The Relationship between Merit and Suffering

Many small animals are nocturnal beings: they sleep during the day and come out at midnight to move about and forage for food, because they fear light and fear people; when there is light, they try not to come out. This is determined by the mechanism of their physical bodies, and also determined by their lack of merit, which leaves them unable to sustain themselves and forces them to steal food. In short, it is all brought about by karmic power. Small animals have no merit, so they must fear people and fear beings whose merit is greater than their own. The same applies among beings of the same kind: those with greater merit occupy the leadership position and become the head of their kind.

Therefore, if a person has completely exhausted their merit and also has the karma of the three evil paths, they must go to the three evil paths to suffer. The three evil paths require almost no merit to survive; without merit there is inevitably suffering. Merit and suffering are like the two ends of a balance—just as the two ends of a balance rise and fall simultaneously. If a Buddhist practitioner does not know to cultivate more merit and consume less of it, that is truly a great pity—not knowing that merit can be completely used up, and that without merit one will suffer greatly, is ignorance and foolishness. A person who refuses to cultivate merit, and is unwilling even to do the small favors that take only a raised hand to benefit others, is absolutely not a wise person. Those who have only themselves in their hearts are not wise people with prajñā wisdom.