What Is the Karmic Retribution for Profiteering through Merit Transference?

First, it is necessary to clarify whether this method of earning money constitutes a fair and legitimate transaction. If not, its nature is deceit or fraud. In that case, the karmic retribution should be judged according to the actions and nature of the deception. What constitutes a fair and legitimate transaction? It is when both the buyer and the seller obtain the benefits or advantages they expect. If only one party gains while the other receives nothing, it is an unfair transaction.

Next, we discuss whether such a transaction is legitimate. The legitimacy of this matter is measured by several aspects: 1. Whether the individual is qualified to perform liberation of the deceased; 2. Whether the individual possesses the ability to liberate the deceased; 3. Whether it is appropriate to charge fees for liberating sentient beings from suffering, and what the standards for such fees should be.

To clarify the above questions, we must define the concept and essence of the term "liberation." What is liberation? Liberation is when a highly virtuous, high-energy, high-quality Bodhisattva, sentient being, or monastic member recites Buddhist scriptures, mantras, or sacred words to invoke the blessings of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. This blesses beings in the three lower realms, alleviating their karmic obstacles, granting them certain merits, and enabling them to take refuge in the Three Jewels, thereby liberating them from the three lower realms. Therefore, liberation is accomplished through the combined merit, virtue, and compassionate power of the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and the Three Jewels, along with the practitioner, to uplift suffering beings from the sea of suffering and reduce their karmic retribution.

If the practitioner performs liberation for the sake of money, then first and foremost, they lack virtue, merit, and compassion. Such a person cannot invoke the protection and blessings of the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and the Three Jewels. All recitations become devoid of merit, and the karmically afflicted beings receive no benefit. Liberation itself cannot be accomplished solely through individual effort; it requires personal cultivation of virtue combined with the majestic power of the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and the Three Jewels. If one lacks such majestic power, how can they justify using the majestic power of the Three Jewels to earn personal profit? Who has the audacity or qualification to enrich themselves by profiting from the Three Jewels? Is this not making money off the Three Jewels? Who can afford to profit from the Three Jewels? Would they not lose their lives and everything else?

Those who truly understand karma and reason, and who are deeply grateful to the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and the Three Jewels—how dare they, how could they bear to profit from the Three Jewels? Bodhisattvas liberate sentient beings out of bodhicitta, for the sake of suffering beings, and to repay the kindness of the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and the Three Jewels—never for personal gain. Bodhisattvas never charge fees or seek profit when teaching sentient beings. Regardless of the effort spent compiling doctrines and books, they are always provided freely for sentient beings to study.

Because this great undertaking cannot be accomplished by individual effort alone—all the wisdom of Bodhisattvas comes from the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and the Three Jewels—repaying their kindness is an urgent duty. How could one exploit the majestic virtue of the Three Jewels for personal gain? Those who do so are not true Bodhisattvas. Those who profit from the Three Jewels or by selling books and other products related to the Three Jewels are not true Bodhisattvas or true spiritual mentors. Such ungrateful profiteering is called "peddling the Tathagata." Peddling the Tathagata is demonic karma, resulting in demonic retribution. Profiting from the Three Jewels means profiting off the Three Jewels. Such money leads only to increasing poverty, ultimately resulting in falling into the lower realms to suffer the retribution of poverty and misery.