We are deeply grateful for your donations and support of our monastery. You may make donations by check or in cash. If you wish to make a donation with a credit card, please do so through PayPal, a secure transfer site, using the link below. Donations will be distributed toward the general support of the monastery unless you specify a different use. If you are contributing to a special fund-raising project, please note that on your check. Donations may be made as a one-time offering. You may choose to send regular monthly donations. All monetary donations are tax deductible; some in-kind donations may also be tax deductible. Please contact the Bursar’s Office if you have any questions.
IN-KIND DONATIONS
You may also make in-kind donations of food or materials, or of practical help including offering general work or professional skills.
RECEIPTS
Tax receipts for monetary donations will be mailed in January of the following tax year. Receipts for in-kind donations or services can be provided at your request.
CHECKS OR MONEY ORDERS
We can accept both US dollars and other convertible currency. Please make checks out to Shasta Abbey. We appreciate receiving donations in US currency if at all possible because we are charged a substantial fee to convert foreign currency. Your offerings can be mailed to the Bursar or you can donate using your credit card through PayPal, a secure transfer site.
DONATIONS THROUGH PAYPAL GIVING FUND:
PayPal Giving Fund charges no fees. The donations are sent to us by PayPal Giving Fund around the 25th of the month. The PayPal Giving Fund issues a tax receipt to you for your donation. Click this link to visit the Shasta Abbey Giving Fund page and donate via this method.
BEQUESTS
Since 1970, Shasta Abbey has been a training monastery for monks and as a place of teaching and practice for the laity. Planned giving is a form of dana that helps to ensure that the monastery is here in the future. You can help Shasta Abbey with a long-term or planned gift. At the same time you may benefit financially through lower taxes and increased income.
There is no need to be concerned about how small the gift may be
so long as it brings True results for, even if it is only a single phrase or a verse of the teaching,
it may be a seed to bring forth good fruit both now and in the future.
Dogen The Shushogi
A planned gift, involving deferred giving and the long-term financial planning that supports the well-being of your household, is one that can make a huge impact on the Abbey. It was through a generous bequest that we were able to build the Samantabhadra Hall, our maintenance building. Another kind legacy allowed us to purchase the Fugen Forest Hermitage. The thoughtful gift of another supporter’s house and property has been transformed into the Compassionate Friend Hermitage. All of us benefit in myriad ways from these bequests.
We appreciate your including Shasta Abbey in your financial planning in a way that is based on wise discernment, both for yourself and for the Abbey. It may be good for you to:
*Name Shasta Abbey as a beneficiary in your will or trust;
*Designate Shasta Abbey as a full or partial beneficiary of your retirement plan;
*Create a special endowment grant from a foundation, charitable trust, or donor-advised fund to Shasta Abbey;
*Donate appreciated properties, securities, stocks or real estate;
*Make an outright cash gift designated for an endowment;
*Donate vehicles, heavy machinery, or works of art with good present day value.
Please be aware that tax and inheritance laws vary by state and country. When you wish to make definite plans, please be sure to contact the Bursar as well as your legal, financial and tax advisors.
FOOD OFFERINGS
Since the time of the Buddha, the lay Sangha has offered food to the monastic Sangha. Food is a very tangible offering of generosity to sustain monks as they train. It is one of the four traditional requisites that the lay Sangha has kindly provided for monks. Expanding your kitchen to include the monastic Sangha can take many forms. You can offer some of the many staples that are part of a nutritional meal. You can help either cooking a meal, or some part of it, for the monastic community. This is often done as a memorial for a loved one. When you do your weekly shopping think kindly of the monks at Shasta Abbey, and possibly get a second of something to bring to the Abbey. We deeply appreciate offerings ranging from a piece of fruit to a sack of potatoes to an entire meal. Given in the spirit of true religion and sincerity, these offerings are a wonderful expression of dana.
You can make an offering of food in a way that is prudent and good for you. This may include food offerings of various sizes, kitchen staples, a memorial meal, some part of a meal, a dessert or a treat, cooking a meal for the community, inviting the Sangha to your house for a meal, making an offering when monks walk Alms Round in Mount Shasta. Because of our monastic tradition we do not eat garlic, scallions, horseradish, meat or alcohol.
When one is identified with the food one eats, one is identified with the whole universe;
when we are one with the whole universe we are one with the food we eat …
the whole universe and a meal are identical in quality.
Dogen Meal-time Regulations
If you have any questions, or if you would like to arrange to offer food to the monastic Sangha, please contact the Chief Cook or the Bursar.
Monks on the Alms Round in Mount Shasta
ALMS ROUND
For more than 2,500 years since the time of the Buddha, Buddhist monks have walked the Alms Round. This practice is said to create a field of merit for all sentient beings, an opportunity to show the true qualities of the heart. Freely giving from a generous heart loosens the grip of selfishness. Both donor and recipient are enriched by this practice.
We are very grateful to be able to carry on this tradition in Mount Shasta. We are indebted to the officials and the community of Mount Shasta for allowing us to practice the ancient way of the Buddha. We walk, with no expectations.
Monks walk the Alms Round several times a year. Notice is given in advance in the Mount Shasta Herald. We also note the Alms Round day on our monthly calendar. The sight of a monk was one of the Four Sights that moved Shakyamuni Buddha to renounce the world and become a monk. The Alms Round is a ceremony of dana, selfless giving, that is based on the reciprocal respect between monastics and those who live in the world. The Alms Round reminds monks that their practice is not just an individual matter and that they depend on, and are indebted to, others for food and sustenance. The Alms Round provides the community of Mount Shasta with the opportunity to offer alms and support to the monastery. The monks walking the Alms Round view it as an opportunity to offer blessings and merit to the town of Mount Shasta as well as the local area, and to all the individuals we encounter as we walk.
The alms bowl symbolizes dependence on others, all-acceptance and generosity. Traditionally only food is offered during the Alms Round. If you would like to offer a non-food item or make a financial contribution, you are always welcome to stop by Shasta Abbey’s Visitors’ Gate (Gate 4) with your offering. During the Alms Round monks walk in silent meditation. If you would like to make an offering, please approach one of the monks and place your gift in the alms bowl. If your offering is too large to fit into the bowl, it can be symbolically placed there and then given to one of our lay friends who helps with this ceremony. When making an offering during the Alms Round, donors may ask that the merit from their offering benefit a friend or relative, as well as sentient beings caught in distressing conditions or difficult situations.
We are most grateful for small or large quantities of food, hot or cold items, sweet or savory. Wrapped food or food in plastic bags is helpful. We are lacto-ovo vegetarians and in keeping with our tradition do not use garlic, horseradish, alcohol or meat.
The alms round itself is a gift that goes both ways.
Daily contact with lay donors reminds the monastics that their practice is not just an individual matter. They are indebted to others for the opportunity to practice,
and should do their best to practice diligently as a way of repaying that debt.
Furthermore, walking through a village early in the morning,
passing by the houses of the rich and poor, the happy and unhappy, gives plenty of opportunities to reflect on the human condition and the need to find a way out of the grinding cycle.
For the donors, the alms round is a reminder that the monetary economy
is not the only way to happiness.
– Thanissaro Bhikkhu, “The Economy of Gifts”
VOLUNTEERS
Offerings of time, skill, and labor are offerings of dana, too. There are many opportunities to contribute your expertise in completing special projects and with ongoing needs. These include sewing, transcribing Dharma talks, help in the kitchen, help with building projects, help with ongoing maintenance projects, recycling, providing rides for traveling monks, picking up monks at airports, helping in the Guest House, gardening, pruning, help with Sacristy projects, and many more. Some of these projects can be done at a distance, with communication via mail or the internet. Other projects might include a visit and stay at the Abbey. All efforts are gratefully appreciated. For further information please email the appropriate project contact listed below or contact the Prior.
The Lay Sangha of Mount Shasta area offer short-term support to their members in the local vicinity who have a medical illness or need help after an operation. The Coordinator and the Patient bring in friends, family and neighbors as well as the Lay Sangha to assist with the care needed. We augment existing medical and community services. If you have an interest in helping with such activities as meals, animal and plant care, errands and housekeeping, please contact the Prior.