BUDDHISM IN SRI LANKA AND SOUTHEAST ASIA 159to observe the precepts after leaving the monastery, but by taking the precepts
he/ she is said to be "in possession of" the precepts at least for the period of
time when the donation is being given. Thus the preliminaries to the actual
donation function as a ritual empowerment.
Once the preliminaries are completed, the villagers as a group make a for-
mal declaration of donating their offerings to the Sangha, because the act of
making a donation to the general Sangha is said to entail more merit than sim-
ply donating it to individual monks. The declaration may be relatively short
or may last several minutes, making specific mention of the various benefits
the donors hope to gain from their donation, as well as the various animist,
Brahmanical, and Buddhist deities and spirits they hope will rejoice in the
merit of the act, and ending with the wish that the generosity of the donation
will someday lead to nirval).a. Only then is the food formally handed to the
monks, who chant blessings rejoicing in the merit the villagers have made.
The monks then eat the food there in the meeting hall while the villagers
look on, chatting informally about the events of the past week.
When the monks are finished eating, one of them delivers a sermon. The
villagers then have their meal, and many of them return home at this point.
Others stay on for the morning chanting service. The texts of the service,
compiled by Rama IV whil~ he was ordained, are a reflection on the virtues
of the Triple Gem and a contemplation of the Three Characteristics. Some of
the villagers are aware of the meaning, others are not, but all are convinced
that by repeating and listening to the Pali phrases they are gaining merit by
calming their minds and listening to the Dharma. This act would qualifY as a
ritualized form of meditation. Combined with the ritualized donation and
precepts of the earlierpart of the service, this ritualized meditation makes the
morning ritual, in the" eyes of the villagers, a complete expression of the three
major forms of making merit.
A great variety of other merit-making rituals can take place in the wat, in
the villagers' homes, or in their fields (see Strong EB, sees. 6.2, 6.5.3, for ex-
amples from Laos and Sri Lanka). However, the ritualization of merit making
is most striking in the prime event drawing the villagers and monks together:
the ordination of a new monk. In the Buddha's time, ordination was a renun-
ciation of family life and was expected to be a lifelong commitment. Disrob-
ing, the Buddha said, was a disgrace. In Thai popular Buddhism, however,
temporary ordination-usually lasting three months-is the norm rather than
the exception, functioning as a rite of passage for young men and preparing
them, ironically, for marriage. By ordaining, they repay the debt they owe to
their parents for all the troubles and hardships involved in raising them; during
their time as monks they prepare for adulthood by gaining the knowledge and
strength of character they will need as they take on wife and children.
Parents are said to acquire a vast store of merit by allowing a son to ordain.
They become "relatives of the religion" and are guaranteed to meet with Bud-
dhism again in future lifetimes. Because ordination usually takes place during
the three months of the rainy season when their crops are growing, they hope
that the merit of doing without their son's labor will bring them even more