How to Cultivate Merit for Rapid Progress on the Spiritual Path?

Buddhist practitioners should constantly examine in which aspects they are continuously depleting their merit. Once identified, they must correct these behaviors, taking care not to squander their merit lightly, so as to swiftly advance on the path of spiritual practice. In modern society, material life is highly developed. Does this mean that beings today possess greater merit than those during the Buddha's time? This is not the case at all. The measure of merit does not lie in superficial extravagance, but in whether one can dedicate their energy and merit to the path of practice, to wholesome actions, whether they can continually unveil the treasury of wisdom, and whether they can preserve merit within the storehouse consciousness (alaya-vijnana) for future lifetimes of spiritual cultivation, rather than dissipating it fruitlessly in worldly pursuits.

When worldly beings lack sufficient merit, they are often born into ages of superficial splendor, easily converting the seeds of merit into tangible benefits to indulge in worldly pleasures and display their power and status. If Buddhists lack awakening and instead follow worldly trends of enjoyment, recklessly consuming their merit on meaningless secular affairs without planning for their spiritual path, this is a sign of lacking wisdom and wholesome roots. Those with wholesome roots and wisdom preserve their merit for spiritual practice, not converting it into worldly enjoyments and displays. Many people take pride in possessing worldly fame, profit, power, and status, constantly calculating within the illusory phenomena of arising and ceasing, unaware that wealth, honor, and glory are like flowers in the sky—fleeting and ultimately empty, even when present. Worldly beings find it difficult to perceive emptiness, knowing only existence; hence, they adopt the mindset of seizing the day for pleasure without considering future lifetimes.