“Good Deeds from the Past”
‘If in the past a person has accrued up sufficient good deeds for themselves, when it comes to the present lifetime they will be someone whose mind is clear, clean and pure from the time they are a child, with mindfulness and wisdom from the time they are a child, attractive in appearance and healthy, with more opportunity than others in the cultivation of good deeds.’
What is merit?
Merit means ‘goodness’ or ‘happiness’.
* Merit is a positive energy that in our mind making it clear, pure and without the influence of negativity or sadness.
* With merit we are able to elevate ourselves beyond impure thoughts and gain positive and righteous thinking that will lead us to engage in appropriate behavior and speech.
* Once the merit we have accumulated in the past comes to fruition, it improves the condition of our lives. Each one of us becomes an individual who is confident, pure, happy, warm, calm and optimistic.
* The merit can accumulate everyday and remind us of how important it is to do good deeds every day.
* Merit is pure energy. One cannot see it with the naked eye but know its existence is real and see its effects or what it does for us.
The Benefits of Merits
1. Cleanses and purifies our mind and speech.
2. Brings happiness, progress and further advancements.
3. Follows us in this life and the next.
4. Belongs to each individual person and therefore cannot be taken away or stolen.
5. Brings along wealth and prosperity in numerous ways.
6. Gives wealth when we are in the human world, the heaven world and in Nibanna.
7. Protects us against Samsara, which is the cycle of repeated rebirths.
8. Helps us to attain Nibanna.
Different Kind of Merits
There are two types of previously accumulated merit
1. Merit form our distant past refers to the good deeds we accumulated in past lives until the day we were conceived in the womb for this life. Accumulated enough merit in the past, in this life, happiness individuals, pure thoughts, intelligence since childhood, good appearance, physical strength and health.
2. Merit from our recent past refers to the good deeds we have accumulated from the moment we were born until today.
Merit from the recent past, accumulated through taking our studies seriously, being diligent, and only befriending the wise, practicing meditation and positive thinking from a young age.
1. The Mind
This benefit takes effects every quickly. Once we do good things, our mind becomes purer.
* A positive mental health = calmness, more confidence, and being unaffected by others praise or criticism.
* Gain pure thoughts = being able to think and solve problems quickly and accurately and being very organized and disciplined.
2. Appearance
* Those who regularly donated a part of their wealth to others, keep their precepts, and meditate, will have a clear and cool mind without being submerged into a depressive or sad state.
* They also have no wish to hurt anyone, but only want to help. Their clear state of mind can be shown by their bright appearance.
3. Lifestyle
How our lifestyle will turn out depends highly upon the old merits and misdeeds that we have made in the past. For example, sometimes bad things happen to us, such as being blamed for something we did not do or having an accident.
Even though we do good things, this is due to retributions from our past demerits that have now caught up with us. When we make merit without being discouraged and continue not doing any demerit, we guarantee our lives to be better and it will lead us to happiness.
4. Society
When the fruits of our good deeds are ready to emerge into the stage of their outcome, regardless of where we are, we will be surrounded by the respect from others.
It will cause us to become a leader who leads others to do good things, which will bring peace and prosperity to our society.
Examples of the outcome of Merit
1. A long life because one did not kill in the past.
2. Freedom from illness because one did not treat animals badly or cause them distress.
3. Have excellent health because we consistently offered food to others.
4. Have a bright complexion because we strictly observe our precepts and regularly offer robes and other necessities to the monastic community.
5. Become someone everyone respects, because we always rejoiced in the good deeds of others, and never allowed envy to enter our hearts.
6. Gain tremendous wealth because we offered our wealth in the past.
7. Born into a respectable family because we expressed respect to those worthy of respect.
8. Gain intelligence quickly and easily, because we befriended the Wise, meditated and did not consumed alcohol.
Ways to make Merit
Every single good act we perform constitutes merit. There are ten ways to make merit:
1. Generosity, to donate a part of our wealth and belongings to others who need it.
2. Precepts, to pay attention to our behavior in body, speech and mind. Never cause distress and problems to others and ourselves.
3. Meditations, to pray, meditate, and read Dhamma books regularly. Meditation enables us to become wiser.
4. Humility, to respect those who have Dhamma.
5. Service, to assist others when they need assistance.
6. Transfer of Merit, to always transfer the merit we accumulate to others.
7. Rejoice in the Merit of Others, to be happy that others have done good deeds.
8. Listen to Dhamma Sermons; learn about Dhamma leads to performing good deeds because it teaches people to observe the ways of wholesomeness.
9. Give Discourses on Dhamma, to always teach what is right to others.
10. Straighten our views, to look at ourselves and accept the things we need to change, for example personality/character.
Ten Ways Summarize into Three Simple Ways
1. Generosity helps to dissolves our stinginess, or our unwillingness to help others.
2. Precepts protect us from doing bad things.
3. Meditation helps us to have clearer thoughts and helps us to gain intelligence.
The Fruits of Merit Are Not a Miracle
* Those people who are habitually pessimistic, angry, and greedy, they will always attract negative things to themselves.
* Those whose mind is pure and constantly immersed in merit, they will always have a clear conscience and be able to think accurately and sensitively.
Warnings
Every good deed we have performed will come to fruition, even if it not in this lifetime, merit will come in the next. It will mould us into becoming someone with a good heart.
Ways to Accumulate Merits in Everyday Life
- Do not eat breakfast until you have made a donation.
- Do not leave your house until you have taken your vows to keep your precepts.
- Do not sleep until you have prayed and meditated.
The Benefits of Having Done Good Deeds in the Past
1. We will have everything we need and never lack anything.
2. Have happiness in everything we do.
3. Since merit acts as a provision for this life and the next, our attainment of Nibbana is all the nearer.
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