Merit For Well-Being And Happiness

This is Part 3 of a series of teachings introducing some of the factors relating to our true wellbeing and happiness from the Buddhist viewpoint.

How we live now produces our future, not only producing the external environment we experience, but it also produces our internal mental world. We are a product of ourselves. If we understand merit, we can contribute beneficially to the shift in our mental state
every day of our lives. As long as we are contributing the right thoughts, the right words, and the right actions, which are positive and wholesome, the shift will be positive, the shift will be beneficial for you, and it will be beneficial for the people you know because you are contributing positivity to their world.

This is the nature of the journey that we are on in life, and it's based on kamma. The good kamma we perform is called merit. How we live moment to moment is therefore very powerful.

Credits to speakers/teachers Frank Carter and Simon Kearney

Transcript

So,

What we were going to do today,

Which we will do,

Is we're going to talk about,

In Buddhism there's a word,

Merit,

But what it actually can mean is,

You know,

We've talked about karma,

Good karma and not good karma,

So obviously the idea is we create good karma and we avoid making negative karma,

Because good karma turns into good things in our future.

We will experience the results of the good things we do now in our future,

Not only as good things,

But also our mental state is coming from karma too.

So where does our consciousness come from?

The Buddhist explanations,

It comes from the actions and the thoughts and the mental state that we use every day of our life,

Is where we produce our future mental state.

So our future mental state is produced by us.

So when we have a good thought,

When we have a kind thought,

When we have a loving thought,

That produces in the future a mind with kindness,

Love,

We've produced,

The thought that we have now produces our future mental state.

So just,

This is the meaning of what I just said.

It's called karma.

Karma.

This is from a Buddhist teacher,

Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche,

He's a Tibetan master,

He passed away some years ago,

But he used to live in Melbourne.

He wrote a book,

Karma,

What Is It,

What It Isn't,

And Why It Matters.

When we enrich ourselves,

Our sense of selfhood blossoms.

In other words,

We have to become what we want to become.

We have the opportunity and the ability to become what we want to become.

This is what the accumulation of wisdom and merit amounts to.

If we have a good thought,

That is meritorious.

If we have a good feeling,

That is meritorious.

If we use our limbs for our good purpose,

For a good purpose,

That too is meritorious.

We open doors with a sense of conscientiousness,

And wash the dishes with a sense of care and respect,

Not just clanging them around,

Cursing our partner for leaving them.

If we have a good thought,

Even about ourselves,

Thinking,

I'm not a bad person after all,

And if someone does us a little favour,

However meagre,

We are appreciative.

All this is meritorious.

By paying attention to all the things that we can pay attention to straight away,

We come to know what it is that we need to do to become the kind of person we want to become.

If we can think the kind of things we should be thinking,

Feel the kind of things we should be feeling,

And if we have the emotional repertoire we need to flourish and live well,

To lead the good life in the true sense of the word,

Then what more is needed?

If we feel satisfied and fulfilled,

Then we don't need anything more.

That is the aim of life.

We can even secure nirvana,

Enlightenment,

Liberation through these means.

So,

Yeah,

So that's really the idea of karma,

That how we live now produces our future.

Not only produces the external environment we experience,

But it produces our internal environment.

So we are a product of our self.

So,

When you say future,

Are you talking about this lifetime?

Yes,

Absolutely.

Yes.

Yes,

And other lives,

Because this isn't the only life.

So it's possible to bring about a huge transformation in our mental state within this life.

Even within,

Maybe,

It depends,

Each person's different,

Everyone's circumstance is different,

But not necessarily,

You don't have to set a weight until you're 80 years old.

It's something that you're transforming gradually over time.

So a year from now,

Your whole mental state has shifted,

And it will anyway.

But if you learn this,

You're driving that shift,

You're contributing to that shift every day of your life,

As long as you're contributing the right things,

Which is like what that paper you've read,

We just read,

Is suggesting.

The shift will be positive,

The shift will be beneficial,

It will help you,

And it will help the people you know,

Because you'll contribute positives into their world.

So this is the transformation that we're,

The journey that we're on,

And it's based on karma.

So the idea of merit is the good karma we call merit,

The good karma that we perform we call merit.

So it's like an investment in the future that we will experience,

Or our own future.

So in Buddhism,

Even though this article has said it really boils down to how we live from day to day,

Or even moment to moment,

Is actually the key understanding.

Because if we can bring about a change in how we live from moment to moment,

That's very powerful,

Because it produces many more moments where our mind is receiving the goodness from our past.

So our mind is better because of that.

And it's also got a link with the mind and the feeling too,

Doesn't it?

The feeling is a by-product of the mental state.

So if you have a miserable mental state,

Regret something that happened,

Or you're experiencing some loss,

There's a consciousness that you're experiencing,

But there's also the feelings and the emotions are a by-product of it,

So there'll be unpleasant feeling.

So if you change your mental state,

The feeling will change.

You can't change your feelings.

You can't get a feeling and say,

Unpleasant feeling,

Be happy.

You can't get a feeling and shift it,

Right?

It's coming from something else.

You have to change the thing that the feeling comes from,

Which is your mental state.

So if you focus on negatives,

You'll experience a lot of unpleasant feeling.

That's because your mind is directing and consuming negative mental formations,

And the by-product of that is unpleasant feeling.

So you can change what you focus your attention on,

And then your feelings will change.

Yeah,

So we get caught in unpleasant feeling,

But if we would understand about consciousness,

How we can develop wholesome consciousness,

Wholesome consciousness does not produce unpleasant feeling.

Yeah,

I think a lot of people kind of see the emotion first and not realize it's.

.

.

Yeah,

We get flooded by the unpleasant feeling and we're stuck on it.

Yeah,

But we don't realize it's coming from ourselves,

Yeah.

But our mind,

At some level,

Depends.

I mean everyone's,

You know,

Some mental states are very difficult to shift because of the all sorts of factors.

But nevertheless,

If you understand the principle that the unpleasant feeling comes from the mental state,

Then you know it's no good trying to fix the unpleasant feeling because it's coming from something,

And you've got to go to the thing it's coming from.

That's the general idea.

Okay,

So this idea of merit,

What it means is that when we do a good action,

When we have a kind thought,

That's called,

That's meritorious.

It will contribute,

Meritorious means it will contribute to our well-being,

Now and in the future.

So in Buddhism,

There's a lot of expertise about producing wholesome actions,

Wholesome thoughts,

And wholesome speech.

There's a lot of understanding about how do you make merit,

How do you make good karma,

How do you make very powerful good karma.

So for example,

If you were to give some food to an ant,

That would make merit,

But it doesn't make a lot of merit,

But it does make some merit.

If you would give some food to an ant with a very good mind,

The merit would be bigger,

It would be more,

Because the mental state is what generates,

The mind generates the So if you could produce a better mental state,

More generosity,

Or more clarity,

Or more mindfulness,

Or more purity in your mind,

The merit would be much more from the same action.

If you gave some food to a human being with a good heart,

The merit is even a lot more because of the mind of the receiver is at a higher state of consciousness than the ant's mind.

If you could give the same action to somebody that had a very bright mind,

A very clean mind,

The same thing,

You're just giving some food.

If you did that with a good heart,

The merit would be very big.

So there's this understanding of how do you make merit,

And how do you make a lot of merit,

And how do you make a lot of negative karma,

Because we don't want to make a lot of negative karma,

So we have to know what to not do.

So,

Example,

To not lie,

To lie makes a lot of negative karma.

To steal makes a lot of negative karma.

To commit adultery makes a lot of negative karma.

To take intoxicants makes a lot of negative karma.

So we want to avoid things that make the opposite of merit,

That make demerit.

Particularly we want to avoid things that make a lot of demerit,

Because they're going to turn into mental pain.

They're going to be ingredients not for our well-being,

But for our mental unwellness,

And for our life to be worse.

So this is this idea of Buddhist practice is about making a lot of good karma and avoiding making the negative karma.

Does that make sense?

So when you talk about what am I going to do with my life,

My goal setting is I've got to make a lot of good karma,

And I've got to understand how to make good karma with my life,

Because that's going to turn into my future.

So I need to have an understanding about something that's so important,

Rather than focus my understanding on something that doesn't help.

I spend a lot of time learning about something that will not contribute to my well-being and happiness.

And no time learning about something that's actually key to my well-being and happiness.

It's about where do you focus your attention.

So understanding how to make good karma and how to avoid negative karma is very relevant to my future well-being.

So I have to learn about that.

I have to understand that.

And then I have to apply what I've learned.

And then my world will improve because of that.

Sound right?

Sound good?

It's not rocket science.

It's really basic.

It's to do with how I live,

The goodness that I develop in myself,

The virtue I develop,

The kindness I develop.

All of the good qualities that I develop will bring about good karma.

And to not act out my negatives,

To not be angry,

To not be selfish,

To not be greedy,

To not be resentful,

To not be.

.

.

There's a whole heap of them.

They're listed in the Buddhist text.

There's 14 of these negatives.

If you use those 14 or any of those 14 negatives,

They produce suffering.

They produce unhappy mental states.

They produce negative types of consciousness.

So this is a technology that's to be understood.

And then you just follow the ones that will take you to the right outcomes.

So we're going to read a bit.

So you got the basic idea.

Jing,

You know about this already,

Isn't it?

Oh,

I always.

.

.

My ears listen more heartily.

Yeah.

Always something new.

Something new,

Yes.

So merit means mental wealth.

It means life wealth.

It's internal wealth.

We always think about external wealth.

But the external wealth cannot make us happy if our mind isn't a happy mind,

Right?

You can have a billion dollars.

It doesn't give you any happiness if your mental state is unhappy.

But what is mental wealth?

This is mental wealth.

It's called merit.

So if you have a lot of good karma,

Your whole life is better.

Even if you didn't have a lot of wealth,

Your life would be better.

Your living would be better.

Your mind would be better.

Okay,

We'll just read.

This is on.

.

.

We'll give a book to.

.

.

Can I just read this?

Yeah,

Get your book.

It helps if you read it too.

And I'm going to tell you another thing.

That bit of paper on the floor,

Put it on the red.

Yeah.

The reason we give you the red is because things that are precious,

You look after them.

So putting them on the floor where you walk is probably not the best way to look after them.

So you put it on something clean that people aren't going to trample all over.

And you can notice it.

It's like taking care of it,

Which makes good karma with that thing.

This is the Dharma.

This is the information that's going to fix us up and help us a lot.

Oh yeah,

That's all right.

We can tell you as we go.

I just pointed out so you know.

So to make good karma with the Dharma is very good.

Because we need to actually have that as an internal realized state called the Dharma.

You know,

I said it earlier.

So we have to build the right relationship with Dharma.

Which means you look after the Dharma materials.

You look after the books.

You don't damage them.

You don't put them on the floor.

You put them somewhere clean.

You make sure you treat them with respect.

And that means you can learn.

If you disrespect something,

If you make negatives towards it,

You can't learn it.

It's like you've slandered it.

You've defiled it.

So when you go to learn it,

That karma that you made prevents you getting that full understanding.

If you make the right karma,

You can learn quicker.

So in Buddhism,

We keep five precepts,

Which we talked about.

No lying,

No stealing,

No killing,

No sexual misconduct,

No intoxicants.

When you chant them in Pali,

One of the words that you chant,

Samadhyami,

The meaning of that word is foundation for learning.

That's what it means.

So what it means is the five precepts are a foundation for learning.

We have never heard that in the West.

There's no Western culture tells you.

That they're a foundation for our mind's capacity to learn.

But those five things contribute to our mental clarity,

To our brightness,

To our mind's intellect.

Chapter Nine,

Merit for the Path The concept of merit is universally recognized by Buddhists and frequently found in Buddhist teachings and writings of all Buddhist traditions.

Looking back to the happiness map near the front of this book,

You will see the words increasing merit on the right hand side of the diagram above the virtue platform.

Put simply,

Merit is our mental wealth.

Our mental power to bring us what we want in our life and in our experience,

And includes our power to do what we choose to do.

If we are materialistic,

We have a belief system that says our well-being is best achieved throughout our life through manipulating phenomena and conditions outside ourself,

In the external world.

Hence,

We relate to the idea of wealth as an external manifestation.

However,

Despite an abundance of good external conditions,

We may feel mentally poor.

We may be depressed.

We may worry a lot.

We may experience a lot of anger or frequent lack of energy.

These are all symptoms of mental poverty.

The fortunate thing is it's a situation that can be rectified in a very direct and practical way.

The definition of merit from the Buddhist perspective can be understood as,

Merit is the accumulated karmic result of good deeds you do with your body,

Speech and mind.

Merit is analogous to money.

It can be used to gain external wealth and internal development.

It can be used for whatever purpose you wish.

Merit is the fuel of mental and physical health,

Wealth and prosperity.

Merit is what you generate by benefiting others.

The wonderful thing is there is no lack of others who you can help.

You only need to look around and most likely you will see someone who you can offer your help to.

Merit is important to help us along our journey through life.

It connects us with factors that are good and beneficial to ourselves and others,

And can improve the quality of our mind.

While the material wealth a person gathers can be lost by theft,

Flood,

Fire,

Confiscation,

Etc.

The benefit of merit follows us from life to life and cannot be lost.

Although it will be exhausted as we live,

If not replenished.

A person will experience happiness here and now,

As well as hereafter,

Through the performance of good actions,

Accumulating positive merits in the present time.

Buddha advised that one should collect oceans of merit and virtues by performing deeds that counteract the negative karma of having broken the five precepts in our past.

Imagine you had a large glass container with a small cupful of black ink in it.

If clear water is added to the container,

Then gradually the liquid turns from black to grey.

If a lot of clear,

Pure water is added to the glass container,

The effect of the black ink becomes less and less,

And eventually the whole container appears as if it's filled with clear water.

The analogy is that the black ink is negative karma made in our past,

This life or before,

Which causes us to suffer in many ways in our life.

The clear water is poured into the container as we do more and more meritorious acts in this life,

And a point is reached where,

Although the black ink,

Black karma is still in the container,

Its negative effect is very much diluted.

Buddhadharma practitioners devote much of their time and energy to performing many highly meritorious actions,

Such as the ones below,

For example.

1.

Supporting of life.

The precept of no killing.

Offering food to the Buddhist monks,

Nuns and laypeople.

Offering of robes to the Buddhist monastic community.

Katina ceremony.

Offering of clean water,

Clean spaces,

Medicine,

Money,

Shelter,

Clean dishes to others.

2.

Giving the precept of no stealing.

Giving,

In brackets,

The precept of no stealing.

Giving our time,

Love,

Money,

Wealth,

Medicines and food to others.

Giving attention to others and giving people the space that they need.

Allowing them to come into your lane when driving.

Offering your parking space.

Allow people room,

Provide a nurturing space.

Building and maintaining harmonious relationships with others.

The precept of no sexual misconduct.

Actively maintaining wholesome and robust relationships.

Building harmony,

Such as attending family gatherings.

Bringing people together.

Doing things for others with no strings attached.

Respecting others' relationships.

Being sincere in our actions.

Being truthful.

The precept of no lying.

Being accurate in one's speech.

Accepting of others' points of view.

Providing clear and concise information.

Shining light on the situation.

Seeing things as they really are.

Admitting mistakes to oneself and others.

Being honest and courageous.

Being clear and attentive.

The precept of no intoxicants that cloud the mind.

Accepting situations that are painful and difficult with accountability.

Facing up to challenges.

Difficult people and situations.

Being mindful in the present,

On the body,

Speech and mind.

Practicing Samatha and Vipassana meditation.

The general advice from Buddhist teachers is to make more merit than we consume on a daily basis,

Following these four simple rules.

Make good karma,

Merit,

Every day.

Practicing generosity and lending a helping hand.

Keeping five precepts.

Offer your help in Buddha-Dhamma activities any time which is highly meritorious.

Learn how to dedicate and share your merits.

In the Dhammapada it is written,

Happiness is the outcome of the accumulation of merit.

Okay,

So we'll stop there.

Okay,

So how are you going with it?

How's that?

Getting an understanding of what we're talking about.

So these are the ingredients of our future well-being,

That we can create as we live.

So we can do meritorious actions,

Meaning they produce good karma.

Does that make sense?

Meritorious actions produce good karma.

Unmeritorious actions produce negative karma.

You've got to see what that meaning of action is.

There is bodily action,

There is speech action,

There is mental action.

So when you do,

Say if I go and get you a cup of tea,

The mind was running that.

The body just can't walk around without,

The mind is making a decision,

I'm going to get her a cup of tea.

That's mental action.

And because it contributes to your well-being.

Unless I was thinking,

I'm going to give her a cup of tea that's really,

She won't enjoy because I'm going to make it weak.

That would be,

I could give you the cup of tea,

But mentally I've made negative karma because I didn't use it as a gift for your well-being.

I was thinking of,

So sometimes we might do something for somebody,

But our motive isn't pure.

But assuming I'm thinking I'll give her a cup of tea because she would benefit,

Then my motive is wholesome.

So the mental action was meritorious.

The bodily action was meritorious.

Maybe I didn't say anything,

So maybe there wasn't any speech involved.

But I might've said,

May you enjoy the cup of tea.

So my speech is involved there.

So this is a meritorious action,

But there's three components,

Body,

Speech and mind.

So you could do what looks like merit,

A good action with your body,

But if your mind wasn't correct,

It could be a negative action.

From the outside,

Maybe,

If it looked like it's a positive action,

Everybody might think it's a positive action,

But if there was some ulterior motive in there,

If there was some motive that wasn't wholesome,

It's not a wholesome action.

So then our mind is the,

The Buddha said that volition is karma.

Volitional action makes karma.

The volition of the mind.

So what's the mind intending to do with the action?

So if you were walking in the garden and you accidentally stepped on an ant,

But you didn't know that you'd stepped on an ant.

You had no knowledge of it.

There's no intention to harm the ant.

So there's no negative karma,

Even though the ant died and you stepped on it.

But the mind had no,

The mind is generating everything.

It's generating the body action,

Which I use.

So the mind is ultimately the generator of the merit,

But the action is part of the process that makes the merit.

But if my mind doesn't have,

Doesn't know about the ant,

It doesn't have any volition to kill the ant,

Then there's no negative karma,

Even though the ant died.

And you can have bad mental states and you don't actually,

There's no speech or body action.

So for example,

You were watching television and you saw somebody do something to harm someone else.

And you thought,

I don't like that guy that he harmed,

So I'm glad he did that.

You make negative karma.

Even though your body didn't do it,

Your speech didn't do it,

But your mind produced a thought which was not a wholesome thought.

It's like you were celebrating the damage and the harm and the pain that one person did to another is unwholesome.

So you don't actually have to physically do something to make negative karma.

Your mind is doing something with volition.

It makes karma.

So consequently,

We can sit in meditation and send loving kindness.

We didn't speak to anyone,

We didn't do anything for them physically,

But we can make a lot of wholesome karma,

Good karma,

From the wish,

May all beings be well and happy.

It's a big wish.

It's wishing that all beings be out of suffering,

But they come to happiness,

They come to well-being.

It's a very wholesome wish.

So metta meditation makes a lot of good karma.

Plus it reduces our hate.

It weakens our disposition of hate or anger or resentment or annoyance.

All get weakened because loving kindness is like a medicine to cure the disease or the sickness of hate,

Aversion,

And all the forms that it takes.

There's lots of forms.

Somewhere in Buddhism,

It says that if you keep five precepts,

Your mind will improve over time,

Automatically.

If you break five precepts,

It contributes to your mind's deterioration over time.

You don't have to break the five of them.

If you break any of them,

That contributes to your.

.

.

So for example,

To keep the precept,

The precept says to refrain from intoxicants that cloud the mind.

So it's saying that there's a relationship between intoxicants and the mind becoming cloudy or dull.

And that's.

.

.

Obviously we can get drunk if we take intoxicants.

But it's not only that.

It's that the mind that takes intoxicants,

The karma of it is the mind gets duller.

Maybe it's not obvious,

But.

.

.

Because alcohol dulls the mind.

But also there's a karmic thing happens from the action is that it produces a duller consciousness in the future,

Yet to arise.

There'll be a mental state in the future that is dull because of the taking of the intoxicants in the present.

So if we want our mind to become cleaner,

But we're taking intoxicants,

We're going to experience mental states that are not cleaner,

They're duller because of the action of the intoxicants.

So this is what I mean by and the statement that if you keep precepts,

The outcome is your mind will improve.

If you break them,

The outcome is your mind will deteriorate karmically.

You'll inherit mental states that are worse because of the breaking of the precepts.

So over our life,

Most people keep some precepts naturally.

Often you'll hear people say,

I won't lie,

I just don't lie,

I don't care,

I don't lie.

They have that precept with a solid sort of commitment in their mind and because of that they keep the precept.

And other people will say that of something else.

Sometimes people keep a lot of precepts.

But the point is that each precept has its own karmic outcomes.

And the breaking of each precept has its own karmic outcomes.

So the idea is that if you keep the five of them,

It's like you protect yourself in a lot of different areas of your mental state.

The other thing to remember is that when you experience obstacles and mental sorts of pain and things like that,

It's a result of the fact that somewhere in the past on mild or major levels,

You have broken the precepts.

So that's why you're experiencing obstacles and things like that.

We've all done everything stupid in the past.

Don't worry about it.

We've done heaps of that stuff.

You're not.

We're all in the same boat.

So the other thing is to.

.

.

We started with a very muddy slate.

Yeah.

That's all right.

It needs to be cleaned,

Right?

Yeah.

That's the point.

When I first came here,

Julian said,

It's important to keep the precepts,

But don't be paranoid about it either because that's.

.

.

Yeah.

And that's why it's like Frank says,

That they're training precepts.

They're actually.

.

.

They're a system of learning.

Actually,

You're using them to find out about what your habits and things that you need to improve on are.

The other thing too is that keeping precepts becomes very enjoyable,

Actually.

They have a cumulative effect.

Yeah.

You really.

.

.

Because you can.

.

.

You really notice the difference when you're keeping them really well and when you're not.

And so your mind is a lot.

.

.

Because keeping precepts is a source of making merit.

So it supports your development of positive mental states.

So keeping the precepts becomes very enjoyable.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So we're just going to read.

.

.

This is one more thing,

And I'm mainly doing this for Jing because.

.

.

So if you go to page 99,

Jing,

It's just this first section.

It's a really useful explanation.

So Simon,

You can read.

.

.

Ten Ways of Making Merit?

Yeah.

Just start at the top.

Read that thing,

Yeah.

Yeah.

Ten Ways of Making Merit The Buddha identified ten ways of making merit in ascending order of power.

These are given in Pali with English equivalents.

And for others to perform virtuous deeds.

Joyful acknowledgements in the sharing of merits.

Listening to Dhamma teachings.

Teaching Dhamma to others.

Writing one's own wrong views.

Buddha Dhamma teachers constantly point to merit-making opportunities and direct their students in merit-making activities as the fuel for their learning and insight.

The law of cause and effect,

Kamma and vipaka,

Determines that to attain learning and benefit in respect of anything it is necessary to produce an accumulation of available wholesome action.

In Pali,

Kusala kamma.

This merit is the energy of all realizations and the cause of continued wholesome conditions of practice.

A corollary of this means without sufficient available energy the student's meditation will not produce realizations and further the student will find it difficult to find conditions that will support his or her dhamma practice.

So the last bit today is to tell you that it's possible to make a lot of good kamma without a lot too much effort if you know how to go about it.

So for example just today I don't know if you noticed but number seven number eight on that list is to listen to dhamma teachers which is what we've just done today for two hours.

It's a highly meritorious thing because it enables us to transform our understanding and from changed understanding our whole life can change.

How we behave how we relate to others how we what we contribute into the world and what we contribute into our own future is coming out of right understanding or wrong understanding.

If we've got wrong understanding we'll contribute the wrong thing into ourselves and into the world.

So listening to dhamma gives us an opportunity to get to the right understanding which can transform our mind can transform our behavior can transform our life.

So it's enormously powerful.

It's no surprise that it's number eight on the list because of the impact it can make.