พระอาจารย์อธิบายว่าอานิสงส์ของการถวายทานขึ้นอยู่กับความบริสุทธิ์ของผู้รับ ยิ่งเนื้อนาบุญบริสุทธิ์มากเท่าไหร่ กระแสทานแห่งบุญก็ยิ่งมากเท่านั้น ส่วนการถวายสังฆทานจะมีอานิสงส์มากกว่าการถวายเฉพาะบุคคล เพราะถือว่ามีพระพุทธเจ้าเป็นประธาน และเป็นการสืบทอดพระศาสนาผ่านหมู่คณะสงฆ์The teacher explains that the merit of an offering depends on the purity of the recipient — the purer the recipient, the greater the stream of merit that flows through them. Offering the kathin robe to the monastic community as a whole carries greater merit than offering to any one individual monk, because it is considered to have the Buddha himself presiding, and because it sustains the Sangha as the vehicle that carries the religion forward.
A lay follower asked three related questions: what merit comes from giving to a worthy recipient; why offering the kathin robe without choosing a specific monk brings greater merit; and how these two situations differ.
The Merit of Giving to a Worthy Recipient
The teacher explained that every human being is made up of three natures — wholesome, unwholesome, and neutral — in differing proportions. Wholesomeness aims toward prosperity, unwholesomeness aims toward suffering, and the neutral nature gives neither benefit nor harm, simply carrying us through time without producing anything of value. These three natures exist within everyone until the attainment of arahantship. Worthy recipients — from the gotrabhu body, through stream-enterer, once-returner, non-returner, up to the arahant — each carry a different degree of in their system of wholesome dhamma. The more radiant and pure a recipient is, the greater the stream of merit that flows through them. When we make an offering to such a person, our own mind is likewise refined and purified, and the merit and refined treasure flowing through us becomes correspondingly vast, according to the recipient's degree of purity.
Offering the Kathin Robe Versus Offering to an Individual
Offering the kathin robe is an offering to the Sangha as a whole, unlike offering to a specific individual. The monks themselves convene to decide which among them is the appropriate recipient of the robe — so by its very nature, the kathin offering was never directed at any one individual to begin with.
Why Offering to the Sangha Carries Greater Merit
An offering to the Sangha is always considered to have the Buddha presiding over it, whether or not he is physically present — which is why it carries greater merit than an offering to any single individual, even the Buddha himself. The scriptures record that offering directly to the Buddha alone yields less merit than offering to the Sangha with the Buddha presiding. This is because the continuation of the religion depends on the monastic community as a whole, not attachment to any single person. Even though individual monks vary in their degree of , an offering directed at the Sangha as a body ensures the religion's continuity — allowing future bodhisattas yet to be born to rely on it for study, to reach the , and to go on teaching the world in each successive era.
The teacher also recounted a story from the scriptures: a monk once went to receive alms in a palace, his bearing so inspiring that the king sent someone to follow him and see who he was. When the monk reached the forest, he vanished before their very eyes. The king then understood he had given alms to an arahant, and felt such joy every day afterward that, when his life ended, he was reborn as a heavenly ruler in a celestial realm. This shows that even when recipients differ in the degree of merit they carry, if the giver's faith is strong enough, it too can bring tremendous benefit.