พระอาจารย์อธิบายว่าเมื่อคิดว่างานของวัดทั้งหมดเป็นงานของเรา ภาชนะรองรับบุญของเราก็จะใหญ่ขึ้น และหากทำสำเร็จร่วมกันเป็นทีมก็สำเร็จทั้งทีม โดยยกตัวอย่างอานิสงส์ของบุญ 3 วาระคือจัดงาน ร่วมงาน และเก็บงาน ซึ่งจะส่งผลให้ชีวิตในภพชาติต่อไปสมบูรณ์พร้อมHe explains that when we treat the whole temple event as our own work, the vessel that holds our merit grows larger, and success achieved together as a team becomes success for the whole team — illustrated through the merit earned across three phases of an event: organizing, participating, and cleaning up, which shapes how complete life is in the next existence.
A student asked the teacher to expand on the power of teamwork — something the late master often spoke of, that the community must do everything together as a team.
Working as a team is the heart of a team's power
He explained that the master placed great importance on volunteers, because the temple's various undertakings can only succeed through them. Tens or hundreds of thousands of people come to join an event, and it's the volunteers among us who help prepare it, run it, and clean up afterward. If we think of the whole thing as our own work, the vessel that holds our merit grows larger, and we receive greater merit. When we work together as a team, success belongs to the whole team — that is the power of a team.
Working alone makes it hard to accomplish anything large — like building a house: alone, you manage only a small hut; with two people, a bit bigger; but a truly large house needs many hands. It's like our own body, where the liver, kidneys, and intestines each perform different functions yet work in coordination as one — unlike a single-celled organism, which lacks that kind of complexity.
A society or organization thrives because each person plays a different role out of goodwill
From one person to two, three, four, five, a group forms, and a background looks after and supports that group. As it grows into a society, a background looks after the society too, keeping everyone moving in the same direction. Small societies become large ones, forming towns and nations, where many occupations coexist to support one another — officials looking after the public's welfare, doctors caring for the sick, merchants trading goods, farmers growing rice and vegetables — each person, each part, playing a different role for mutual benefit, allowing an organization, a country, a nation to function well. Where people carry goodwill into their role, the benefit shows — this is why Thailand has earned praise from other nations as a pleasant place to live, its people good-natured, warm, and generous rather than exploitative. A temple is the same: it becomes a good place to be because the people within it help each other with goodwill. The merit from this ensures that wherever we're reborn, we'll be welcomed and looked after well.
The merit of three phases — organizing, participating, and cleaning up
Before we descended to be born — while still in the Tusita heaven — we set the intention to help Buddhism flourish, to help our teachers spread the Buddha's teaching so people could understand and benefit from it, and to join our effort with others' to make this work succeed, which requires goodwill as an essential part of the team's strength. When we're building our own perfections or carrying our own projects, we receive strong support precisely because we carry that same sense of shared ownership — wanting to help starting with giving resources, not merely donating to the merit fund but becoming a co-organizer: contributing money if we have it, labor if we don't, sharing goods, greeting each other warmly. It's not only preparing and organizing beforehand — on the day of the event itself, we welcome people with a smile, create a good atmosphere, share whatever can be shared, and feel joy for those who come, as though we were the ones hosting — because we helped fund even the restrooms, the water, the electricity for the event. Once it's over, there's still the opportunity to earn merit by helping clean up, going home with a full heart, knowing something whole was accomplished today. The merit from these three phases — organizing, participating, and cleaning up — together shape a future life born into a family where everything is already prepared, free of hardship, well cared for even in old age.
Owning a merit-work is carrying the religion forward to the next generation
All it takes is a little in each occasion of merit. The result of that merit follows us wherever we're born — everything already set up from the start. Even born into different social positions, one's business affairs are already arranged, administration made easy because the systems are already in place; born a king, the kingdom is already well-ordered, free of trouble; starting a family, everything is already arranged. All of this rests on the merit born from preparing and taking part as an organizer. The feeling of a participant who sees themselves as an owner is different from an ordinary attendee — there's real joy and sfaction when others come to join, fulfilling the very wish that people would come share in the merit and the event.
The final phase is caring for and properly storing the "treasures of the religion." In turn, our own life will always have people looking after our belongings as though they were their own, caring for us like beloved family — all because of carrying that sense of ownership, wishing for life to be this complete, requiring only a little willingness to endure some discomfort as a participating owner. Even with little money to give, we can still invite others who didn't come today to join, or help with small things like the drinking water at the event — that too counts as taking part in organizing. Doing this every week, right up until the end of this life, means that in whatever future we're born into, whatever work we undertake, it will succeed — because both people and devas help us. But receiving a deva's help depends on having enough merit-power of our own, built from having created good causes before. Owning a work of merit like this is like being a representative of the Buddha, carrying his work forward on his behalf. He gave us the religion and its teachings; we simply continue what he began, for the great benefit of the world and all beings — and we, in turn, become a good example for the generations that follow, who will inherit the responsibility of caring for the religion from one generation to the next. Without the example of those who came before, no one would know what to do next, and the religion would struggle to continue.