By Ajahn Canda
Since the Buddha formed the Sangha, monastics walked to their local villages with their bowls for alms (pindapata), allowing for a beautiful reciprocal relationship of generosity between monastics and laypeople to flourish. We took the opportunity this June to practice this ancient tradition for our first time in Oxford. It was a delightful experience (despite the cold and rainy weather) and we hope to go on alms round in Oxford again 🙂
With our little Anukampa delegation, we walked into town from Boars Hill in under two hours. Our first destination was M&S. We stood silently as the locals, noses embedded in their phones, passed us by without an interested glance. I soon realised that we were more aware of their existence than they were of ours and we’d be unlikely to receive a morsel! Not to be phased, we wandered on to the Oxford Open Market instead and fortuitously came upon a stall who’s owner noticed us, too. As we stood close by, I could see she was Thai and our mere presence had given rise to a strongly conditioned impulse: “Monastic – FEED!” It was heartening to
see deep conditioning spring into action despite us obviously not being male and we were soon offered hot Tom Yam soup (and a fiver, which our lay friend received). Humbled and encouraged, we mindfully meandered to a vegetable stall where things were slower, until we caught the eye of an Asian man, who smiled and surrepticiously disappeared… He soon returned with double quantities of the various goodies he had bought and loaded our bowls with dates, bananas and strawberries, asking: “Are you from the Ajahn Brahm group?”
Turns out he was from Singapore and friends with PJ, one of our regular supporters there! A short while later, an English woman stopped and asked if we were going to play music, our bowls presumably being mistaken for drums! Kimberlyn explained that we were collecting food for the day’s meal as part of an ancient Buddhist practice that gives laypeople an opportunity to practice generosity. She became visibly delighted, asking, “Ooo, generosity! How do I do that?,” whilst simultaneously reaching into her bag to make an abundant offering of ripe apricots.
We chanted a blessing for her daughter-in-law and then, hearts brimming as much as our bowls, turned one last corner. There, we were immediately beckoned over by two other Thai stall owners ~ one from Chaing Mai and one from Chiang Rai ~ beautiful hilly places I have stayed in the past. They started cooking us a hot meal of fried rice, asking “do you want chicken with that, or a fried egg? Anything else?” We graciously received all they wished to offer, heads lowered in awe of such spontaneous kindness. Replete with two hot dishes, fruit and bottled water by 10.40am, we now had enough for the day’s meal.
To top it all off, no sooner than we sat down under a nearby market shelter to get out of the now heavy rain and to eat, our local friends Wan Ling and her hubby Yinghan showed up with a hot home-made stew and bought us hot drinks! Our strawberry-donor from Singapore (Aaron) bumped into us again and it turned out that he knows Wan Ling and Yinghan, as well as PJ! A small, but beautifully connected Buddhist world 🙂
With local and international friends, warming up and eating alms, the holiest of food. June 2026
We would like to share mega merits and metta with everyone who offered food and accompanied us, and send blessings again to the donors’ dear ones: a mother with cancer, a daughter-in-law with early onset dementia, and beloved relatives both alive and deceased. We never know the challenges that strangers in the street are facing, or the emotions they carry in their hearts, so may we always do our best to connect and be kind 💛