Someone asked Pra Ajarn to expand on Luang Phor's teaching that some people give little yet get great results, while others give a lot yet get little — that it depends on the merit-power within each person.

Merit Is Behind Every Happiness and Success in Life

Pra Ajarn explained that a person rich in merit finds that whatever they touch turns to gold — whatever they wish for comes true easily. We should therefore keep building merit often: merit from giving results in wealth, merit from keeping precepts results in a healthy, long-lived, attractive body, and merit from meditation results in abundant wisdom. A person rich in wisdom naturally chooses to act in ways that bring happiness and prosperity, both in this life and in the lives to come.

Why Giving Little Can Yield So Much

When someone gives little yet receives great results, it's due to two key factors. First, the wholesome side is able to seize its turn and sustain an unbroken continuity throughout the act of giving, with little interference from the unwholesome or neutral sides. Second, the fruit of past merit happens to be ripening at that very moment. When the wholesome system stands fully behind us throughout an act of giving, even a small gift yields great results. But if, during the act, unwholesome or neutral thoughts intrude, the wholesome continuity breaks — the already-limited moment of giving gets divided among other wandering thoughts, so the pure energy drawn in is incomplete, coming only in fragments. If unwholesome thoughts intrude, that merit isn't pure — it comes tainted, carrying misfortune along with it. If neutral thoughts intrude, no harm is done, but no benefit either — we simply lose out on what we could have gained.

Sustained Wholesome Continuity Carries the Mind into Refined Dimensions

For those who can sustain unbroken wholesome continuity throughout an act of giving, the pure energy called merit flows in continuously, together with refined qualities and success. The longer that continuity holds, the more the mind is refined into ever subtler dimensions — the merit flowing through grows purer, the resulting qualities grow more refined, and the resulting blueprint of success grows ever more excellent. By contrast, someone who gives a great deal but cannot sustain continuity with the wholesome system stays only on the surface, in a coarse dimension — the merit flowing in comes in fits and starts, because unwholesome or neutral thoughts intrude in patches, and so the mind never reaches the refined dimensions. The results, therefore, differ completely.

The Guardian-Overseer Helps in Proportion to Our Store of Merit

Each person's inner store of merit differs. Those with a large store have a guardian-overseer (jakkraphat) in the sphere of merit, together with the Triple Gem behind them, watching over and managing that merit accordingly — able to withstand defilement, demerit, or hindrances to a greater degree, and able to resolve more problems and obstacles. Circumstances become favorable, drawing in good conditions and leading us to the right places at the right times. This guardian-overseer, seated at the center of the sphere of merit, works to protect, care for, and help us fulfil our wishes. When we wish for something and our merit isn't quite enough, the guardian works to top up that merit to completion — much like needing ten thousand baht to buy something but having only nine thousand: it must first be brought up to the full amount before the exchange can happen. The guardian's power is therefore proportional to our own store of merit. Our role is simply to keep building merit as much as possible — studying the ten bases of merit-making and the ten perfections, and then putting them into practice.

Sustained Presence Within the Wholesome System Is the Key

Whether or not we go to the temple, the simplest practice is to stay continuously aware, not letting the mind slip outside the wholesome system. Bored of one practice, spread loving-kindness; bored of that, chant the Dhammacakka sutta; bored of chanting, rest in calm (samatha); bored of calm, take up insight (vipassanā). When suffering arises, contemplate the truth of suffering, letting the knowing sphere draw in pure energy to dissolve it. Keep recalling, continuously, the many good qualities we already hold. The human body is a precious vessel — the very body through which causes are created — so time spent as a human being is exceptionally valuable. Nothing matters more than the time we spend remaining within the wholesome system. When we can sustain that continuity, extraordinary and immensely beneficial things naturally arise, suffering and danger are cleared away, and countless good things come to fill our lives.