For the kathina ceremony to be a success, the Sangha must ‘spread the kathina’.
Though many may be familiar with the kathina ceremony where the offering of
robes are made to the Sangha, they may not be familiar with the phrase ‘to spread
the kathina’. What does this mean?
It is actually a figurative expression, a figure of speech. For example, in Bahasa
Malaysia, we say ‘cangkul angin’ [lit. dig air], which means doing something futile.
We do not actually take a cangkul [hoe] and dig the air. Or as in ‘makan angin’: we
do not literally ‘eat the air’. So when we say, ‘to spread the kathina’, it does not
mean that we take the kathina and spread it on the floor. Let me illustrate this with
a simile. When you take a mat and spread it on the floor, you are sharing the
benefit of the mat with other people so that they can also make use of it. In the
same way, when the Sangha ‘spreads the kathina’, it means that the monk who
spreads the kathina is sharing these five privileges with the other eligible bhikkhus
participating in the kathina ceremony, making the privileges available, firm and
stable for an extended period of time. How a monk spreads the kathina shall be
explained later