The Merit of Giving Is Immeasurably Great.

Some people say: since all dharmas in the world are illusory false appearances, all unborn, then there is no need for us to strive to do anything anymore; whatever we do is meaningless. Is this way of speaking correct?

This way of speaking is of course incorrect. Only by relying on false appearances can one cultivate and attain accomplishment; before accomplishment is attained, one must strive very hard to cultivate upon false appearances. All the wholesome deeds performed on the path of learning Buddhism are for the sake of realizing the Path, for realizing the unborn, for realizing the markless and ultimate reality. Only after realization does one truly know the unborn, and only then can one attain liberation and become a Buddha. The conditioned is for the sake of the unconditioned. Therefore, before one has the ability to be unconditioned, all meaningful conditioned actions that should be done must be done diligently. Whatever one does, one does it for oneself; it all brings benefit to oneself—it is oneself who harvests the fruit of the unconditioned. On the surface it seems that one has benefited others, that others have received one's help, that one has protected and supported the Three Jewels and benefited the Three Jewels and sentient beings, but in reality it is oneself who has obtained the greatest benefit. If the Three Jewels do not receive benefit and sentient beings do not receive benefit, then everything one has done has no benefit and is all useless effort. The so-called benefit can only arise on the basis of having benefited the Three Jewels and sentient beings; if others have not received benefit, one will not gain blessings, merit, or wisdom.

For example, giving generosity (dāna) to sentient beings brings a return of a thousandfold or more; but if the other party does not accept it, there is not even a onefold return. If the other party has not received benefit, there is no return at all. It is like giving ten thousand yuan to empty space—empty space receives nothing and gains nothing, which is the same as having lost ten thousand yuan oneself. What return is there in losing money? One does not get even a single cent in return, let alone a thousandfold or ten-thousandfold return. It is like giving ten thousand yuan to the great ocean—the ocean receives nothing and gains nothing, and the ten thousand yuan will even be destroyed; then one has simply wasted ten thousand yuan for nothing, and deliberately destroying printed banknotes even carries karmic offense. It is like giving ten thousand yuan to a great fire—the fire burns it up; such giving not only brings no benefit but even carries offense.

Some people never forget their own acts of giving, always feeling that they have bestowed favor on others, when in fact it is precisely the other party who has bestowed favor on them. If others were not willing to accept one's generous giving, by what right would one receive a thousandfold or ten-thousandfold return? By what means would one little by little accumulate so much of the resources of merit for seeing the Path? In order to let sentient beings accumulate more merit, when the Buddha was about to enter parinirvāṇa, he specially asked several arhat disciples to remain in the world with their forms, to accept offerings from sentient beings and provide sentient beings with opportunities to cultivate great merit. Those arhats actually did not wish to receive people's offerings: first, they found it troublesome; second, it consumes their own merit. But as disciples of the Buddha, first they had to respect the Buddha's arrangement, and second they had to benefit sentient beings. That is why they did not enter nirvāṇa without remainder but remained in the world.

Some people perform the giving of Dharma, posting messages to guide those with affinities into proper study and practice, yet feel as if they were doing work for the master, as if it were others who gained the benefit while they themselves contributed time and energy and thus felt they were at a loss. They do not understand what the result of their giving of Dharma is, how supreme it is, and how great the benefit they will finally obtain—perhaps it cannot even be counted or calculated. It is precisely because of these merits and this merit that one has done that, in the process of study and practice in this life and future lives, one will swiftly accomplish the Buddha Way and be spared the suffering of birth-and-death and saṃsāric cycling through countless kalpas. This retribution cannot be exchanged even for treasures as numerous as empty space; the resulting retribution cannot be fully described. Meanwhile, those who receive benefit from one's giving of Dharma are far inferior to oneself in merit, virtue, and wisdom. The greater the benefit the Three Jewels and sentient beings receive from one's giving, the greater one's merit and virtue will be, and in the future one's wisdom will be the highest. As long as one's vision is not short-sighted, one should make truthful observation in this way, considering one's own future and greatest benefit.

A bodhisattva's merit is greater than an arhat's by ten thousand times, a hundred million times, immeasurable times, because bodhisattvas are together with sentient beings life after life; in every gesture they benefit sentient beings, and at the same time they obtain merit and virtue multiplied ten-thousandfold, hundred-millionfold, immeasurably. Therefore bodhisattvas are wealthy elders whose riches and nobility no one in the world can match. When merit and wisdom are perfectly and completely fulfilled, they will accomplish the Path through the eight marks of a Buddha's manifestation and become the Teacher of gods and humans, the Buddha, the World-Honored One.