You know,
You all have been around enough meetings and stuff where we do a dedication of merit at the end of a meeting that you know that the idea of merit represents positive karmic result of good intention and good actions.
It's like an ethical force that we can direct.
This is kind of like where imagination meets reality in a real positive way.
You know what I mean?
We're taking,
We come,
We sit together,
We talk together,
We meditate,
And that is an ethical force which if we put out into the universe with good intention,
My personal belief is that we can have faith that that's going to have some good effect that we may or may not see.
Somebody called that a radical act of imagination.
I'm going to come back to that,
But I love that phrase.
An act of radical imagination.
There are kind of five kinds of merit that you hear about,
And if you think about it,
You'll see them.
One is if you're a person who follows precepts like we talked about last time we were here,
Or if you're a person who's really following the different aspects of the eightfold path and letting that steer yourself in life,
Then merit can be gained from being free from any offense against what those precepts are about or against what it is that you know the eightfold path has to offer.
When you're really embodying those things and allowing those things to guide your life,
You're gaining merit.
Being free from thoughts of delusion.
And again in Buddhism we hear that word,
Delusion,
What are we really talking about?
That delusion of separateness from other beings,
From all other sentient beings,
Which brings a sense of tranquility.
Being practiced in wise discernment is a way to gain merit where you're really thinking,
What's really going on here?
What's my role in this situation?
What's my compassionate role?
What's the next right thing?
If that's the discernment of your thinking,
Then you're gaining merit,
Which you can bring forward into the world.
Being rid of just entanglements of greed and hatred,
Being aware that you have become free of these entanglements,
Working to become free of them.
So many forms of Buddhist practice end with dedicating and benefiting our practice toward relieving the suffering of others and helping them to awake.
When we meditate,
We do yoga,
We pray,
We chant,
We dedicate this value,
This wholesomeness.
That's really what we're talking about in terms of merit.
We dedicate it to all beings and the benefit for the beings is clear.
The benefit for us is it expands us out beyond just our meditation.
Here's what I'm doing and this is good for me.
And it's not that it's not good for you and it's not that you shouldn't think it is,
But it can't just stop there.
And so when we dedicate merit,
We're taking the good karma of what we're doing and expanding it outward into the universe at large.
Yeah,
A radical act of imagination that all beings can be free,
That everyone can be at peace,
That everyone can be awakened,
And that we're offering help to that process.
And we include everybody equally in our good intention and our care.
Honestly,
This idea of dedicating merit in my mind has got a real link to the idea of metta,
Of loving kindness.
In dedicating merit,
Again,
We extend our goodwill and our generosity out in ever-expanding circles.
We start with ourselves,
We start with those people who are our benefactors,
People who are kind to us and helpful to us,
Dear friends.
And then we extend it out into neutral relationships,
Difficult relationships,
And finally not even considering that.
We just extend merit and metta,
Loving kindness,
Based on what we've accumulated through our own actions out into the world with sort of a blind faith that it does help.
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