Supporting Kongshan Monastery's Summer Retreat — Heartfelt Gratitude to Our "Summer Retreat Oil & Salt" Patrons

During the 2026 Summer Retreat (Varṣā), the offering program established by Kongshan Monastery — inviting patrons to sponsor the oil and salt for the monastic community's meals — has been swiftly and fully fulfilled through the joyful and wholehearted support of donors from all directions. On behalf of the monastic community of Kongshan Monastery, we offer our most sincere and heartfelt gratitude to every patron and to all who rejoiced in this offering with a pure and generous heart.

The Summer Retreat is one of the most important seasons of the monastic year — a time for the community to settle the mind, dwell in stillness, and pursue intensive study and practice. During this period, the monastics remain within the monastery, following the Buddha's teachings to cultivate and train together as one community. Every grain of rice, every vegetable, every measure of oil and salt becomes an essential condition supporting the sangha's wholehearted dedication to practice.

Oil and salt are among the most humble provisions of daily life — yet day after day, they are present in the community's midday meal, nourishing the body that sustains the path. Through their sincere and kind-hearted offering to the Triple Gem and in support of the monastics, our patrons enable the community to be less pulled by external concerns and to devote themselves fully to hearing, reflecting upon, and cultivating the Dharma. This support is not merely the offering of food — it is a share in the auspicious causes and conditions that bring the Summer Retreat to fulfillment and allow the true Dharma to long endure.

The Dharma places great importance on intention. The value of an offering lies not in the costliness of what is given, but in the motivation — one of reverence, purity, and joy.

In the supreme field of merit that is the Summer Retreat, even a measure of oil or salt, held within a wholesome intention, becomes a cause of vast and boundless merit. A single thought of supporting the sangha connects intimately with the community's practice, their teaching of the Dharma, and their work of benefiting all beings.

The merits and aspirations of all who have offered with a sincere heart will be honored by the monastic community, with each patron's name chanted aloud in dedication during the communal practice sessions of the Summer Retreat.

May all patrons be blessed with growing wisdom and merit, peace of body and mind, harmony and safety for their families, and the fulfillment of wholesome conditions. May you long plant roots of goodness in the true Dharma, and swiftly attain awakening!

Respectfully offered by the resident community of Kongshan Monastery

June 18, 2026