Merit from the past

Two friends go together to hear a talk on Zen. One listens indifferently and walks away; the other suddenly feels an intense longing and wants to go in search of genuine Zen realisation. These two different states of mind arise from two different karmic causes in the past.

One karmic cause that deserves the most attention is RESPECT for the enlightened.

According to the law of karma, when we feel respect for a certain character, a similar character later appears in us. If in some distant previous life we met an enlightened Saint, and then felt respect, made offerings, bowed and praised him, then the seed of liberation and Enlightenment fell into our STREAM OF KARMA. We already have the latent seed of ENLIGHTENMENT. It is this Bodhi seed that quietly urges us to do many wonderful things.

The ancients used to say: "Respect your teacher and you will be allowed to become a teacher." This is the same idea. Only by sincerely respecting those who are liberated do we have enough MERIT to become liberated ourselves. Without this respect, we will never have enough merit to become enlightened. Many stories in the Jataka and the Theragatha praise an Arahant who, because he respectfully made offerings to the Buddhas of the past, attained the fruit of the path free of defilements in this life.

There are people who, when they hear of spiritual realisation, are also very fond of it, also strive diligently and put effort into practice, but with no result or very little result. The reason is simply that they do not have enough merit to be a Saint. Not everyone in this world has sown enough conditions of merit to become a Saint. Some have sown enough; some still lack. When merit is not yet sufficient, our path of practice meets many obstacles.

In the story of the Elder Losaka Tissa, the scripture says: "Like a lamp inside a boat, the conditions for becoming an Arahant glowed red in the child's heart", meaning that although the child had to endure many hardships and sufferings, the merit to become an Arahant was complete. After repaying his old karma, the child would attain Arahantship easily (Jataka) and become the Elder Losaka Tissa.

However, for it to be called RESPECT, it must be expressed in the following concrete actions: bowing, making offerings, praising and following the teachings of that Saint.

We kneel at the feet of a liberated one, offering our whole heart, our head bowed to the ground to show that we are infinitely small and inadequate, while the true teacher towers like a high mountain and a deep sea through the profound, wondrous realisation of his mind. In that sacred moment, the pride and conceit quietly inside us are violently shaken, because we are aware of our own lowliness, because before us stands a noble being shining like the bright sun.

If, in countless lives before, we once bowed before a Buddha or an Arahant with such complete reverent faith, it means we already have a little merit to be a Saint in a later life. Of course, this is only the initial cause. Many other meritorious deeds are needed to form the work of complete liberation.

Second, out of respect and fondness for the Saint, we found ways to make offerings and support his livelihood so that he did not have to be busy with the question of making a living. That way, he could have much time to teach people. Because of our offerings, many other people benefited. This merit adds to the result that we ourselves will form later. Moreover, an offering to a saint always produces a result ten thousand times over. A saint is like a fertile field. Whoever sows one reaps many times more. Why? Because in every moment of life they live from an inner mind that is peaceful, pure, compassionate and wise. One day of theirs is a day full of benefit to self and others, unlike the ordinary person who passes each day in greed and hatred, benefiting neither self nor others. Out of compassion, we can help someone through a time of hardship and want. However, given the fairness of the law of karma, helping an ordinary person never brings the same karmic reward as helping a saint.

If in a previous life we once made offerings to a true practitioner who had attained the Way, we can be sure that for many lives afterwards we will never meet with famine again.

Third is praise of the Saint. On the level of karma, when we praise someone for some quality, we later come to possess the same qualities ourselves. If we often praise a neighbour's beauty, an old friend's altruism, the modesty of the girl at the end of the lane, then later those qualities gather fully in us. Because of this nature, when we praise a Saint for his inner enlightenment, boundless compassion and shining power of wisdom, later those elements come together in us. Moreover, thanks to this praise, many people come to know of the noble true teacher, seek him out to learn, and receive great benefit. Our praise lets many people meet the truth. This merit is truly great beyond counting.

Ordinarily, out of envy and selfishness, we are reluctant to accept the good in others. When others stand out, it dims us. We are uncomfortable before others' strengths and easily turn indifferent and ignore them as though we did not know. Conversely, we easily spot even a little fault in others. We are glad to find others' faults, because when others are dimmed, we feel that we are the one who stands out. Governed by that self-centred psychology, we easily fall into the fault of "praising oneself and belittling others".

To get beyond this fault, we need to turn our viewpoint around: try to see others' strengths and praise them rather than keep digging up their faults, and we will see love develop more. We will love everyone more than before.

If, with the many ordinary people around us, we can still find something good to praise, then with a liberated saint, how inspiring that praise is! Sometimes that inspiration takes shape in verses of poetry and wonderful pieces of music handed down for all time. The merit of such praise is truly boundless and immeasurable. A person who knows how to praise a saint with sincere feeling strong enough to form a unique work of art, and to pass that feeling on to countless people, will have as karmic reward lasting fame in every life, a good name spreading far, and being remembered by everyone even after death.

Fourth is following the teachings. All the earlier meritorious deeds, bowing, making offerings and praising, are only preparation for the fourth, following the teachings. Clearly it cannot be called respect if we have not put into practice the guidance of the true teacher. The road to complete liberation is truly abstract, subtle and complex. Without the guidance of an experienced true teacher, we can hardly reach the goal by ourselves. The exception is those with enough Pratyekabuddha merit, who from many lives have the affinity that lets them realise in this life even without a teacher. Although in their final life they have no teacher, in fact, in many earlier lives they diligently studied with some true teacher. They have accumulated all the meritorious deeds needed for liberation. In this life, even without a teacher beside them, the result must still appear, and they still attain enlightened liberation.

Following the teacher's teachings implies striving to put the practice into effect so as to reach a level of genuine realisation of the mind, rather than staying stuck for ever in views and theories. However, there are two extremes to avoid.

One is to be a complete slave to the teacher's experience. The teacher's merit, conditions and constitution are not the same as the disciple's. Sometimes a method that suits the teacher does not suit the disciple. This is a fact that anyone with experience will notice.

The other is to be too confident in one's own ideas and to ignore completely the teacher's fundamental method. This too is the disease of hidden conceit. A teacher who has truly attained the Way certainly has a unique method. On that basis, that method is right. To reject the teacher's path entirely is the same as rejecting the teacher's result, and the disciple will fall into serious error.

Following the teacher's teachings means practising diligently on the basis of the teacher's fundamental method and applying it skilfully to one's own constitution, conditions and merit. That is the Middle Way.

In the case of an exceptionally wise teacher, he will skilfully guide each individual disciple flexibly, although still based on one common approach. Such a teacher does not impose his own experience on his disciples but knows how to observe each disciple's capacity and constitution in order to teach appropriately. To meet such a teacher is truly a great good fortune for us.

If in the past we once met a true teacher who had attained the Way and fully carried out the four meritorious deeds, bowing, making offerings, praising and following the teachings, out of the highest respect, then the result of enlightenment is surely close at hand.

Another meritorious deed mentioned is this: if, in past lives, we once helped those who PRACTISE MEDITATION FULL-TIME, building them retreat huts, supplying their meals, protecting them from being disturbed by visitors... so that they could focus their minds on meditation with peace of mind and free of worry, then that merit is immensely great, so that when we later begin sitting meditation we will quickly enter deeply into right concentration.

Sometimes we must say that meditation, too, truly requires innate aptitude, as other disciplines do. Whoever has no aptitude and no passion will not succeed in practising meditation. However, the aptitude here is simply merit from the past. Whoever once helped full-time practitioners will find it easy to gather the mind into concentration. Conversely, if in the past we made others uneasy by causing uproar, waging war, humiliating or causing suffering... then the karmic result is that our own mind is always uneasy and finds it hard to enter concentration. Therefore, one who believes in and understands karma lives with care and avoids making others uneasy, even with a trifling word. They will live by the maxim:

"Entering the forest, do not rustle the leaves; entering the water, do not make waves."

They do not let others be concerned about them. They are there, yet as if they had never been present.

Most people like to be noticed and to stand out, so they often "stir up" something. But this is a disadvantage to those who seek the merit of liberation. Make others anxious about us, and we will receive the karmic result of unease, finding it hard to enter concentration.

Keeping everyone peaceful is to spare ourselves the karmic result of unease. A drink shop that plays loud music all day disturbs the neighbours. A quarrel throws a whole neighbourhood into uproar. A robber commits a crime and drives the investigators mad... Countless karmic causes of tension and unease for others are ones we still create every day, but we do not see the consequences later, which keep our mind constantly tormented and tense and obstruct the work of practising meditation.

Besides avoiding making others uneasy, we must also help everyone find calm in the mind by encouraging and advising them to practise meditation. Each additional person who listens to us and practises meditation adds a very great amount of merit to us. If, throughout our life, we have advised many people to practise meditation, our merit is immensely great and can bring about wonderful results of spiritual realisation in the future.

However, the most excellent of all is still the merit of supporting full-time practitioners. In this work, we must build hermitages and huts, supply food regularly and protect them from outside disturbance. The karmic reward of this merit is complete in many respects. First, abundant material reward, because we have spent effort and wealth building hermitages and providing food regularly. Wealth in later lives is unavoidable. Second, the reward of security, because we have protected the full-time practitioner from outside disturbance. Throughout many later lives our life will always be peaceful, free of storms. The final reward is realisation in meditation. The success of those we have supported will become our own success in the future. However deeply they attain concentration, we too will attain concentration equal to or deeper than theirs.

Most Buddhists today make merit only superficially, on the outside. They only create the kind of merit that forms beauty, property, houses and fame for the next life. They do not know to support full-time practitioners so as to create the merit of liberation for themselves in the future.

We hope that many full-time meditation monasteries will be established, with strict and reasonable rules, with monastics determined to seek liberation, and with a transparent, clear path of practice consistent with the Dharma and with science. Only such full-time meditation monasteries are a true field of merit for everyone to plant the good roots of liberation. A temple may decay with time, an image may rot away over the years, and the merit of those who decorated it disappears with it. But a full-time practitioner who attains the Way never regresses and never changes. Therefore, to help one full-time practitioner attain the Way, to support a full-time monastery in which many attain the Way, is a donor's merit that is boundless and endless in the future and never disappears.

However, few people deeply recognise this merit. Most make only the kind of merit that is easy to see, through lavish festivals and beautiful forms. A quiet full-time practice centre draws little notice, yet unexpectedly it is the true field of merit for everyone. It is precisely the quiet full-time practitioners who preserve the true value of the Dharma, through their profound, wondrous spiritual realisation. Only through people with genuine realisation of the mind is Buddhism not left hollow in form and theory. Only through people with genuine realisation of the mind does the spring of liberation flow powerfully into humankind to awaken everyone from the long night of dark ignorance. Therefore, contributing effort and resources to build full-time meditation monasteries is a meritorious deed of extreme importance. It brings new life to Buddhism and brings immeasurable blessings to the donor.