As Thais and other Buddhists around the world welcomed Buddhist Lent on Tuesday, I was enjoying listening to two young DJs on Good FM, 102.5MHz talk about an old Saraburi tradition - making floral alms.
One DJ in particular deserved praise for unearthing such interesting information for his audience. His snapshot inspired me to search for more about the tradition on the Internet. And here is what I found.
The tradition is based on an episode from the Buddha's life. A florist by the name of Sumana had the duty of supplying King Bimbisara of Rajagaha with jasmin flowers every morning.
One day on the way to the king's palace, he was greeted by the radiant sight of the Buddha making his morning alms round accompanied by bhikkhus. The florist felt a strong urge to make an offering of his flowers to the Buddha. Then and there, he decided that even if he were executed or banished from the land, he would not offer the flowers to the king that day. Thus he sprinkled his bouquets all around the Buddha.
The petals hung in the air and moved gently along with the Enlightened One. Thousands of people in the town of Rajagaha came out of their houses to pay obeisance to the garlanded Buddha.
The wife of Sumana hurried to the king to explain that she had nothing to do with the missing consignment of flowers. The king however felt quite happy at the turn of events. He came out to see the wonderful sight, taking the opportunity to offer alms-food to the Buddha and his disciples then accompanying them part of the way as they returned to Jetavana monastery.
Arriving back at the palace King Bimbisara sent for Sumana and offered him a reward of eight elephants, eight horses, eight male slaves, eight female slaves, eight maidens and eight thousand gold pieces.
Expecting nothing and even fretting for his life, Sumana was rewarded hugely.
After listening to the first DJ tell the story, the second asked, "What's the lesson from this? Ah, I know: we should do good in the hope of getting more in return."
Hmm, I was shocked by this conclusion. Thinking about it, I kind of understand why Thailand's happiness index is declining. For years Thai society - 95 per cent of which is Buddhist - has suffered from violent events. Many people still go to temples, but as the second DJ intimates, they probably do it out of desire for rewards. They do not offer monks alms purely to support the religion, hoping for nothing in return.
Perhaps, going without expectation we would be rewarded with the deep satisfaction (piti) that can only be felt within. But that will happen only if we gain a more sensitive understanding of the Buddha's teaching.