By Ven. Amy Miller

Milarepa Center's Bakula Arhat statue

Every day at Milarepa Center in northern Vermont, USA, we set up and offer approximately 150-200 water bowls. It’s not a large amount and the bowls are not of any special quality of material, but we offer the majority of them in a small shrine room over which presides a large gilded statue of Bakula Arhat. In addition, we also have in this room a few small statues of the Buddha and Jetsün Milarepa along with photos of Rinpoche, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Ven. Ribur Rinpoche, and thangkas of Tara, the Buddha, Palden Lhamo, etc. There are also bowls on two different levels of the 1860s farmhouse, in the gompa, and in each individual staff member’s room.

A few months ago, after doing this practice for some time, I was involved in writing out our bank deposit for the week. We had recently held a course so I carefully counted the checks and recorded them. I then counted all of the cash and recorded that. I then counted it a second time and then checked it using a calculator and the totals matched. I then drove 20 minutes to the bank. The bank teller counted all of the checks, added them up with a calculator and then the cash. She returned to the window at which I was standing and said, “Your checks are fine, but there’s a difference in the amount of your cash deposit. There’s $300 more.” I looked at her and she looked at me and then I smiled and said, “Well, that works for me!” and we both laughed.

I have heard that water bowl offerings done properly can create prosperity, but I figured I had just counted incorrectly.

The next week, I had another deposit. I again followed a similar procedure: counted the checks and totaled them, counted the cash and totaled it and then checked it all again and got matching totals. I headed into town to go to the bank. Again, there was an additional $300.

Now, I am not a financial wizard. I have, however, over the years, managed three centers’ finances from time to time, without many discrepancies. But after this second difference in the deposit, I started wondering if I was suffering from some sort of dementia.

The third week, I asked our manager to check my deposit. He counted the checks, the cash, totaled it all up twice and got the same amount as me. However, by the time he got to the bank, there was $125 more!

The fourth week, I had our bookkeeper do the accounting. I told her what was happening and we laughed. So she did the deposit very carefully and I saw her adding everything up a third time. This time there was $25 more after she got to the bank.

Over the subsequent weeks, we have had some additional funds showing up in our deposits by the time we get to the bank and have now raised approximately $750-800 in this way.

I know this isn’t a large amount of money and you are probably thinking that Milarepa Center doesn’t know much about basic mathematics, but I think there could be a connection between our practice of water bowl offerings and our bank deposits. We won’t be letting go of this essential (and easy!) fundraising strategy any time soon.

Ven. Amy Miller, ordained as a Buddhist nun in 2000 by Ven. Choden Rinpoche, is currently the director of Milarepa Center in Barnet, Vermont, USA and an FPMT-registered teacher.