พระอาจารย์อธิบายเรื่องการนำเงินกู้หรือเงินยืมมาทำบุญ ทั้งกรณีเบิกเงินล่วงหน้ามาทำบุญด้วยตนเอง และกรณียืมเงินผู้อื่นมาทำบุญ ชี้ให้เห็นเรื่องความประมาท ความสันโดษ และกฎแห่งกรรมที่เกี่ยวข้องกับเจตนาของผู้ยืมและผู้ให้ยืมPhra Ajarn addresses using loans or borrowed money for merit-making — both drawing on future income for one's own donation and borrowing from someone else — explaining how heedlessness, contentment, and the law of karma come into play.
Someone asked: a host once used a personal line of credit to make a donation, and mentioned this to the senior monk at the time of offering. The monk said he would allow it this one time only — not again after this. So the question is: if we know for certain we'll be able to repay a loan, is it alright to draw on that money in advance to make now, even though the monk was reluctant to allow it? Could Phra Ajarn explain?
Can You Draw on Future Income to Make Merit?
When we make a donation this way, we are, in effect, in debt — because the money isn't truly ours yet. The deeper issue is the uncertainty of life. Nothing is certain. The law of karma is at work in every present moment, yet we treat the future as though it were fixed and guaranteed. That's heedlessness — reaching into the future to spend what we don't yet have.
This is exactly the opening that unwholesomeness looks for. It keeps the mind from being clear, and it plants a subtle worry — even if we don't notice it on the surface. Just the thought of “what if it doesn't go as planned” is enough to stir up distress and inner turmoil once we've presumed on a future we can't guarantee.
Do only as much as you actually have. Don't let heedlessness or take hold — whether it's greed for merit or greed for anything else, presuming ahead of ourselves is still heedlessness. Work with what you actually have and are; do only that much. Being content with what you have and are is called (), and the happiness born of contentment lets merit flow through us continuously. A wholesome fullness of heart arises, and unwholesomeness finds no opening — it cannot seize on anything to threaten us or drag the mind into confusion and decline.
Be sfied with what you have and are. Do only as much as you have, to the full extent of your means, without creating distress for yourself now or later — because if something goes wrong, the whole family suffers for it. Unwholesomeness then seizes the opening to pile on further, until we grow discouraged and start blaming merit itself for not helping us, even after all we've put in. But no one escapes the results of past karma — not even the Fully Enlightened Buddha himself could escape it, let alone us. So we should never rest in heedlessness.
Borrowing From Someone Else, Without Being Sure You Can Repay
A further question: some hosts borrow money from others to make merit, knowing they may not be able to repay it, but intending not to run away from the debt. What happens in this case, and what should the lender do?
Whoever lends the money that is then used for merit-making is the one who receives the merit — whether or not they know it will be used that way. The owner of the money is the one who gains merit. As long as the borrower hasn't yet repaid, the merit hasn't yet come to them; only once they repay does the merit arise for them too. So the lender needn't worry at all: lending it out, we've already gained merit. Whether they repay us or not, we still gain merit either way — repaid or not, there's no advantage or disadvantage on our side.
As for someone who borrows and repays without fleeing the debt, they still carry the burden of being a debtor — life after life, they remain someone who owes others. But someone who intends from the very start to borrow and never repay creates something worse: life after life, they too will attract people who borrow from them with the same intention never to repay. It isn't worth it at all — whatever we do to another comes back to us in kind. Not only is there no merit in it, there's added karmic consequence besides.
Borrowing With a Plan to Have the Debt Forgiven Until a Future Life
One more case: someone borrows money and says they've already planned that, once they're old, they'll ordain, then ask the lender to forgive the debt so it can be settled in a future life — without actually intending to cheat anyone. What should the lender do here?
Someone who borrows with the intention of dodging the debt usually has a hidden scheme behind it — unwholesomeness working behind the scenes, arranging the borrowing so as to place themselves in debt. Setting such an unwholesome cause in motion, with such deceitful intent, means that life after life they will keep meeting scoundrels and swindlers themselves. It's unavoidable — having deceived others, they in turn get deceived, and trust the deception, letting themselves be fooled. Someone honest keeps meeting honest people; someone deceitful, whether in the near or distant future, keeps circling in a society made up of other deceitful people.
As for what the lender should do — really, the lender and the borrower are caught in the very same cycle. Borrowing back and forth, betraying one another — that's simply how it goes, all within the same cycle. What we do to another, they do to us; what they do to one person, that person does to the next, and so it continues within the same circle, life after life. There's no way to step into the circle of honest, upright people from within it, because unwholesomeness lies behind it, keeping a person bound to that same circle. It simply isn't worth it — better to be honest, and live instead among a community of honest, upright, fair-minded people.
Those caught in the circle of dishonest people find that no matter how much money they earn, it's never enough; whatever they manage to save doesn't stay with them, because they lack the merit needed to hold onto it — it ends up lost to being cheated. That's roughly how it works.