Offering fruits in front of the Buddha, pay attention to these 3 "taboos", and the merits will be more complete!

In life, many people have the habit of going to the temple to worship the Buddha and make offerings. If we go to the temple, we will find that there are always various offerings in front of the sacred and solemn statues of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.

For example, fruits, flowers, incense sticks, lamps and candles, great compassion water, and the pure and pleasant Buddha music are endless, and so on. No matter what kind of offering you make, it all depends on the heart of the donor, as long as you are sincere, you will be able to donate.

Buddhas and Bodhisattvas don't need the offerings of the world, and we shouldn't make offerings to the Buddhas with opportunistic intentions. Offering in front of the Buddha seems to be for the benefit of the Buddha and Bodhisattva, but in fact, it is the immeasurable sentient beings who ultimately benefit.

Offering in front of the Buddha is a skillful and convenient method to cross the world, and each offering is a way to express it, and the Buddha and Bodhisattva will not eat or use it. Our reverence for the Three Jewels is the most precious of our minds, and offering is generosity, and it is also cultivating the selfless altruism of the masses.

Buddhas and Bodhisattvas see all sentient beings as equal, without distinction between the two and the same, and do not discriminate according to the amount of your offerings. Therefore, the behavior of burning high incense and grabbing incense is very stupid and ignorant. The purpose of giving is to cultivate the public's altruistic compassion, which seems to be an offering to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, but in fact it is cultivating blessings for oneself.

All kinds of offerings in Buddhism are a kind of skillful and convenient method, and they all have profound meanings, which are for the better benefit of the public. For example, the fruit is offered in front of the Buddha, and the fruit has a very important meaning.

In this article, I will take you closer to the "fruit" offering in the Buddhist offering. Offering fruits in front of the Buddha, these 3 "taboos", you must know!

1. Fruits should be fresh and free of bad fruits:

The "fruit" offered in front of the Buddha has a special meaning, which has two main meanings. First, we all know that Buddhism attaches the most importance to the path of cause and effect, and the Buddha said that there are 84,000 methods and 12 scriptures in the three Tibets, which boil down to one sentence: all dharmas are empty, and cause and effect are not empty.

The purpose of offering fruit in front of the Buddha is to remind the public to know the cause and effect and revere the cause and effect. In front of the Buddha, the flowers represent the good causes, the fruits represent the good fruits, and the flowers bear fruit, that is, there is a good reward, so as to persuade people to do good, in order to truly change their fate.

On the other hand, we should understand that Buddhism is not superstition, that Buddha is not a god but an enlightened person, that Buddha is a person of the past, and that man is a Buddha of the future. If sentient beings can practice diligently, they can also attain the supreme Buddha path.

In Buddhism, there are three kinds of fruition levels to be attained by practitioners, namely, arhats, bodhisattvas and Buddhas, among which arhats belong to Hinayana Buddhism, bodhisattvas and Buddhas belong to Mahayana Buddhism, and the "Buddha" fruit positions are the most complete and unleaked. The offering of fruit in front of the Buddha is also a reminder to practitioners to practice diligently at all times, and bodhichitta will never retreat.

In order to avoid bad expressions, disrespect, and the occurrence of karma, we must pay attention to ensuring that the fruits are fresh and intact and do not rot and deteriorate before the Buddha. Even if the fruit is found to have deteriorated during the offering process, it should be replaced with a good fruit in time.

2. The fruit must be cleaned before offering:

Just like the water supply in front of the Buddha, we make offerings to the Buddha, and what we offer is also our pure heart, since we have a respectful heart, just like doing everything well, don't deal with it, shoddy manufacturing.

Some people are very unparticular about doing things, and the fruits they buy are not cleaned when they should be cleaned, and they are offered to the Buddha with dirt; Those who should be cleaned up are not cleaned up, and they are directly offered with miscellaneous leaves, etc., these behaviors are not in accordance with the law. Washing anything is like washing the dirt from our hearts, washing away the dust and purifying the heart.

The cleaned fruit is fragrant and clean, which makes people happy and increases good karma. The number of fruits offered to the Buddha is not particular, how much can be offered, the fruit is cleaned and photographed into an atmospheric and solemn shape on the plate, and placed in front of the Buddha.

3. Don't offer fruits with bad smells:

There are no major requirements for the type of fruit offered to the Buddha, and generally the fruits we often eat, such as apples, bananas, pears, oranges, grapes, watermelons, dragon fruits, and so on, can be.

The smell of these fruits is relatively fragrant, and the price is acceptable to most people, and they can all be affordable.

But when it comes to a fruit, durian, the smell of which is unacceptable to most people, it is better not to make offerings, and it is also a little disrespectful to the Three Treasures.

Some people asked, can "pears" be used for offerings? The folk believe that the homonym of "pear" has the meaning of "separation" and cannot be used to make offerings, is this statement credible? Buddhism does not have this statement at all, Buddhism believes that "pear" has the meaning of "freedom from suffering and happiness", and it is a good expression that can be used as an offering.

We generally offer in the morning and in the evening, or we can collect the offering every two or three days, depending on our own situation. After the offering, the fruit can be eaten by oneself or shared with family, neighbors and friends, which is very good.

The above is the main precautions for offering fruit before the Buddha, thank you for reading, I wish you an auspicious life and a complete life. Amitabha.