What Is Merit with Outflows? What Is Merit without Outflows?

Merit is divided into tainted merit and untainted merit. Tainted merit cannot carry one to the other shore of liberation; only untainted merit can escort a practitioner to the other shore of liberation. Merit cultivated with expectations toward worldly dharmas is tainted merit; merit cultivated with a utilitarian mindset toward worldly dharmas is tainted merit; merit cultivated with a self-oriented mind is tainted merit; merit cultivated in order to obtain worldly rewards is tainted merit. Untainted merit is merit cultivated with a mind that seeks nothing and gains nothing, merit cultivated without a utilitarian mindset, merit cultivated not for oneself and not for worldly rewards. 

Tainted merit can be exhausted; once enjoyed in worldly matters, it disappears, so one must continually cultivate merit in order to have merit to enjoy. Untainted merit cannot be exhausted; once it has been cultivated, it can be preserved until the time of becoming a Buddha, because untainted merit is connected with virtue (guṇa); as long as virtue is not lost, merit is not lost. Tainted merit corresponds to worldly afflictions, while untainted merit corresponds to the pure great vows of becoming a Buddha and delivering sentient beings. The greater the vow, the greater the merit; making a vow generates merit. Tainted merit will strengthen a person's view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi) and self-grasping, whereas untainted merit is the opposite: it will support a practitioner in eradicating the view of self, eliminating the view of self, and elevating various levels of realization and wisdom. 

Beginning Buddhists all start by cultivating tainted goodness and tainted merit. As the mind becomes increasingly empty, increasingly unconditioned, and increasingly free of seeking, success comes naturally when the effort is complete, and only then can one cultivate untainted goodness and untainted merit. This is the process of cultivation. In the earliest stage of learning Buddhism, one must first cultivate tainted goodness and merit, because sentient beings have evil and unwholesome dharmas in their minds, and wholesome dharmas must be used to counteract them. When one has cultivated to a considerable degree, the mind will correspond to emptiness, and the evil and unwholesome dharmas in the mind can be completely eliminated. At that point, one should no longer cling to wholesome dharmas; if there is a mind attached to wholesome dharmas, the mind is not empty and does not correspond to the Path. 

We are all currently in the stage of diligently studying the Four Right Efforts, all striving to eradicate evil and cultivate goodness. Only when all evil has been eradicated and goodness no longer needs to be deliberately cultivated, when the mind clings to neither good nor evil, is that true untaintedness. The Four Right Efforts: cause goodness not yet arisen to arise; cause goodness already arisen to increase; cause evil not yet arisen not to arise; cause evil already arisen to be eradicated. Everyone must go through this stage. The more diligent one's cultivation, the faster the Four Right Efforts can be completed, thereby realizing untaintedness.