Faith Governs the Merit of Giving

When we offer something, the amount of merit depends on faith. The greater our faith, the more radiant our sphere of faith becomes, drawing in more merit. Faith governs the act of giving above all else. A brahmin once asked the Buddha to whom one should give; the Buddha answered that wherever faith arises, give there, because faith is a universal quality of Dhamma. Our revered senior teacher once said that a person with no religion at all is to be pitied — better to follow something, anything, because once one takes up a belief, a sphere of faith can arise; without any belief, that sphere cannot arise at all, and even though Dhamma exists, it cannot be put to any benefit. So when offering something, we should cultivate faith to support the Buddha's teaching, wishing for its flourishing and for the world to reach the inner Triple Gem. When giving to those in genuine hardship, this too should be done — as another form of worthy recipient — because the world can only endure through mutual support.

Impurity Arising During Meditation Is Perfectly Normal

While cultivating meditation, if impurity is present, it will do exactly what impurity does — and the heaviest form is suffering. If, before sitting, we became angry or upset with someone, that suffering will press and weigh on us once we sit. This is entirely ordinary, not something abnormal. Our job is simply to recognize it clearly. The moment we recognize it, the sphere of knowing — mindfulness — arises, and once it arises, it draws in pure energy, merit, to cleanse the impurity. We are not the one who purifies the impurity ourselves; we merely recognize it — that is our only role. It's like eating: our role is only to choose good, quality food, clean water, and pure air, and then to consume it. What happens after that — digestion, nourishment — is handled automatically by our internal organs.

Wholesome Means Wise, Unwholesome Means Unwise

Kusala means "wise" — meaning that if we remain within this system, we grow wiser. Akusala means "unwise" — not that the unwholesome itself is unwise, but that if we remain within its system, we ourselves become unwise. Its tool is ignorance (avijjā). If we seek to know something, it gives us distorted, wrong understanding — wrong view — twisting things away from reality. We cannot blame it for this, because that is simply its role, the very purpose of its system. The angrier or more resentful we become toward it, the more we play into its hands, because its goal is precisely to keep us within its domain so it can draw in the energy of demerit to drive its system, pressing the elements of our being down further. The lower we sink, the greater its proportion within us grows.

Wisdom Born of Learning — Memorizing First, Then Reflecting

We send children to school so they can come to know things — and the very first step is memory. This is sutamaya-paññā, wisdom born of listening or learning. When we study something, we must recognize it clearly; the sphere of knowing, mindfulness, arises and draws in pure energy to cleanse the impurity of ignorance that had obscured and concealed it, preventing memory. Once that impurity is cleared, the mind becomes clean and pure, storing what we've learned in a purified sphere of memory. To move toward understanding, we take that memorized information and reflect on it — the sphere of knowing arises again during reflection, drawing merit in to further cleanse the obscuring impurity of ignorance. Once the obscuring elements clear away, the knowledge that was already there but hidden becomes accessible, and the knower proper to that field explains it to us. This is sutamaya-paññā becoming ever clearer.

Wisdom Born of Meditation — Knowledge That Doesn't Exist in the Human World

Bhāvanāmaya-paññā, wisdom born of meditation, is deeper still, because it is knowledge that does not exist anywhere in the human world at all. Scientists developing advanced technology must come to understand atoms and electrons invisible to the human eye, relying on instruments and proof, and ultimately on subtle inner knowers who transmit that knowledge, generation after generation, each contributing a small piece toward building innovation. This requires focused reflection day and night, yet only yields small fragments of understanding at a time — unlike deep meditation, which in a single session can access the complete details of an entire structure at once.

The Three Natures Governing Through Inner Voice and Emotion

The three natures governing all beings direct us to harm even those we love — children, spouses, parents, grandchildren, friends — causing conflicts and even wars, not only abroad but within our own families and our own hearts. All of it traces back to these three natures. They cannot direct us through voice alone; emotion must be involved too, because without emotional buy-in, we simply won't act. So they control only two things: the inner voice sounding in our head, and our emotions and feelings.

The Sphere of Dhamma at the Body's Center — Virtue, Concentration, Wisdom, Liberation, Liberation-Insight

The essential tool within us resides in the sphere of Dhamma at the center of the body, holding the sphere of virtue, the sphere of concentration, the sphere of wisdom, the sphere of liberation, and the sphere of liberation-insight — five spheres altogether. The first three must be studied and understood; the latter two, liberation and liberation-insight, are tools for correction. To become free from harmful things, we rely on the sphere of liberation; to reach a better life, we rely on the sphere of liberation-insight. But to use these two, we must first learn the first three. This is why Buddhism teaches that sons and daughters of good families entering the Tathāgata's dispensation should train in the precepts of virtue, of concentration, and of wisdom — without studying them, we cannot use the tools that are already our own. It's like a blind person who, though unable to see a refrigerator or air conditioner, can still be taught to use them.

The Three Dimensions of the Sphere of Dhamma — Elements, Dhamma, and the Energy of Merit and Demerit

The sphere of Dhamma at the center of the body has three dimensions: one holds the elements of earth, water, wind, fire, space, and consciousness; another holds Dhamma; and another holds the energy of merit and demerit, sharing the same center — whichever sphere is larger envelops the other. The sphere of merit appears as a bright, clear circle; the sphere of demerit appears as a dark, black sphere.

The Properties of Merit and Demerit — Attracting Wealth, Attracting Ruin

The sphere of merit has the property of attracting worldly wealth toward us, no matter whose pocket that wealth currently sits in — it draws it in for our use, depending on the size of our own sphere of merit. The sphere of demerit works oppositely: it attracts ruin and pushes wealth away, no matter how much wealth we have, once the sphere of demerit is active. Whoever has a sphere of merit larger than their sphere of demerit finds their sphere of merit enveloping the demerit, disabling its ability to attract ruin. Merit, once accumulated, gradually depletes like a phone battery being used; without new merit built and old merit renewed, it eventually runs out. Even combining old and new merit, only about ten percent or so is typically usable now — the rest remains a "completed blueprint" (phang samret) awaiting its result in the future.

The Law of the Three Characteristics and Conditioned Phenomena

The law of karma delivers its results in every present moment; the law of the three characteristics (anicca, dukkha, anattā) takes over from there. "Three characteristics" refers to three natures: kusalā dhammā, akusalā dhammā, and abyākatā dhammā. What's commonly described as impermanence, suffering, and non-self is a subset detail of the unwholesome, whose properties are impermanence, suffering, and non-self — these belong to the conditioned world (saṅkhata-dhamma), the world requiring supporting conditions. The unconditioned world (asaṅkhata-dhamma) doesn't rely on any conditioning factors at all — it is the world of pure wholesomeness, endowed with permanence, true happiness, and true self, like Nibbana: eternally certain, supremely blissful, possessing a genuine self. But we currently live in the conditioned world, shaped constantly by all three natures. Every present moment that arises is entirely the result of the law of karma — no one comes to be here simply because they wished to; everything is already set in place.

Virtue Provides Safety, Concentration Corrects Mind and Mental Factors

The sphere of virtue within us is the tool for keeping our being clean and pure — simply by not wanting to get involved with harmful things. Undertaking precepts means declaring: we will provide safety to people and all beings, which equally means providing safety to ourselves. Not killing gives safety to life; not stealing gives safety to property; not engaging in sexual misconduct gives safety to families; not lying gives safety to speech. At minimum, the five precepts are what we undertake to provide this safety, brightening the sphere of virtue and drawing in merit, which is then kept in a subtle dimension the unwholesome cannot reach.

The sphere of concentration corrects the mind and mental factors — wrong thoughts and emotions. But this isn't easy, because the unwholesome wraps these in the hindrances (nīvaraṇa); we must first break through and remove the hindrances before we can address the deeper, subtler workings of mind and mental factors. Concentration brings us to a knower of power, guiding us into ever more subtle, deeper dimensions, reaching purer and purer merit. The sphere of merit appears as a bright, clear circle, brimming with purity and happiness. Purity cleanses the impurity that causes obstacles and hardship; happiness lets us live truly happily. Without merit, happiness is impossible — even with abundant wealth, confusion and turmoil can remain, because happiness doesn't come from money but from the inner state within the sphere of merit. At the center of the sphere of merit lie subtle assets too — form, wealth, virtues, followers, fame, praise, happiness, all the way to the path, fruit, and Nibbana, complete within it. When merit flows through us, these subtle assets flow with it, acting as a magnet drawing coarser wealth into our lives.

The Three Tiers of Emperor — Minor, Great, and Supreme

The emperor at the center of the sphere of merit manages our resources, guiding us toward business ventures we've never even attempted, letting some people build enterprises worth hundreds of millions purely through the emperor's guidance managing our resources within. Even siblings born into the same family have different spheres of merit and different quality of emperor. Everyone born into the world has their own resource-manager within — someone living hand to mouth has a minor emperor; the middle class, with a home, a car, and modest savings, has a great emperor; and the truly wealthy — a supreme emperor — must also care for a retinue of great emperors beneath them, layer upon layer, according to accumulated merit. Living in this world is thus impossible without merit — and that doesn't mean merit only comes from formal temple donations; it means abiding within the wholesome nature, as taught: avoid evil, do good, cultivate the wholesome to completeness. Our life's goal is to seek merit, build perfections, and reach the Dhamma-body, through the ten bases of merit and the ten perfections.

The Ten Perfections Through the Example of a Temple Visit

Within the sphere of Dhamma there are also the elements of earth, water, wind, fire, space, and consciousness, controlling the body. The consciousness element carries the mind outward to perceive sights, sounds, smells, and tastes, contacting the outer world; if it perceives something wrong, the body trembles, because when consciousness perceives impurity, it appears at the center of the sphere of elements, causing the earth-water-wind-fire elements to vibrate and the body to shudder.

When we set our hearts on the pure energy of merit and resolve to visit the temple despite the difficulty, this is the perfection of wisdom (paññā-pāramī) already at work — knowing what is genuinely beneficial. The perfection of effort (vīriya-pāramī) is the diligence to rise early and find a way to get there. Merit only flows through two conditions: doing good, and refraining from evil. If Nibbana didn't continuously send merit, we would never reach our destination — the unwholesome and neutral natures would constantly lure us instead into idle amusement.

Once at the temple, we must grit our teeth and bear the heat, especially in the hottest months — this is the perfection of patience (khanti-pāramī), arriving together with austerity (tapa), which protects us from suffering during that endurance, and creates a new, stronger fortitude in us to face even greater hardships ahead. The perfection of truthfulness (sacca-pāramī) is sincerity aligned with the wholesome and with Nibbana; Nibbana sends merit to bring us to genuine truth, merging us into unity with itself, making the mind an element of accomplishment — whatever we set it on comes to be. The perfection of resolute determination (adhiṭṭhāna-pāramī) grows stronger in proportion to the quality of our sincerity toward the Triple Gem and Nibbana. The perfection of loving-kindness (mettā-pāramī) lets us help others, further strengthening the mind as an element of accomplishment, bringing clarity of heart and confidence in virtue. As we extend more generosity and support to others, the mind develops further into the perfection of equanimity (upekkhā-pāramī), where the mind no longer wavers with external provocations, developing into a balanced mind — much like how the highest factor of jhāna is equanimity itself, and the highest of the perfections is likewise equanimity: a complete, steady mind capable of penetrating into subtle dimensions and resolving whatever lies within.

Homage to the Triple Gem

Every time we pay homage to the Buddha, recall the inner Triple Gem. We appear bright and clear at the center of them; they appear bright and clear at the center of us; both we and they appear radiant at the center of Nibbana. The stream of merit from Nibbana pours continuously through the center of our being, refining the elements of our being to become clean and pure, freeing us dimension by dimension, increasing the proportion of the wholesome within us while diminishing the power of the unwholesome and the neutral. Our lives gain more genuine substance, our bodies and minds grow lighter, and vitality naturally arises.