Offering for the Heavenly Beings

The Perfectly Enlightened One gave thanks thus to Sunidha and Vassakāra, the Chief Ministers of Magadha, in these verses after he had finished eating his meal.

In whatever realm the wise man makes his home, he should feed the virtuous leaders of the holy life.

Whatever heavenly beings there are who report this offering, they will pay him respect and honor for this.

They tremble for him as a mother for her son, and he for whom heavenly beings tremble is always happy.

(Reference: UD 8.6)

In this Teaching from Gotama Buddha, he shares how it is wise to make offerings to those “virtuous leaders of the holy life”.

Virtuous leaders of the holy life are those individuals who are actively learning, reflecting, and practicing these Teachings while sharing them as Teachers. If we do not take care of The Teachers who are sharing these Teachings throughout our communities, then these Teachings are not sustained in the world.

By a community of people making offerings to “virtuous leaders of the holy life”, they are creating space in their community for these individuals to focus on deeply learning, reflecting, and practicing. As a result of making offerings, the individual Teachers have the time, space, and ability to dedicate towards their own practice of these Teachings ensuring they are completely and utterly focused on development of their life practice.

As a result of the offerings made, Teachers should then have the ability to deeply focus on developing their practice and then share The Teachings with those who support them.

In this way, there is an exchange.

Offerings are made to create space for people to deeply focus on developing their practice and share these Teachings. Then, those in The Community who are providing that support and others are able to benefit from the Teacher who is able to actively share The Teachings that are leading them or have led them to Enlightenment for the benefit of others.

This is all based on The Natural Law of Kamma - “cause and effect” or “action and result”. This is the results of our decisions, our Kamma.

Through active support of individuals to deeply learn, reflect, and practice these Teachings, a community of people then have Teachers to help them and guide them on The Path to Enlightenment. Without practicing generosity to make offerings in support of Teachers, a community of people would lack the ability to gain the insight of these Teachings to progress in development of their life practice to improve the condition of their mind and their life.