PRAYER REQUEST TO CONSERVE ONE’S MERITS SO THAT THEY DO NOT GET CONVERTED INTO WORLDLY BLESSINGS
Question: How are you, Master? How can we tell if the worldly blessings gained after our Buddhist practice are blessings that pre-existed in our destiny or are the results of the conversion from the meritorious blessings gained from our meritorious deeds? The reason I ask is because many Buddhist friends are interested in conserving a major part of their merits instead of having them converted into worldly blessings. I’d appreciate it if Master could give us some guidance on this.
Answer: It’s correct to term it as “worldly blessings” because you are still in the six realms of existence. Even heaven is one of the realms of existence which has yet to transcend the cycle of rebirth. Do you understand now?
Question: I do.
Answer: Generally, if you have been performing a lot of good deeds in this life and you always seem to have your prayers answered and things tend to go very smoothly for you, this is a sign that you are expending your karmic rewards.
On days that you feel you have performed a lot of good deeds, you may put forth the following prayer request to Guan Yin Bodhisattva, “May Guan Yin Bodhisattva help convert the good deeds that I’ve performed today into meritorious blessings”. By doing so, your merits will not immediately get converted into worldly blessings.
That said, things will still run smoothly for you because of the blessings of Bodhisattva. The good deeds performed will slowly get converted into meritorious blessings and will remain so until such time when the need arises. Take for example, you are involved in a car accident, suddenly you get knocked but you manage to escape unscathed. This is a typical scenario where your merits have helped you dispel the predestined calamity.
Source: Master Jun Hong Lu’s World Buddhist Fellowship Meeting (Q&A Session), Melbourne, Australia, 7 December 2019