How to Maximize Creating Karmic Connections and Accumulating Merit

Every step of cultivation requires an immense amount of merit to support it. Accumulating merit cannot be separated from sentient beings—apart from sentient beings, no merit can be gained. Likewise, attaining buddhahood requires the support and protection of a great many sentient beings; apart from sentient beings, there is no buddhahood to be attained. Therefore, forming wholesome karmic connections with sentient beings as much as possible is extremely important. How can one maximize the wholesome connections formed with sentient beings? Forming connections with sentient beings through the physical body is, in actual practice, very limited, with a narrow range of contact; but the connections formed with sentient beings through mental thought are numerous and swift, and the merit accumulated is likewise abundant and great, unrestricted by the limitations of the physical body.

There are two methods to maximize forming connections with sentient beings and accumulating the provisions of merit. The first method is dedication of merit (pariṇāmanā), which in the Avataṃsaka Sūtra is called universal dedication: dedicating all the wholesome dharmas and merit one has cultivated to all sentient beings throughout the dharma realm—those of the three realms and six paths, the twenty-five forms of existence, those born from womb, egg, moisture, and transformation, all creatures that fly and creep, all sentient beings possessing consciousness. The principle of dedication is to dedicate daily, or to promptly dedicate any unfixed wholesome dharmas cultivated each time. In this way, the beings to whom merit is dedicated receive the wholesome dharma and merit, receive blessings, and form wholesome connections with oneself. Thus one not only forms wholesome connections with sentient beings, but also obtains the merit and virtue gained from helping them. In this way, continuously accumulating connections and merit, the provisions for one's cultivation will grow ever greater, and the path of cultivation will proceed ever more smoothly. Therefore, for the sake of our own progress on the Path, we should dedicate merit every day, dedicate it regularly, practice the bodhisattva path extensively, benefit sentient beings abundantly, and vow to attain buddhahood together with all sentient beings.

The second method is offering food to ghosts, spirits, and other beings of the unseen realms. Beings of the ghost and spirit realms are extremely numerous, pervading the realm of empty space and pervading the worlds of the ten directions. As long as the power of one's mental thought can reach the worlds of the ten directions, the ghosts and spirits of the ten directions can all receive benefit, and connections can be formed with all of them. For the power of mental thought to be strong, one's meditative concentration (samādhi) and power of visualization must be strong; at the same time, the mind of compassion and the power of aspiration must be brought forth. In this way, the beings one gathers in will be numerous and widespread; with many wholesome connections, merit will gradually become vast and great.

The specific procedure for offering food was explained before; here let me briefly add to it. Generally, the food-offering ritual at monasteries is somewhat complicated, but it can actually be done simply and quickly: take seven grains of rice, raw or cooked, or other kinds of food and drink equivalent in size to seven grains of rice, and place them in an open, spacious area. Then recite aloud: "You assembly of ghosts and spirits, I now offer you this offering; may this food pervade the ten directions, shared by all ghosts and spirits." After reciting this, recite the food-offering mantra seven times: Oṃ, mu li ling svāhā. Then snap your fingers three times, and at that moment the ghosts and spirits can partake of the food and drink. There is no need to form mudrās, no need to summon the ghosts and spirits to come to your side; rather, the food and drink will automatically travel to appear before the ghosts and spirits throughout the ten directions. In this way, you will not be troubled or entangled by ghosts and spirits.

The most important thing here is the visualization while reciting the mantra seven times. If the visualization is done well, the food becomes supremely wonderful and pervades all places in the ten directions, and all ghosts and spirits can obtain food. How should one visualize? First, one must understand the meaning of "this food pervades the ten directions." The ten directions refer to the worlds of empty space in the ten directions centered on the Sahā world, and the food being offered must pervade all these places. Even the locations of the Sahā world alone—this one trichiliocosm—are immeasurable and boundless, including one billion Jambudvīpas, one billion Uttarakurus, one billion Aparagodānīyas, one billion Pūrvavidehas, one billion four great oceans, seven golden mountains, hells, Mount Sumeru, palaces of the moon, palaces of the sun, as well as one billion each of the Heaven of the Four Great Kings, the Trāyastriṃśa Heaven, the Yāma Heaven, the Tuṣita Heaven, the Nirmāṇarati Heaven, the Paranirmitavaśavartin Heaven, and the First Dhyāna Heaven of the form realm, plus the Second Dhyāna Heaven up to the Heaven of Neither Perception nor Non-Perception. The buddha-lands as vast as the Sahā world throughout the worlds of the ten directions are even more immeasurable and boundless. If one can visualize the food pervading the empty space of so many worlds, all ghosts and spirits can partake of it—the merit is simply enormous, and the connections with sentient beings are incredibly widespread.

But how can one visualize all of this? This requires training one's power of visualization bit by bit. While reciting the mantra seven times, the visualization in the mind should gradually expand from the scope of the county where one is located. How far it can expand depends entirely on the power of visualization; when the mantra stops, the visualization stops. Generally speaking, the places where ghosts and spirits roam are mostly by rivers, at the foot of mountains, around forests, at crossroads, on plains, among mountains and rivers, in empty space, and so on. One should visualize the food appearing in these places; as long as the mind's thought can swiftly flash to these places, the food will appear there.

When the visualization is not yet proficient, the mantra should be recited more slowly, and the visualization should progressively add locations in stages according to one's power of concentration: from the nearby county to the city and province, then to the whole nation, then to the entire globe, then to the four great continents and the four great oceans beneath Mount Sumeru, then to a thousand such small worlds, then to the trichiliocosm, and finally to the worlds of the ten directions. At the beginning, when the power of visualization and concentration is insufficient, visualizing only the empty space, mountains, rivers, and earth of one's city, province, and nation is acceptable. As the visualization ability improves, gradually expand the scope until it reaches the empty space of the worlds in the ten directions. As for the food, try to visualize it as exquisite as possible, but also proceed according to your own ability—this is an excellent way to cultivate one's power of visualization.

Visualization is extremely important in learning Buddhism and cultivating the path. Ultimately, the attainment of the Buddha's dharma depends to a large extent on visualization. The worlds of the ten directions are all projected by thought—why not make good use of thought to make the world more perfect? In fact, we already use visualization when receiving precepts. For example, when receiving the Bodhisattva Precepts of the Brahma Net Sutra during the three rounds of karman ceremony, one must visualize three times the buddhas and bodhisattvas radiating light that shines down, the Buddha's light pouring in from the crown of the head and filling the whole body. When the visualization is accomplished, one receives the blessings of all buddhas and bodhisattvas and obtains the substance of the bodhisattva precepts. From then on, the precept substance protects the body, enabling one to guard against wrongdoing and stop evil. When circumstances tempting one to violate the precepts arise, one can promptly avoid them, not violate the bodhisattva precepts, and preserve the precept substance; cultivation will then be without obstruction, smooth and swift. Furthermore, the samāpatti taught by the Buddha in the Sūtra of Perfect Enlightenment is precisely the accomplishment of the Buddha's dharma through visualization. In short, cultivation cannot be separated from visualization.