As monks, we try very hard not to talk about food. One of the reasons for this is for our own restraint around sense pleasures, but another is that the offering is really best when it comes from a pure intention of the donor. It creates a tremendous amount of wholesome effect in their lives and if people are worried about what to offer or how to offer or how much to offer, it can distract from the sincere intention.

But also, sometimes our efforts to not talk about food just end up creating anxiety and speculation for the donor about what food a monk would really want and whether the offering was done correctly or not. I see it as very essential that people make offerings in whatever way they feel good about, and not feel that any offering no matter what type wasn’t good enough. Because I know how much these sorts of concerns can affect people, I thought it might be useful to use it as an opportunity to write about the importance and role of generosity in the path to liberation.

The role of a sincere offering is absolutely central. It is where the path starts. What is important about generosity is that it is accessible to everyone who is willing to make that choice. No matter how much one is struggling, no matter how much suffering one has undergone, no matter how little one has, an act of generosity is always possible. And even when the act is done imperfectly or for the wrong reasons or without even knowing why it is being done, it still has a tremendously positive effect on the giver.

The Buddha said that if people really knew the benefits of generosity like he did, they wouldn’t let an opportunity go by without offering something to someone else (Itivuttaka 26). It has a massively positive effect and offers people a wholesome joy and happiness and peace. This wholesome happiness and peace is absolutely central to the path. If people don’t have access to that happiness that comes from having done something good and wholesome, it is much easier to succumb to feelings of despair and insecurity and frustration. That happiness and peace that comes from generosity can offer the possibility that goodness is possible and we are capable of accomplishing it. It is the central piece of believing that we are worthy enough to do good, to become better, and eventually to be free.

The world is awash with reminders of sense gratification, but the reminders of wholesomeness are few. When we can remember that potential it can offer us hope, not just that happiness and peace are available to someone else, but that it is available to ourselves as well. No one is so low that they don’t have that possibility for an act of kindness and generosity. It is that hope that can offer us a life preserver amidst the tremendous suffering around us.

Acts of generosity are important not just for us to intellectually acknowledge, but to get familiar with the internal experience of the benefit. It is important to reflect on those moments until we can get a clear internal, intuitive sense of what goodness feels like. Because, the nature of goodness is that it feels good in a very peaceful and balanced way. It offers a steady foundation to be able to progress further. Getting to that point where we know and can call on the felt experience of goodness is extremely important. As long as the deeper aspects of our consciousness haven’t been able to recognize the benefits of goodness, it won’t be able to recognize the way out of suffering. The more that this experience is felt and recognized in its peaceful and balanced quality, the more that the deeper aspects of consciousness can settle and relax into that peace. This is the benefit of generosity. This is also the benefit of morality, having a clean and ethical life in which we try to do good and realize that good is possible within ourselves.

From that basis of having done good and having avoided hurting others, we can develop access to a deep and abiding sense of happiness from which joy can arise. This is what can sustain our lives, our energy, our practice, our hope to keep getting better. Without it, the practice will always be a struggle. It will always feel less fulfilling that it should. So, actively reflecting on the good that we have done and the efforts we have put to not do anything to harm others until we can access that peace is what makes the whole rest of the path possible.

With the happiness generated by generosity and acts of kindness and compassion we can sustain a long-term effort to make ourselves better. We can start to see all the problems sense pleasures create in our lives and our world, and we can start to recognize how much our attachments drive our suffering. When we have that happiness of the wholesome we have a support, a grounding for going further, but without it, or even if we just can’t recognize the good that is already in ourselves, then our faith and our hope can be shaken.

But when that foundation of morality and generosity is strong, there is no limit to the potential of human consciousness. When one is familiar with that happiness and peace, the allure of sense pleasures isn’t as strong, because one can see the alternative. One can see the damage that they are doing. One has something to build on, to rest on, to take refuge in when things get painful and difficult, when renunciation seems like too much, and when leaving our attachment behind seems beyond what is possible.

It is that happiness and peace that I hope people feel when they make any offering. The Buddha would often offer his congratulations and anumodana, a happiness with you, that one has made an offering. It is the beginning of the way to ultimate peace.

I hope you can all feel all the benefits of your tremendous offerings to me and to all those around you. It is the way out. It is the way to a happy and unconflicted inner world. It is the way to ultimate peace.

Monks aren’t allowed to use money, so they depend on having their basic requisites offered directly.

Monks have four main requisites:

1. Food
2. Robes
3. Shelter
4. Medicine

Additionally, other miscellaneous necessities may arise.

How can I offer food?

Monks can’t store food, cook for themselves, or eat after midday. So, offerings of food need to be made during the morning with enough time before midday to eat. Midday is around 1 PM during daylight savings time (Mar-Nov) and 12 PM after daylight savings ends (Nov-Mar).

There are two main approaches to offering food:

1. Alms Round

If monks don’t have a specific invitation for the day, their norm will be to go on alms round. They will walk around town until they have enough food for the day or it starts to approach midday. Generally, alms round begins at approximately 7:30-8 AM and ends around 10:30-11 AM to sit down and eat. However, this is variable and may be extended during daylight savings time.

2. Formal Meal Offering

One can stop by either the day before, several days in advance, or have someone stop by on one’s behalf to ask to offer a meal on a specific day.

To allow enough time to eat, it is best to serve by about 10:30 AM during non-daylight savings time and 11:30 AM during daylight savings time. The meal can be offered either where the monk is staying or at another place within about 4 miles.

For formal meal offerings, the monk generally won’t be eating before or after the meal.

Do monks have any food restrictions?

In general, the Buddha encouraged monks to be content with any food. However, there are a few things that are not allowable:

• Meat restrictions: Meat is allowable if it is pure in three ways:

  • The monastic does not see, hear, or suspect that the animal was killed for his own sake.
  • If an animal was killed specifically for the sake of a monastic, it is not allowable.
  • If the killing of the animal was completely independent of the offering, it is allowable.

• Raw ingredients: Monks can’t cook, so they can’t receive:

  • Raw grains
  • Beans
  • Raw meat, etc.

• Living plants: Monks have a rule against destroying living plants, so they can’t receive or eat:

  • Sprouts
  • Living seeds
  • Fully living plants (e.g., a living carrot or onion)

  Most raw seeds sold in markets are pasteurized and would not be able to grow again, making them allowable. However, fruits with seeds that can still grow (e.g., most berries, pomegranates) are not allowable unless they are:

  • Cut up
  • Cooked
  • Processed in some way

• Certain meats are unallowable, including meat from:

  • Predators (e.g., lions, tigers, mountain lions, bears)
  • Companion animals (e.g., dogs, horses, elephants)
  • Snakes

The easiest way to offer robes would be to make an intention known to the monk that you would like to provide robes when they are needed, and then he can let you know when the need arises or if he can wait until the robes season.

Robes or robe cloth are generally received during the robes season, which is the last month of the rainy season. In India and southeast Asia, the rainy season is the full moon in July to the full moon in November. Āyasmā Guṇavīro has been observing it here from the full moon in November to the full moon in March, the rainy season in California. So the robes season would be the full moon in February until the full moon in March.

There are a variety of ways to offer shelter to a monk. The easiest way to go about it is to simply offer and describe the circumstances available and let him decide.

The main priorities for shelter is that it has a sense of solitude and has access to a means for a meal.

For a place to have a sense of solitude it could be anything from a piece of land to a separated unit to a garage to a separate room. A shared space generally wouldn’t work for very long, but could still be useful for a short-term stay or if the monk is ill. Monks have a rule that they can’t share a room with a non-ordained person for more than three nights and can’t share a room with a woman for even a night.

For a place to have a means for a meal it could either be either close enough to someplace the monk could go for alms round or could include an offering of food if the place is too far to go for alms. A normal alms route would be about 2 miles out and 2 miles back.

During the first or last three months of the four months of the rains (i.e. the full moon of November to the full moon of February, or the full moon of December to the full moon of March), the monk should in general be in one place, so would not be able to accept an offer of shelter for less than that time period.

During the rest of the year the monk can accept an offer of shelter for any period of time, short or long. Also, unlike other requisites, a monk can ask for shelter as long as it is not being built specifically for him in which case there are significant restrictions.

Along with the basic requirements, the most important priority is the sincerity of the offer and whether the people offering have an appreciation for and understanding of the role of a monastic.

Because it is difficult to know in advance when one will need medicine and medical treatment, the best way to offer to pay for these things is to make an offering directly to the monk. Unless one specifies otherwise, the monk will be able to take up that request for up to four months.

Also, if one has anything in mind about the types of things one would like to provide it is useful to specify them (i.e. I would like to offer you herbs, or the costs of any medical treatments, or acupuncture, etc.). If it is intended for absolutely any type of treatment or medicine one can specify that as well.

For expenses more than several hundred dollars, Āyasmā Guṇavīro would likely call or email several people to see if they would like to share the costs.

Other things do come up from time to time as things that would be useful, books, nail clippers, or rides, or transportation costs, or other things.

If one would like to offer anything else, the best way is to simply make an open ended offer that one would like to provide anything that Āyasmā Guṇavīro might need. Similarly, if one doesn’t specify the timeline, monks have a rule that they can only accept it for four months. However, if one specifies that one would like the offer to be for longer or shorter the monk can take up the offer on a longer or shorter timeline.