Master Jun Hong Lu’s
Buddhism In Plain Terms
Volume 4 Chapter 20
(An Excerpt)
DETACHMENT FROM THE PERCEPTION OF SELF AND FORM LEADS TO THE ACCUMULATION OF MERITS
Master Jun Hong Lu: Where do meritorious blessings come from? Is it merely from giving a little money? You have to get this concept right.
I once told you a story:
In the past, a very poor lady donated a pathetic amount of money from her savings to the temple. The senior monk of the temple came out to receive her, greeted her with respect and even showed her the way to worship the Buddha.
Due to the meritorious blessings that she continuously amassed, she was recruited into the palace.
One day, this lady went back to the temple to donate some money. This time, it was a large amount, but the senior monk was nowhere in sight to receive her.
During the visit, this lady seemed to have drowned in her own superiority complex, and the temple and its people became her object of scorn. With the huge amount of money she donated, she thought she would meet the senior monk anytime she wanted to, but she was so wrong.
The senior monk was well aware that what she had amassed wasn’t meritorious blessings as her deed was merely charitable and not virtuous.
So, what is a meritorious and virtuous deed? A meritorious deed is something that you perform with all your heart and it is considered a virtuous deed if what you do is able to help someone. In other words, a meritorious and virtuous deed stems from your most sincere aspiration to help others.
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