How to Maximize Creating Affinities and Accumulating Merit

Every step of cultivation requires an enormous amount of merit to support it. Accumulating merit cannot be separated from sentient beings—apart from sentient beings, no merit can be obtained. Likewise, attaining buddhahood requires the support and protection of a great many sentient beings; apart from sentient beings, no buddhahood can be achieved. Therefore, forming good karmic connections with sentient beings as much as possible is extremely important. How can one maximize the formation of good karmic connections with sentient beings? Forming connections with sentient beings through the physical body is, after all, very limited, with a very narrow scope of contact, whereas the connections formed with sentient beings through mental thought are both numerous and swift, and the merit accumulated is likewise abundant and great, unrestricted by the physical body.

There are two methods to maximize forming karmic connections with sentient beings and accumulating the resources of merit. The first method is dedication of merit (pariṇāma), which in the Avataṃsaka Sūtra is called universal dedication—dedicating all the wholesome dharmas and merit one has cultivated to all sentient beings throughout the dharma realm: those of the three realms and six paths, the twenty-five forms of existence, those womb-born, egg-born, moisture-born, and transformationally born, all flying and crawling creatures, and all beings possessing consciousness. The principle of dedication is to dedicate daily, or to promptly dedicate any unfixed wholesome dharmas cultivated each time. In this way, the beings to whom merit is dedicated receive the wholesome dharma and merit, receive blessings, and form good karmic connections with oneself. One thereby not only forms good karmic connections with sentient beings, but also obtains the merit and virtue gained from helping them. In this way, continuously accumulating connections and merit, the resources for one's cultivation will grow ever greater, and the path of cultivation will proceed ever more smoothly. Therefore, for the sake of our own progress on the Path, we should dedicate merit every day and regularly, practice the bodhisattva path extensively, benefit sentient beings abundantly, and vow to attain buddhahood together with all sentient beings.

The second method is offering food to spirits and other beings of the subtle realm. Beings in the spirit realm are extremely numerous, pervading the realm of empty space and the worlds of the ten directions. As long as the power of one's mental thought can reach the worlds of the ten directions, the spirits of all ten directions can benefit and form connections with one. For the power of mental thought to be strong, one's meditative concentration and visualization power must be strong, and at the same time one's compassionate mind and aspirations must be brought forth. In this way, the beings one gathers in will be numerous and widespread; with many good karmic connections, one's merit will gradually become vast.

The specific procedure for offering food has been discussed before; here it will be briefly supplemented. The food-offering ritual of ordinary monasteries is somewhat complicated, but it can actually be simpler and quicker: take seven grains of rice, raw or cooked, or other kinds of food and drink equivalent in size to seven grains of rice, and place them in an open, spacious area. Then recite aloud: "You assembly of spirits, I now offer you this offering; may this food pervade the ten directions, shared by all spirits." After reciting this, recite the food-offering mantra seven times: Oṃ, mu-li-liṅ svāhā. Then snap your fingers three times, and at that moment the spirits can partake of the food and drink. There is no need to form mudrās, and no need to summon the spirits to come to your side; rather, let the food and drink automatically arrive before the spirits throughout the ten directions. In this way, you will not be troubled or entangled by spirits.

The most important part here is the visualization while reciting the mantra seven times. If the visualization is done well, the food and drink become superb and wondrous and pervade the ten directions, so that all spirits can obtain food. How should one visualize? First, one must understand the meaning of "this food pervades the ten directions." The ten directions refer to the worlds of empty space in the ten directions centered on the Sahā world. The food and drink being offered must pervade all these places. Even just the realm of the Sahā world alone—this one trichiliocosm—is immeasurable and boundless, encompassing one billion Jambudvīpas, one billion Uttarakurus, one billion Aparagodānīyas, one billion Pūrvavidehas, one billion four great oceans, seven golden mountains, hells, Mount Sumeru, palaces of the moon, palaces of the sun, as well as one billion each of the Heaven of the Four Great Kings, the Trāyastriṃśa Heaven, the Yāma Heaven, the Tuṣita Heaven, the Nirmāṇarati Heaven, the Paranirmitavaśavartin Heaven, and the first dhyāna heaven of the form realm, plus the second dhyāna heavens up to the heaven of neither perception nor non-perception. The buddha-lands as vast as the Sahā world throughout the worlds of the ten directions are even more immeasurable and boundless. If one can visualize the food and drink pervading the empty space of so many worlds so that all spirits can partake of it, the merit is simply enormous, and the connections with sentient beings are incredibly widespread.

But how can one visualize all of this? This requires training one's visualization power bit by bit. While reciting the mantra seven times, the visualization in the mind should gradually expand from the range of the county where one is located. How far it can expand depends entirely on one's visualization power; when the mantra stops, the visualization stops. Generally speaking, the places where spirits roam are mostly by rivers, at the foot of mountains, around forests, at crossroads, on plains, among mountains and rivers, in empty space, and so on. One should visualize the food and drink appearing in these places. As long as one's mental thought can swiftly flash to these places, the food and drink will appear there.

When one's visualization is not yet proficient, the mantra should be recited more slowly, and the visualization should expand the places step by step in accordance with one's meditative concentration—from the nearby county to the city and province, then to the whole nation, then to the entire earth, then to the four great continents and the four great oceans beneath Mount Sumeru, then to a thousand such small worlds, then to the trichiliocosm, and finally to the worlds of the ten directions. At the beginning, when one's visualization and meditative concentration are insufficient, visualizing only the empty space, mountains, rivers, and earth of one's province, city, or nation is also acceptable. After one's visualization ability improves, gradually expand the range until it reaches the empty space of the worlds in the ten directions. As for the food and drink, try to visualize it as exquisite as possible, but also proceed according to one's own ability—this is an excellent way to cultivate one's visualization power.

Visualization is extremely important in learning Buddhism and cultivating the path. The final accomplishment of the Buddha's dharma depends to a large extent on visualization. The worlds of the ten directions are all imagined into being, so why not make good use of imagination to make the world more perfect? In fact, we already use visualization when receiving precepts. For example, when receiving the Bodhisattva Precepts of the Brahmajāla Sūtra during the three rounds of karma-vidhi, one must visualize three times that the buddhas and bodhisattvas radiate light that shines down, with the buddha-light pouring in from the crown of the head and filling the whole body. When the visualization is accomplished, one receives the blessings of all the buddhas and bodhisattvas and obtains the substance of the bodhisattva precepts. From then on, with the precept substance protecting one's body, one can prevent wrongdoing and stop evil. When circumstances for violating the precepts arise, one can evade them in time, not violate the bodhisattva precepts, and preserve the precept substance; cultivation will then be free of obstructions and proceed smoothly and swiftly. Furthermore, the samāpatti taught by the Buddha in the Sūtra of Perfect Enlightenment is precisely the accomplishment of the Buddha's dharma through visualization. In short, cultivation cannot be separated from visualization.