A lay follower asked: he had read a teaching from a late revered elder: "Let wealth be lost if it must be lost — but never let your precepts be lost; they must be preserved. Precepts are what build wealth. Whoever keeps them earns the name of a good, pure person — a lord of wealth, drawing riches from the world to himself... [Yet some people] gain merit but don't know how to use it. They go make a great offering, gaining merit by the heap — but the moment something displeasing touches them, they scold and curse, taking on demerit without even realizing it." Could the teacher explain this?

Precepts Build Wealth — Better to Lose Money Than to Lose Your Precepts

The teacher explained that the reason we act without realizing it is that the unwholesome controls and can possess the mind — its own "body within body" overlays ours, its mind and mental factors shaping our thoughts into irritation and displeasure, so that we lose mastery over ourselves and are directed by it instead, losing our freedom without even knowing. Ignorance and wrong view take over our thinking, making us believe, as if it were our own idea, that we dislike this person or that — when in truth something is directing it from behind. The same applies to greed: it too is an unwholesome "body within body" overlaying us, directing us to break our precepts.

Precepts are therefore extremely important. Our world consists of an inner world and an outer world. The outer world requires precepts as protective armor, since it is perceived through the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body — full of the two extremes of pleasure and displeasure. Whenever we don't want to lose something, the unwholesome seizes the mind and stirs us to cling and refuse to let go. Precepts themselves form the principal wholesome sphere: once undertaken, the sphere of virtue shines bright, drawing in the stream of merit continuously, day and night, whether we sleep, wake, stand, walk, sit, or lie down — for as long as the precepts remain unbroken. But the instant we allow a precept to be broken for the sake of gaining something, that sphere of virtue extinguishes immediately, and the channel drawing in pure energy along with refined treasures and completed patterns halts at once. The more repeatedly precepts are broken, the weaker that sphere becomes. But every time we overcome demerit and the unwholesome, the sphere of virtue shines brighter and clearer, and the channel of merit grows correspondingly larger.

Simply undertaking the precepts causes the sphere of virtue to refine us immediately, drawing us into deep inner dimensions, a place safe from the impurities that cloud the mind. The five precepts reach one level of refinement; the eight precepts reach further still. In the world we perceive with open eyes, precepts are the single most important thing; in the world of closed eyes — meditation — steady concentration is most important; but to rise even beyond that requires the sphere of wisdom, the brightest of all 84,000 sections of the Dhamma.

Gaining Merit but Not Knowing How to Use It

The teacher continued that a person of precepts earns the name of a good and pure person, because every time we undertake the precepts, we pledge to offer safety to all beings — safety of life, of property, of one's spouse and family, safety through honesty and trustworthy speech, and safety of mindfulness. The eight precepts further protect us from both the unwholesome and the neutral force wasting our precious time and resources. This is why true purity — not counterfeit purity — matters so much. Counterfeit purity is letting the unwholesome whisper, "It's just a small slip, no big deal." If we slip unintentionally, the remedy is to undertake the precepts again right away, and we return to being pure as before.

As for "gaining merit but not knowing how to use it": after making a great offering — say, a robe-offering ceremony — and gaining heaps of merit, the moment we return home, if some small friction arises with a family member, the unwholesome often seizes exactly that window to blow it out of proportion, stirring irritation. The more irritated we become, the more demerit slips in, darkening the heart further. The stream of merit that should flow through us for the seven days before and seven days after a great act of merit instead turns into a stream of demerit, turning what should have been fortune into suffering.

Training Right Mindfulness and Restraining the Senses to Guard the Window Around a Great Act of Merit

The remedy is to recognize the moment the unwholesome tries to direct us, then gather the mind into stopping, into stillness, or cultivate loving-kindness — not paying attention to the erratic behavior of someone possessed by the unwholesome. Ask oneself how to resolve the situation instead, and the wholesome will guide the answer. Keep the mind fixed on the merit just performed, on the Triple Gem, on goodness itself, so that no sphere of demerit can overlay and block the sphere of merit.

This requires training right mindfulness together with sense restraint — guarding the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body, abiding in the precepts. Without such restraint, the unwholesome can easily plant wrong thoughts, especially during the seven days before and after a great act of merit. Training steadily in right mindfulness morning, noon, evening, and night, together with cultivating loving-kindness, merging the mind into stopping and stillness as one with the Buddha within — doing this every day makes each day a little better than the last, steadily reducing the chances of being misled by the unwholesome, until abiding in the wholesome system becomes automatic. Happiness overflows more and more, and inner brightness gradually appears — life then truly abides with the Triple Gem within.