How to Check Whether Your Merit Is Complete

To check whether your merit is complete or not, look at whether your practice is going smoothly, and whether there are any obstructions; whether your practice can follow your own wishes, with ample time and environmental conditions; whether you can take charge of what you want to do, without restrictions; when you want to keep the precepts, whether you can keep them perfectly; when you want to be diligent, whether you can be diligent; when you want to cultivate meditation, whether there are no obstructing conditions; whether your wisdom is continuously growing, and whether the dharma you cultivate comes with ease; when you encounter profound dharma, whether you can bear it, and whether you feel joyful and willing to follow along.

If a bodhisattva's practice of the six perfections is all smooth and unobstructed, then merit is basically sufficient, and one may shift one's energy to other deficient aspects, and conquer the six pāramitās. If one's faith in the Buddha, in the true tathāgatagarbha dharma, and in the true Saṅgha is not yet complete, with doubts in the mind and unable to be certain, then the conditions for a bodhisattva at the stage of faith have not yet been fulfilled; one still needs to cultivate faith in the Three Jewels, perfect the faculty of faith, and give rise to the power of faith. Then, one proceeds to the ten stages of abiding, cultivating the six pāramitās.