How Is Merit Attained?

So-called merit (puṇya) is obtained by doing things for others and for the community, at the cost of one's own effort. As long as one gives outwardly, one will receive a return.

Since it is giving outwardly and benefiting others, it is virtue. In the Buddha's teachings, the two are often linked together. However, there is still a difference between worldly merit and virtue, and the merit and virtue of studying and practicing the Buddhadharma. For example, Lei Feng cultivated merit by doing good deeds for sentient beings, but such merit can only be enjoyed within worldly dharmas. Because he did not plant wholesome karma or karmic conditions in the Buddhadharma, he still had no affinity with the Buddhadharma, and he could not yet derive benefit from it.

But a person who studies Buddhism plants merit not only in worldly dharmas but also in the Buddhadharma—taking refuge in the Three Jewels, making offerings to the Three Jewels, and diligently cultivating precepts, meditation (samādhi), and wisdom. This is both cultivating merit and cultivating virtue. Such merit and virtue can be enjoyed not only in worldly dharmas but also in the Buddhadharma.

Merit and virtue make our practice in the Buddhadharma progress very rapidly, advancing our cultivation of the Path quickly. Merit and virtue are the foundation for our accomplishment of the Buddha Way; they are provisions for the Path, the accumulations of provisions. Without merit and virtue, studying and practicing Buddhism accomplishes nothing. Therefore, bodhisattvas practicing the path must cultivate the bodhisattva's six pāramitās, and the first of these is generosity (dāna) to cultivate merit. Before enlightenment, one must practice generosity to cultivate merit; after enlightenment, one must also practice generosity to cultivate merit. Even after entering the first bhūmi, one must still practice generosity to cultivate merit, so that one's cultivation of the Path can continue to advance. From this, we can see how important merit and virtue are.

As for the practice of generosity, the most essential is giving away one's own stinginess and greed. With a mind of stinginess and greed, one will surely reap the retribution of poverty. Who is the poorest of all? Of course, the hungry ghosts are the poorest. A hungry ghost's belly is as big as a drum, yet its throat is as narrow as the eye of a needle; no food or drink can enter its mouth, and it can only starve. When thirsty, it sees a river and wants to go drink, but because its merit is meager (alpa-puṇya), the river water immediately turns into fire, and it cannot get a drink into its mouth, able only to endure the torment of thirst. With such retribution of poverty, how could one serve as a bodhisattva and practice the bodhisattva path?

A bodhisattva is a person of great merit and virtue, life after life being a bodhisattva among humans and in the heavens, with very splendid retribution. Among humans, one becomes a human king; in the heavens, one becomes a heavenly king, a wheel-turning king, or a great ghost king, and will never fall into the three evil destinies—unless, by the power of compassionate vows, one wishes to deliver the beings of the evil destinies. A bodhisattva's retribution is the result of giving generously, life after life, for accumulated kalpas.

Therefore, a mind of stinginess and greed does not accord with the bodhisattva mind. A person who has a mind of stinginess and greed, or whose mind of stinginess and greed is heavy, cannot be a bodhisattva. No matter how diligently one engages in Chan investigation, one will not break through and attain enlightenment. Therefore, to be a bodhisattva, one must first practice the conduct of generosity and accumulate one's own merit and virtue, adorning oneself with the provisions of merit.

A bodhisattva who has well cultivated the conduct of generosity thinks, moment after moment, of benefiting sentient beings, considering the other's perspective, and is habituated to giving. If there comes a day when he has not given to sentient beings or benefited sentient beings, his mind feels uneasy. Even before meeting sentient beings, such a bodhisattva will think: "What can I bring to him?" Such a bodhisattva is a bodhisattva of great merit and virtue, enjoying superior material conditions life after life and always serving as the leader of sentient beings. From this perspective, in practice one must absolutely never belittle generosity, and must absolutely never fail to practice it. Generosity is the most actual practice, and is called true cultivation. Those who walk the bodhisattva path must check themselves every day: Have I practiced generosity today? In this way, one's cultivation of the Path will advance rapidly.