[Buddha-l] Dhammakaya Solution

[JKirkpatrick]

This leads to another question I have been asking myself and
others, especially Thais, in recent years.

Is it 'better' to give food to a monk who has more to eat or a
poor lay person with not enough to eat? The Thai people generally
will prefer to give to monks because of the 'merit'.

Bankei
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Here's a small pindapada incident I saw when I was visiting Lao,
in Luang Prabang.
People (the tourists) turn out early morning to watch the
samaneras going for alms, led by a senior monk, while Laotians
line the street with their alms trays and wait for the lines to
pass.
There was one very poor, very thin woman with a small toddler
squatting on the sidewalk (pavement), holding (not holding it
out, just holding it in front of her chest) a white plastic
grocery store bag--technically she was not supposed be begging
during alms round. But I saw some of the young samaneras drop a
little food into her bag as they passed by --a no no for them but
they did it anyway--IMO, the "greater compassion."  (But then I
am not a pakka Buddhist.) The alms lines from the different
monasteries walked fast.  It seemed to me that most of the alms
food was sticky rice, but there were also fruits & packaged snack
things put into the alms bowls. The rice was offered contained in
beautiful folded-leaf, columnar-shaped packets, with little
attached lids. 

JK