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> ...leaving the temple without holy men and raising concerns among local worshippers that they wouldn’t be able to conduct “merit-making”—that is, donating foo
by ydlr 4y ago
> ...leaving the temple without holy men and raising concerns among local worshippers that they wouldn’t be able to conduct “merit-making”—that is, donating food to monks as a good deed.
Curious. I wonder if giving food to actual poor people instead of profession mendicants would still count as a good deed.
- kyawzazaw 4y agoYes, giving food to actual people who would need it would count as good deed.
- greatgib 4y agoThis looks like a kind of cargo cult to me. Sadly it shows that people are doing things because they expect some form of reward in this life or in a further one instead of for the core value.
- brutusborn 4y agoI think the critical bit is that the good deed is in support of the Sangha. The ironic part of the villager’s response is in thinking that simply giving food will support the Sangha. If the local monks are taking meth, donations are not likely to help make things better. This looks like a form of Tanha - the villagers are so attached to their ideas of how a Sangha _should_ be supported, that they are disappointed when they cannot donate to monks who need much more than monetary donations. Edit: I’d also criticise the description of monks as professional mendicants. In many places the local monks provide education services or council locals in a similar way to a western psychologist. They aren’t just resource sponges, they can provide important community services in places that would otherwise go without. Thus I think of them more as professionals who beg. That is excluding Monks in the article who are obviously LARPing.
- rossdavidh 4y agoWell, the idea is that there is a beneficial impact on the giver. In modern Western terms, it would be the equivalent of thinking that the act of giving to monks has a positive impact on your self-image and your idea of how to relate to wealth and the community, which is true even if it turns out that, for example, due to an accident of some sort after you leave the food has to be thrown out. Of course, there is usually an assumption that supporting a monk in their holy work also has a beneficial effect, and if they're all meth-addicts that might not be the case, but there is some non-zero benefit to the giver, regardless.
- User23 4y agoThe President of my High School unashamedly called himself a professional beggar.
- notch898a 4y agoMore meth means the monks eat less, freeing up more food for the poor. I think you're onto something.
- pyuser583 4y agoMy (very limited) understanding is that donations of this nature aren’t about maximizing utility. Kind of like how fasting isn’t about saving food.