The Importance of Cultivating Merit

People with a bodhisattva disposition achieve realization quickly — this is the result of cultivation over many lifetimes. In order to cultivate more rapidly, we should all make great vows and practice the bodhisattva conduct that benefits both self and others. The bodhisattva disposition is selfless; when one is selfless, one accords with bodhi, and thus can quickly realize bodhi. Having a self is the very root that obstructs the Path. If a person cultivates with every thought solely for personal benefit, caring nothing for Buddhism or sentient beings, caring nothing for others, it is very difficult for merit to accumulate and very difficult for wisdom to grow, and cultivation will be extremely slow. There are some people who, when urged to cultivate merit, simply refuse to do so. As a result, after studying for a long time and expending much energy, their views remain pitifully limited, and they cannot get onto the right path. Cultivating merit is the starting point of learning Buddhism and the foundation for realizing the Buddha's teachings — it is extremely important. Yet there are still those unwilling to cultivate merit, thinking that cultivating merit means suffering a loss. They do not realize that it is by not cultivating merit that one suffers a great loss.

In cultivating merit through generosity (dāna), choosing where to cultivate merit is also very important. If you want to harvest grain, you must plant seeds in rice paddies, not plant rice seeds in a vegetable garden. Only by cultivating merit within the Mahāyāna Dharma can one realize the Mahāyāna Dharma; only by planting seeds in the true Buddha-Dharma can one harvest the fruits of both the Mahāyāna and Hīnayāna teachings. If one specifically wishes to cultivate merit, then one should practice the conduct of generosity (dāna), including generosity of wealth, generosity of Dharma, and generosity of fearlessness.

Generosity is not merely making offerings to the Three Jewels; it includes the three kinds of generosity toward sentient beings: generosity of wealth means giving money and material goods; generosity of Dharma — if one has not yet realized the Buddha-Dharma oneself, one can perform indirect generosity of Dharma, which also accumulates merit very quickly, enabling more sentient beings to understand Mahāyāna Buddhism; one's own merit can quickly gather together, one's views are established quickly, and one will see the Path quickly; generosity of fearlessness means resolving others' suffering and worries, so that they have no lingering anxieties. When these three kinds of generosity are practiced to a sufficient degree, one's merit will accumulate to the point of being enough to attain realization of the fruits and to see the mind and perceive its nature, thereby leaving behind the stage of an ordinary person.