in the Buddha’s teaching, is not giving out of bias because of love (chanda-dāna), nor out of bias because of anger (dosa-dāna), nor out of bias because of delusion (moha-dāna), nor because of fear (bhaya-dāna). It is not giving to follow family custom (kulavaṃsa-dāna), nor giving in hope of a good rebirth in heaven (saggaloka-dāna), nor giving merely because it feels good (somanassa-dāna).

Rather, it must be giving to adorn the mind, to beautify and shape the mind so that it goes toward abandoning the defilements, namely craving, conceit and wrong views (taṇhā, māna, diṭṭhi).

1. When about to give, bring up a mind of faith; make the mind bright and clear, then give.
2. Give with respect, meaning give things that suit the receiver.
3. Give at the right time and occasion, such as making kathina merit.
4. Having given, let it go completely, as if plucking out your heart to hand it over.
5. Give without harming yourself or others.

Most important: be glad before giving, confident while giving, and after giving, let joy arise. This way you gather the merit in full.

How to set the mind for the most merit

When we have to meet large numbers of people from all sorts of families, gathered even for an activity where we come to cultivate the wholesome together, it is not at all strange for there to be some friction and small irritations.

Now, if we let irritation arise, the wholesome we gain will not be complete. With irritation, the one who loses out is ourselves: it means we have let the wholesome mind slip away.

The merit that arises today is not only offering the kathina. As mentioned earlier, merit comes in as many as ten kinds, in the bases of meritorious action and so on.

We come to offer the kathina, offering cloth and various utensils to the Saṅgha: that is giving. Even passing cloth or water to a friend who came with us is wholesome giving.

When we have done good, we direct the merit, saying, “May this merit reach all my relatives.” We can always dedicate this merit to our relatives.

When we see someone doing good, doing something good, we incline our minds to rejoice in the merit others make. This is not stealing merit; rather, we are bringing the wholesome into being ourselves.

Today we also invite you all to undertake the precepts. Bring up the intention to refrain from killing, and the mind goes with loving-kindness (mettā); refrain from stealing, and the mind thinks of giving, relinquishing and sharing, and so on.

Being humble toward one another, gentle with one another, looking after one another: this is already merit.

Helping and supporting whenever we see someone in need of help: we can do this all the time.

Bring up a mind of loving-kindness at any time; it is not hard at all. Whenever you see someone, think this in your heart: “Happy in body, happy in mind, safe from harm.”

And today there will also be a time for listening to the Dhamma.

And we can also share information and knowledge with one another about the kathina like this.

Lastly, there is straightening our views.

In sum: the wholesome of giving, the wholesome of virtue and the wholesome of cultivation.

Now, while we are walking to pay homage to the Buddha, walking to bring the kathina cloth and these accompanying offerings to present to the Saṅgha with the Buddha at its head, as we walk to give, our bodily action is wholesome giving. Inviting one another to cultivate the wholesome, our speech is wholesome giving. Inclining the mind with the thought “I am about to go and give,” our mental action is wholesome giving.

When we recollect virtue, that we are following the example of the noble ones of the past, that is wholesome virtue. As we are walking, bodily action is wholesome virtue. As we invite one another, recollecting “How well I have done my duty as a good follower of the Buddha,” speech is wholesome virtue. When we are not moving at all but recollect the precepts we have undertaken, keeping our mental action, that is wholesome virtue.

As we do all these activities, understand that the Saṅgha who have worked hard, the team organizing the event, every one of the food stalls and everyone involved are all doing it as an offering to the Buddha, the Perfectly Self-Awakened Lord. As we go about these activities, our bodily action is wholesome cultivation all along, as we recollect the qualities of the Buddha. While doing various tasks, recite the Buddha’s qualities as well, “Itipi so bhagavā arahaṃ sammāsambuddho vijjācaraṇasampanno sugato lokavidū anuttaro purisadammasārathi satthā devamanussānaṃ buddho bhagavā”, in this way all along, letting the sound of the Buddha’s qualities resound through every realm of existence. Finally, recollecting the Buddha while not moving, our mental action is wholesome cultivation.

So today, as we have the merit to be connected with one another, may you all set your minds like this:

1. Today, whatever I meet, I will let only the wholesome arise.
2. If even a little evil arises, I will clear it away quickly, just as if excrement splashed on my face I would rush to wash it off.
3. I will train the current of this life to grow familiar with cultivating the wholesome; I will plant the symbols of the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Saṅgha all around me.

I rejoice in the merit and wholesome deeds that have arisen for all of you, in every kind of merit, and I give this merit to all of you who have come to cultivate the wholesome together. May this merit be a condition for reaching the world-transcending Dhamma, namely the four paths and four fruitions, and a condition for attaining final nibbāna without clinging (anupādā-parinibbāna) with ease and swiftly.