The Blessing Verse
The two kinds of alms,
Material and spiritual.
Have the endowment of boundless merit.
Now that they have been fulfilled
In this act of charity
Both self and others
Gain pleasure therefrom.
In some temples of our Order the monks walk an alms round in the local community. Just walking, and I walked in Mt. Shasta, it’s clear that the round is as much an offering as it is a receiving. It was a privilege to walk the alms round.
When a donor cames and puts an offering into the monks alms bowl they were asked if they would like the merit given to anybody in particular. Often people were moved deeply as the above verse was recited and a name, or troubled situation, was included in the offering.
I guess this website is an alms round where there is both giving and receiving. However, unlike the walking rounds where only food is accepted, this round accepts Dana in the form of cash. If you would like to make an offering I’ve put up a link in the Donations section to the Order of Buddhist Contemplatives Activities Trust page of Everyclick. This is a service I’m testing to see if anybody is drawn to use it.