Ask for advice on how to feed on your balcony

Venerable Zhisui replied: The so-called 'almsgiving' ritual is mainly applicable to monasteries, and laymen do not need to imitate this. Generally, there are two types:

One is to give food before meals, and the other is to give food in Mengshan in the afternoon and evening classes. Before meals, food is cooked food, and Mengshan food is raw rice. If a layman wants to do it at home, he can give food before meals.

If there is a Buddha hall, before breakfast and lunch, make offerings to the Buddha first, and then eat. You don't need to go downstairs, you can fix a place on the balcony for consumption, and then dispose of it after a while. In general, there are rituals such as mantras, mudras, and visualizations.

It is more complicated, such as those who specialize in reciting the Buddha, simply recite the Buddha and ask for the blessing of the Buddha: seven grains are all over the ten directions, and all the people will be full, and they will be reborn in peace and happiness. At the end, you can also write the word 'Buddha'.

According to the rituals that have been inherited, it can be successfully run. If you are in doubt, you can only do it outdoors, but you need to find an open and clean place, away from peach trees, willows, pomegranate trees, etc., as well as dogs. And it's better to go where fewer people pass by.

This is not easy in today's cities and needs to be searched in detail.

In addition, if you really want to run the "almsgiving" on the balcony of your home, in addition to the commonly known almsgiving rituals, there is also a form, "smoke for almsgiving", which is relatively more convenient to live in the downtown area of the city. All that is needed is a vessel for cigarettes and spices, such as a small incense burner, that can be used on the exposed part of the dwelling, such as the balcony, or even on the air-conditioner box. The general process is to light the spices, accompany the recitation of the ritual, and then let the cigarettes drift away to achieve the purpose of almsgiving.

The specific sadhanas and related teachings and the sources of the incense should be pure and well-founded, preferably from the same place and from the same master (guru). In this way, confidence will be strengthened and doubts will not be sent.

At this point, it needs to be emphasized that no matter what form of almsgiving, or the practice in the Buddhist field, it is best to receive the exact lineage, intuitively speaking, there is an exact master (guru) to teach a complete set of running sadhana, as well as to teach the relevant essentials, so that you have an exact source of practice, even in the current era, if you get the sadhanas and teachings online, there must be a specific master (guru) who has given permission to pass on the lineage. So it is impossible to live without a Guru (Guru). Therefore, whether you are practicing the Dharma face-to-face or online, you should know who the Master is, so that you can pay more attention to the Master's teachings, which is more legitimate.