Luang Phor Plien Panyapatipo

In Buddhism, alms-giving is divided into 3 levels:
Luang Phor Plien Panyapatipo

1. Sami Dana (Husband Dana)

In ancient times, a wife lets her husband take the food first, and she only takes it after her husband. People do not practice this anymore. However, the way of offering alms to the monk in this case can be compared to the wife offering food to her husband first and then she taking it afterwards. 

The alms-giver practice is the same i.e., we will offer the food and some other things to the monk as alms first. Then we will take the rest of it or the leftovers.

This is the best manner of alms-giving that we should do. It is considered to be a very fruitful merit. 

2. Sahaya Dana (Friend Dana)

This means to treat the monk equal to ourselves or as our friends. In this case, we will offer or share things with the monk that we ourselves use. This kind of alms is still better than Dasa Dana. We will receive more merit as compared to Dasa Dana. 

3. Dasa Dana (Slave Dana)

This is to use old or unwanted things as alms offering. For example, using old clothes which we do not want to use anymore and want to give away to the poor. As for food, this will be the same, we want to offer the left-over food that we cannot eat to give as alms to the monk. 

This is called Dasa Dana, which is like a rich man giving away used things to his slave, to the poor or to his subordinates. This is considered the lowest grade alms.

During a raffle draw, some monks got cheap things like a spoon and folk, or a folded knife, for example, while some other monks and novices get a ticket for expensive things like a Buddha image, a watch or some nice lamps. 

This can be explained by them giving something nice in their past lives. 

Luang Phor Plien Panyapatipo

Wat Aranyawiwake, Mae Taeng

Cr. How to Get Good Results from Doing Merit (Slightly edited)

3 February 2023