Someone asked: every time we do a good deed, merit is said to arise at the body's center, the seventh base. But if, while making merit, someone's mind isn't actually resting there, does the merit still arise? And does the effectiveness differ?

Merit always arises at the mind first. When a wholesome nature arises within, that is the very condition that allows us to perform good deeds. Once the wholesome dhamma arises, it draws in the stream of merit into the center of the heart — whether through wholesome thought, wholesome speech, or wholesome action, the stream of merit arises there, even if our mind was never placed at the seventh base at all. Even someone in the world who has never heard of the seventh base still has merit flow through their mind, so long as a wholesome nature is able to arise.

The Mind Is Both a Receiver and an Inductor of Energy

Beyond being our instrument of awareness, the mind also works like an inductor of energy. If the "software" overlaying the mind belongs to the unwholesome, it induces demeritorious energy as we think, speak, or act. But if the wholesome takes hold as master of the house, it overlays wholesome software instead. This wholesome dhamma established in the mind, whatever we think, say, or do, draws the pure energy called merit to flow into the center of the mind, and that induced energy is then stored at the center of our sphere of dhamma.

How Does Resting the Mind at the Seventh Base Differ from Elsewhere?

Even though merit arises at the mind regardless of where it rests, placing the mind at the body's center, the seventh base, yields a different result — because that base is the gathering point of every wholesome body, the center of the "emperor" figure, the meeting place of all boundlessly empowered beings, and the point aimed directly at the path to nibbana. When we rest our mind there, we appear bright and clear at the center of nibbana, amid countless empowered knowers along the entire lineage of dhamma, and we receive their protection, care, and help. Inducing pure energy this way is certainly more efficient and effective, and carries far greater purity and sanctity.

Merit Flows from Nibbana Through Every Body, Forming a Sphere of Merit

Every time we do good — making merit, meditating, or helping the religion — merit arises at the body's center, the seventh base, as a bright, clean, pure stream, like a diamond catching the noon sun. As this stream pours into the center of the body, it gathers into a sphere, called the sphere of merit, fixed at each person's center. This sphere is the root cause of happiness and success; whenever we wish for something, we should make our aspiration at the center of that sphere. Merit flows from the subtlest level of nibbana, through the subtlest dhamma body, the arahant body, the anagami body, the sakadagami body, the sotapanna body, the gotrabhu body, the formless Brahma body, the Brahma body, the divine body, down to the subtle body and the human body — flowing continuously through every body, every sphere — the sphere of dhamma, of morality, concentration, wisdom, liberation, and the knowledge and vision of liberation — all purified by this stream. Merit is then stored at the center of dhamma within each body.

The Merit-Power of Each Body Determines One's Realm After Death

A single human body doing a good deed thus benefits every body simultaneously. When we die, whichever body has sufficient — or more than sufficient — merit-power, such as a subtle divine body, is drawn to be reborn there; if that merit is enough to become a heavenly being, or if a Brahma or subtle Brahma body has enough merit-power, one ascends level by level. Whichever body has full, sufficient merit-power to dwell in a higher heaven is drawn automatically toward that plane of existence, and that body's manifestation appears there according to the merit-power sufficient to sustain that state.