What Is the Fastest Way to Cultivate and Increase Merit?

Question: How can one increase merit the fastest? Is it acceptable to exclusively recite the Diamond Sutra and the Śūraṅgama Mantra?

Answer: Reciting sutras can indeed generate merit. This kind of merit is the merit of wisdom—merit brought about by wisdom. It is related to wisdom and mainly manifests and functions in the domain of wisdom. However, it is hard to say within what period of time the karmic seeds of merit from reciting sutras will ripen, when the causes and conditions will be complete, and when the merit will manifest and be received and enjoyed. Generally speaking, the realization of the merit of wisdom is not fast; it will not appear immediately, and it may not even manifest before one's death. Keeping precepts and cultivating meditative concentration can also generate merit. This kind of merit is embodied in the precepts and in meditative concentration; it can make the mind pure and free of afflictions, but it does not necessarily bring the merit of wealth and prosperity, nor does it necessarily bring the pleasures of the five desires such as clothing, food, lodging, and transportation.

There are many channels for generating merit. Any wholesome karma or pure karma can generate merit. Therefore, merit in all its aspects should be cultivated in a well-rounded way, without bias. Not only do precepts, samādhi, and wisdom generate merit, but generosity of wealth, generosity of Dharma, and generosity of fearlessness—any endeavor that benefits sentient beings—can all generate merit, and all should be cultivated; none should be neglected. Otherwise, one's merit will be lopsided and incomplete, still imperfect and flawed; the karmic retribution will not be entirely satisfactory, and one certainly cannot realize the Path. Many people are interested only in reading sutras and studying the Dharma, paying no attention to and giving no weight to other aspects. As a result, after years and years of study, they remain just as they were before. Perhaps it only increases their pride, making their pride even more severe. Only those without merit have afflictions that merely increase and never decrease.

In fact, nothing increases merit faster than making the great bodhicitta resolve. The World-Honored One, in many Mahāyāna sūtras, urged sentient beings to make the bodhicitta resolve; this is the secret and the key of cultivation, and it can directly determine one's destination in future lives. Where one goes in future lives is also determined by karmic merit. Generally speaking, those without merit go to the three evil destinies to suffer; those with great merit ascend to the heavens to enjoy blessings, or go to the buddha-lands to cultivate the Path beside the Buddhas; those with middling merit can obtain a human body. Those who make the great bodhicitta resolve have great power of vows. If their power of vows, compared with the power of karma, is greater than the power of karma, then at the end of life they will not be governed by the power of karma or dragged along by it; rather, the power of vows will govern, and the power of vows will determine their destination in the next life—the wholesome destinies and the buddha-lands. Therefore, the merit gained from making the great bodhicitta resolve is the fastest and the greatest, and attaining buddhahood is also the fastest. No merit of any kind can compare with the merit of making the great bodhicitta resolve.