Accumulating merit and wisdom
accumulation and dedication of merit
(From the transcript The Two Accumulations: Merit and Wisdom, based on a teaching by Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche, revised)
At present, each of us is working toward success in our own life, a success measured in terms of experiencing pleasure as well as physical and mental wellbeing. Although that is everyone’s goal, some of us reach that goal while others, no matter how hard they try, do not. Instead of achieving happiness and wellbeing, they encounter illness and other unfavorable circumstances. Even though we may think that their inability to succeed is a result of lack of creativity, intelligence, and wisdom that is not the full explanation. The deeper reason is a lack of accumulation of merit. On the other hand, an individual who does experience success has these qualities of creativity, intelligence, and wisdom, but also has an accumulation of merit. The key factor for success is the accumulation itself.
The idea of wellbeing, happiness, and success can be explained by an example. If we want to cultivate crops, we need to know the right time to plant the seeds. If we plant the seeds during the right season, we will experience the result, the fruition, after the amount of time it takes the crops to grow. By virtue of hard work and appropriate timing, we will reap the appropriate harvest. In the same way, if we have accumulated merit in the past, we can experience fruition in our present life.
However, even if we know when to cultivate a crop, if we plant the seeds in the wrong type of soil, the crop will not be able to develop. Likewise, if we accumulate merit in the wrong way, while harboring negative thoughts, for example, we may have burned up the benefi cial results of the karma involved. To experience wellbeing in our lives, we need to have accumulated merit properly in our previous lives.
Even if we plant seeds in very fertile soil, if we burn them before planting, the fact that the ground is fertile will not make the burned seeds grow. Similarly, when we practice with impure motive, with neurotic thoughts, then we are like a farmer who burns the seeds before planting them in fertile soil. We will not be able to experience any benefi t from such accumulation. How the result of accumulation is experienced also depends upon an individual. Some are able to experience the outcome of their accumulations from past lives in this life. Some are able to experience the benefi t of proper accumulation from a particular lifetime later in that same life. It really depends upon the individual. However, the main thing to bear in mind is that we are responsible for all of the accumulation, no matter when it occurred. We are the only one who experiences the goodness of our accumulation; the result is never lost.
It is also said that even a tiny virtuous accumulation can be great, just as by cultivating one seed, not one, but several grains result. As one seed can produce many grains, if we have accumulated even a small amount of merit with a pure motivation and a pure heart, the outcome can be great. Up until now, I have talked about accumulation in terms of wealth and success, which sounds very materialistic. However, accumulation is actually not a materialistic activity at all, and that is very important for a Dharma practitioner to understand. The accumulation of merit opens the door to the accumulation of wisdom; without it we would not have a way to develop wisdom. Therefore, accumulating merit is an essential part of our lives. The accumulation of merit helps us develop spiritual realization much quicker. A fully realized being is known as “one who has perfected the two accumulations.” Thus, in order to reach the full realization of buddhahood, we must accomplish the perfection of the accumulations. […] There are three objects of accumulation, which are known as superior, ordinary, and inferior. A superior or exalted object is one that is higher than we are, such as an enlightened being. An ordinary object is basically on the same level as we. The third object of accumulation is inferior beings —those who are totally caught up in pain, suffering, and struggle. As a result of this they suffer from constant fear. They are designated as inferior in the sense that they are to some degree helpless or powerless.
In Buddhism, the superior objects of accumulation are the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, also known as the Three Jewels. Making offerings, chanting mantras or sadhanas, and praising enlightened beings are all forms of accumulation through superior objects. Due to their limitless generosity, enlightened beings have supplied many emanations in tangible forms, in speech, and in other ways. This diversity of emanations enables us to accumulate merit by making offerings to images, reciting sadhanas, and so forth, to a variety of enlightened beings. Because the object of this accumulation is superior, we can experience the fruition of that accumulation more quickly and in limitless forms. […]
The second is an ordinary object of accumulation. In this case, the beings are quite ordinary, but out of gratitude we make them an object of accumulation. As you may know, in Buddhism we particularly thank our parents for their kindness. Many people have been kind to us, but the ones who have been most kind to us are our own parents. In this particular generation of our society, when we talk about the kindness of our parents, many people fi nd it hard to accept. There is a lot of confl ict and alienation between parents and children. It is diffi cult for some of us to accept that our parents are indeed the kindest persons to whom we should be grateful. Because of our lack of knowledge regarding the bardo (the intermediate state after death and before rebirth), we do not understand what our parents have really done for us. In the absence of gratitude toward our parents, it is common in this generation for children to think that they are equal, and perhaps even superior, to their parents. Children are defi ant of their parents, and even take them to court and try to win legal judgments against them, which build up tremendous hatred. This is because they lack understanding of what sort of benefi t the parents have given them in bearing them and giving them human life. […]
The third type of object of accumulation is inferior beings. There are many who are experiencing a lack of food—in fact, starvation—as well as a lack of water to drink and proper clothing; there are many whose very lives are in jeopardy. If we try to protect them from the fear of loss of 2 3
