Each time you make an offering to the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, Devas, Ancestors, or even to a beggar, ensure that you select the best that you have. An offering becomes impure whenever unwholesome thoughts are there. Look into your heart and see what kind of person you really are. If there is discrimination, remove it now, or you will have wasted your years of practice. Unless you have the heart of love and charity—one that gives only the best to anyone—it is no longer a gift, it is not an offering. It becomes merely the act of pushing away something you dislike onto others. If so, where can the merits be?
15-Feb-1984 (5)