What is Merit with Outflows? What is Merit without Outflows?

Merit is divided into tainted merit and untainted merit. Tainted merit cannot carry one to the other shore of liberation; only untainted merit can escort a practitioner to the other shore of liberation. Merit cultivated with expectations toward worldly dharmas is tainted merit; merit cultivated with a worldly, utilitarian mindset is tainted merit; merit cultivated with a self-centered mind is tainted merit; merit cultivated in order to obtain worldly rewards is tainted merit. Untainted merit is merit cultivated with a mind that seeks nothing and gains nothing, merit cultivated without a utilitarian mindset, merit cultivated not for oneself and not for worldly rewards. 

Tainted merit can be exhausted—once enjoyed in worldly matters, it disappears, so one must continually cultivate merit in order to have merit to enjoy. Untainted merit is inexhaustible; once it has been cultivated, it can be preserved until the time of buddhahood, because untainted merit is connected with virtue (guṇa): as long as virtue is not lost, merit is not lost. Tainted merit accords with worldly afflictions, while untainted merit accords with the pure great vows of attaining buddhahood and delivering sentient beings. The greater the vow, the greater the merit—making a vow itself generates merit. Tainted merit will strengthen a person's self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi) and self-grasping, whereas untainted merit is just the opposite: it supports a practitioner in eliminating self-view, eradicating self-view, and elevating various levels of realization and wisdom. 

Beginners in Buddhism all start by cultivating tainted goodness and tainted merit. As the mind becomes increasingly empty, increasingly effortless (wu-wei), and increasingly free of seeking, success comes naturally when the effort is complete, and only then can one cultivate untainted goodness and untainted merit. This is the process of cultivation. In the earliest stage of learning Buddhism, one must first cultivate tainted goodness and tainted merit, because sentient beings harbor unwholesome and evil dharmas in their minds, and wholesome dharmas must be used to counteract them. When one has cultivated to a considerable degree, the mind will accord with emptiness, and the unwholesome and evil dharmas in the mind will be completely eliminated. At that point, one should no longer cling to wholesome dharmas, for a mind attached to wholesome dharmas is not empty and does not accord with the Path. 

Right now we are all at the stage of diligently studying the Four Right Efforts, all striving to eliminate evil and cultivate goodness. Only when all evil has been eliminated and goodness no longer needs to be deliberately cultivated—when the mind clings to neither good nor evil—is that true untaintedness. The Four Right Efforts: cause goodness not yet arisen to arise; cause goodness already arisen to grow; cause evil not yet arisen not to arise; cause evil already arisen to be eliminated. Everyone must pass through this stage. The more diligent one's cultivation, the more quickly the Four Right Efforts can be completed, thereby attaining untaintedness.