True merit

Vietnamese people in general and Ha Tinh people in particular, go to temples and pagodas during the spring season to make offerings to accumulate merit and pray for luck. However, for a long time, many people have not understood this correctly, leading to making merit in the wrong place.

Tourists flock to Huong Tich Pagoda on the opening day of the Giap Thin Spring Festival 2024.

Many times when I go to temples and pagodas with friends and relatives during the festival season, I often wonder when I see some tourists casually "stuffing" money into the mouths of the mascots or leaving money on the trays for offerings and considering it a meritorious act. The money placed in sacred places is still crumpled change. The owners also show a tense face because they are afraid that the money will be taken by someone and will not reach Buddha or the gods during the ceremony...

When I asked a monk at a famous temple about this, he answered: Giving alms or making offerings in this way is not in accordance with the "fact" and "reason" of the true Buddhist Dharma. Fact is the action, the work; reason is the essence of the meaning. Giving alms or making offerings in this way does not bring true merit to tourists or Buddhists. Because, the nature of giving alms or making offerings is to bring to a specific object to illuminate good values.

The practice of using real money to make offerings in sacred places still exists in some temples and pagodas.

For example, if we consider a pagoda as a school where everyone comes to respectfully offer incense, listen to the Dharma to live a more virtuous life, do good things for life, for themselves, then the offering is to embellish the pagoda - that school to be more and more spacious, so that all the people can come to worship and study. Or offering to a highly respected monk is to use their knowledge to ask them to do things that benefit sentient beings. So putting money on sacred animals is completely meaningless, when those animals themselves are wood, stone; or placing them on the altar of gods, Buddhas is the same, they are images made of metal, wood, cement.

Money has exchange value, but in terms of material, it is an impure object when it is placed in many places during circulation, in pockets, when it smells of fish or meat, or falls on the ground... So is it clean to use these bills for offerings, while according to Vietnamese cultural traditions, offerings must be the purest things.

The monk taught me that charity and offering are two words but have the same meaning. Offering to Buddha and gods means to direct your mind towards goodness and know how to do good deeds. Respecting and offering to monks and nuns also has that meaning... Instead of offering to ask monks and nuns to do good deeds for you, each Buddhist or citizen should do it for themselves and their families in many ways.

If you have the conditions, help those who are weaker than you, give alms or help someone in a difficult situation, help them overcome their difficulties, that is also making offerings to Buddhas, saints, and gods. Moreover, a compassionate person who often shares and helps others naturally creates merit for himself, is in harmony with Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and saints, so why should Buddhas and gods not protect them?

Going to pagodas and temples to make merit is meaningful when tourists and Buddhists choose the right place and do the right thing.

Going to pagodas and temples to make merit is only meaningful when visitors and Buddhists choose the right place and do the right thing. Nowadays, many pagodas and temples have donation boxes or managers who keep a record of donations, so visitors and people can make offerings through them. The management boards and abbots will have a plan to use that money for the right purpose and in the right place... That also helps Buddhists and visitors accumulate merit and be recognized by Buddha, saints and everyone.

Gemini

Source: https://baohatinh.vn/van-hoa-ha-tinh/cong-duc-dung-nghia/261817.htm