Support
Support the Buddhist Society of Canada
For more than 2,500 years, the monastic community has lived through the kindness and generosity of lay supporters. In the Buddha’s time, as today, monks and nuns depend entirely on dāna, the voluntary offerings of the lay community, for their basic needs of food, shelter, clothing, and medicine. The Buddha did not allow them to live as absolute recluses, completely cut off from the world. The Buddha wanted there to be daily interactions between the monastics and the laity. To ensure this the Buddha made the monastics dependent on the laity for their material support. Monastics are not allowed to handle money and can only eat or drink things that have been offered to them.
While laity provide material support for the monastics, the monastics provide spiritual support to the laity by way of teachings and spiritual inspiration. This relationship of mutual support and respect is the foundation of Buddhist life and practice.
Here in Canada, the Buddhist Society of Canada aspires to uphold this living tradition in the Theravāda and Thai Forest lineage. Your generosity helps make possible the establishment of a forest monastery, a place of refuge, meditation, and spiritual cultivation where both monastics and laypeople can deepen their practice.
Support in any form, whether through work, donations, or other acts of service, is received with gratitude and care. Every offering directly supports the Sangha and the growth of the Dhamma in Canada.
May this generosity be a cause for your continuing happiness, good health, prosperity and ultimate liberation.