HOW TO ACCUMULATE WORLDLY BLESSINGS AND TRANSFORM THEM INTO MERIT
Caller: Master, as you just mentioned, after practicing Buddhism and reciting Buddhist scriptures, many young people find their lives becoming smoother than before. This could be the manifestation of their worldly karmic rewards.
However, worldly blessings such as wealth, fame and status all come with a price. They can easily become temptations, bringing troubles and hindrances to our spiritual cultivation. Some people even stop practicing altogether once their lives improve. Master, how can we transform these blessings into mindfulness of the spiritual path, or further accumulate them into meritorious blessings?
Master Jun Hong Lu: It all depends on one’s level of spiritual cultivation, which determines whether one’s blessings become merit or merely acts of kindness. Some people seek worldly blessings, so they do not gain merit and once their blessings have been exhausted, they will inevitably experience suffering. On the other hand, some people accumulate wholesome karmic rewards, which may transform into merit over time. Merit can protect a person from the consequences of their mistakes or from misfortunes.
For example, in developed countries, many people spend their entire week’s salary as soon as they receive it, yet they are happy because they have a good income. On the other hand, we, Chinese living overseas prefer to save. If one day the house leaks, a water pipe breaks or suddenly we see a TV we like and want to replace it, we have savings to fall back on.
This is a simple analogy: some people spend all their blessings at once, while others accumulate their blessings and transform them into merit, allowing them to accomplish greater things in life. Isn’t it the same in the human realm? As a matter of fact, the human realm is precisely where we should cultivate the mind.
Caller: Understood. Thank you, Master! If a person with great worldly blessings is highly enlightened and lives an ascetic life, never indulging in worldly comforts, would those blessings remain untouched and continue to accumulate rather than be exhausted?
Master Jun Hong Lu: Yes. If a person is blessed, yet remains humble, frugal, and diligent, their blessings will gradually accumulate and grow even greater. It’s like a mother who earns money but never spends it, saving bit by bit, and living a hard life. Then, when her child gets married, she can provide a large sum. Isn’t that the result of her savings over time.
Caller: That’s right! Thank you, Master!
Source: Shuohua20130503 22:59, Master Jun Hong Lu’s call-in radio program