Someone asked: if we make merit and give alms in a rush, exhausted and out of breath, compared to making merit at ease and with a light heart, how does the outcome differ?

Making merit while rushing and exhausted lets some degree of unwholesomeness mix in, in proportion to how much strain is involved. Once unwholesomeness is mixed in, the fruit of merit — which should flow smoothly — instead stumbles, because the template for merit becomes tainted with obstacles inserted along the way. This differs from making merit at ease: while we're engaged in that good deed, the wholesome side, Nibbana itself, sends merit in to support us so the deed is completed successfully. The easier and more relaxed it feels, the purer that merit is — no distress, no obstacles, meaning no defilement mixed in. But where defilement is mixed in, unwholesomeness presses down, producing suffering — a state that must be endured, and is hard to bear — pressing us to experience it that way.

So as we go through life, we must learn to recognize what is happening exactly as it truly is. If we don't recognize it, the unwholesome or neutral side steps in to guide us instead. But if we recognize things as they truly are, the wholesome side steps in to guide us. We must train ourselves to maintain this recognition constantly, without lapsing, and to accept conditions as they truly are. If we refuse to accept the situation, the unwholesome or neutral side will step in to offer us a way out, and things only grow worse. But if we accept things as they truly are — for instance, accepting a state of suffering as karmic results that must rise and fall, or accepting that a crisis has occurred — we simply deal with the immediate problem and accept the condition, which keeps things from getting worse.