Lecture Notes on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (228)

Merits are all stored within the tathāgatagarbha

When the Earth was first formed, sweet springs of nectar were everywhere, and earth-essence grew naturally. At that time, humans had descended from the second dhyāna heaven and possessed great merit. Later, sentient beings developed greed, their merit diminished, and the sweet springs and earth-essence disappeared, whereupon natural rice began to grow. Later, as blessings further decreased and even the natural rice no longer grew, humans had to cultivate the five grains, and from then until now, crops have all been planted by human labor. The highly nutritious grains and plants that exist on Earth today—we cannot even hear their names—this is the result of our depletion of merit. We now belong to sentient beings of meager merit (alpa-puṇya), and sentient beings of the future will have even thinner blessings than ours; the delicious grains will all have vanished, and they will neither be able to eat them nor see them. Therefore, everything in our lives comes entirely from our blessings and merits.

Where are these blessings stored? They are all stored within the tathāgatagarbha. The tathāgatagarbha is our bank. If we deplete all the deposits in the bank, we become poor and lowly people; if the merit stored in the bank is not withdrawn, or only a little is taken out for enjoyment, we are wealthy and noble great elders. Dharma practitioners should deposit much and use little; after taking it out, they should use it to benefit and bring joy to sentient beings, thereby depositing the merit back in again. In this way, the deposits in the bank will grow ever larger, with interest compounding upon interest. When the cultivation of merit is perfected, one can attain buddhahood.