On Sunday evening, I met a fellow student who told me he had lunch with GM, Sitting at the same table!
His companion also had the same PRIVILEGE!
Last evening, at dinner at a GuanYin Chapter, yet another talked about privileged dining with Venerables.
All these jotted my memory regarding these type of PRIVILEGE DINING with GM/Abbots/Rinpoche/Kenpo/Vajramasters & etc.
Few months back, few students told me they dine with GM at the same table.
Their stance is that someone can help arrange these type of Privilege as long as they can pay.
These are on separate occasions & arranged by different Vajramasters & etc.
When I was a volunteer at a certain monastery, a group of rich ladies paid a hefty sum to the monastery to have the Privilege to sit at the same table for lunch with the Abbot.
These were done in a special room off the main dining hall of the monastery.
My brother bought the same last year with a Thai Rinpoche, said to be the reincarnation of Mayura.
He sat there & watch this Rinpoche eat & after he finishes, he left the table & my brother & others were allowed to begin dining.
Offering a table of sumptuous food to one's Guru or revered master is well & good but paying hefty sum to buy the Privilege to sit at the same table & bragging about it after, is not what GM or Buddha taught us.
In so doing, the poor will never get a chance to sit at the same table with GM.
This create a sense of inferiority & UNHAPPINESS.
This also shows DIFFERENTIATION between sentient beings.
The Merits of offering to Guru or revered master or Abbot is nullified by one's intent to show off that they are PRIVILEGE! They are wealthy enough to oil palms to arrange these!
HAHA!
Poor souls didn't listen to GM or comprehend what GM meticulously teaches us all the time.
I urge those that go for these arrangements to reflect & see the expressions on GM's face.
If no one listen to those that "arrange" this type of Privilege, they have no "business" & will have no choice but to stop. I heard the going rate in Seattle is USD10K per seat at GM's table!
Be compassionate & help them kick this "bad habit"!
Your wealth can help lots of under-privilege have a warm meal, a warm shelter, & put a warm smile on their faces.
This is what GM teaches us to do along the Bodhi path.
Look closely at those that you have oiled palms???
Also look closer at yourself frequently???
I have seen some of these people take on faces of animals like dogs, pigs, horses... & brownish-grey=corpse; greyish green = ghost; black-green = demon......
I have also seen the faces of those that oiled palms, they truly don't have the rosy hue of a studious cultivator.
Your choice to walk in step with GM, a Living Buddha, Or Beings of the 3 Lower Realms, or Maya-the Demon.
Amituofo
Lotuschef
Pure Karma Vihara
True Buddha School
i like this article.
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