In my opinion, if too much can don't participate, the choice is
yours, no sutra stated that you have to. Exploring and
listening to dharma talks are important. Buddhism is the teachings
of regaining back the unsurpassed filial piety, as the
loving kindness and compassion mind/heart are beyond normal living
beings and it is also about themselves. Buddhism merges
into all cultural background because its deal with serenity
and compassion of all backgrounds, especially filial piety as
stated above. Thus, it is natural to conduct 7th
month ritual to subsume into chinese cultural,
and offerings is a basic needs, and it is nothing
improper to contribute a small amount to buy fruits,
titbits and other groceries. The principal of the temple
who oversees the needs and compassionately invites the
venerables and its laybuddists to lead the congregation
of Buddha / sutra remembrance to remind and reflect
upon oneselves, in which, this merits of togetherness
performed will benefit the deceased and ancestors as well as
the practitioners themselves. The money contributed that used
to buy offerings also benefits the fruits stalls and grocery shops.
It is a good practice as it bring the community together for good
of all in the present and future. Not all can attain suppreme
enlightenment in this short lifespan, and the merits accrued will
bring fruition of Buddhahood in future - as buddha seeds grown
stronger will naturally bear future Buddha fruit.
There are also many temples offered for free.
According to Sutra of Earthstore, it surely benefits all
because all living beings is under the same loving
kindness mind/heart.
From website:)
To Mahayana Buddhists, the seventh lunar month is a month of
joy. This is because the fifteenth day of the seventh month is
often known as the Buddha's joyful day and the day of rejoice for
monks. The origins of the Buddha's joyful day can be found in
various scriptures. When the Buddha was alive, his disciples
meditated in the forests of India during the rainy season of
summer. Three months later, on the fifteen day of the seventh
month, they would emerge from the forests to celebrate the
completion of their meditation and report their progress to the
Buddha. In the Ullambana Sutra, the Buddha instructs his disciple
Maudgalyāyana on how to obtain
liberation for his mother, who had been reborn into a lower realm,
by making food offerings to the sangha on the fifteenth day of the
seventh month. Because the number of monks who attained
enlightenment during that period was high, the Buddha was very
pleased.
The Buddhist origins of the festival can be traced back to a
story that originally came from India, but later took on culturally
Chinese overtones. In the Ullambana
Sutra, there is a descriptive account of a
Buddhist monk named
Maudgalyāyana,
originally a brahmin youth who later ordained, and later becoming
one of the Buddha's chief disciples. Mahāmaudgalyāyana was also
known for having clairvoyant powers, an uncommon trait amongst
monks.
After he attained arhatship, he began to think deeply of
his parents, and wondered what happened to them. He used his
clairvoyance to see where they were reborn and found his father in
the heavenly realms i.e. the realm of the gods. However, his mother
had been reborn in a lower realm, known as the Realm of Hungry Ghosts.
His mother took on the form of a hungry ghost (preta) – so called
because it could not eat due to its highly thin & fragile
throat in which no food could pass through, yet it was always
hungry because it had a fat belly. His mother had been greedy with
the money he left her. He had instructed her to kindly host any
Buddhist monks that ever came her way, but instead she withheld her
kindness and her money. It was for this reason she was reborn in
the realm of hungry ghosts.
Maudgalyāyana eased his mother's suffering by receiving the
instructions of feeding pretas from the Buddha. The
Buddha instructed Maudgalyāyana to place pieces of food on a clean
plate, reciting a mantra seven times to bless the food, snap his
fingers to call out to the deceased and finally tip the food onto
clean ground. By doing so, the preta's hunger would be relieved.
Through these merits, his mother was able to be reborn as a dog
under the care of a noble family.
Maudgalyāyana then sought the Buddha's advice to help his mother
gain a human birth. The Buddha established a day after the
traditional summer retreat (the 14th day of the seventh month in
the lunar calendar, usually mid-to-late August) on which
Maudgalyāyana was to offer food and robes to five hundred bhikkhus.
Through the merits created, Maudgalyāyana's mother finally gained a
human birth.
Due to Confucian influence, the offering became directed towards
ancestors rather than the Sangha and ancestor worship has
replaced the ritual of relieving the hunger of pretas. However,
most Buddhist temples still continue the ancient practice of
donating to the Sangha as well as to perform rituals for the hungry
ghosts.