Always be open to receiving the merit of others, the merit of those in this room, the merit of the spiritual teachers, the merit of the enlightened ones, and ultimately the merit of what you might call God or source or the spirit of all. Also, it has two sides, the law of grace. It is not just the grace that you receive. It is the grace that you can give to others. This is what we mean by merit and service. So the law of grace is actually another way thats talking about merit and service--to take that spiritual energy that youve cultivated and just give it away to others. In fact, there is one teaching in Buddhism which I totally love, whether you want to think of it as literal or just metaphorical. I love this teaching. It is the teaching that you do not have to do anything for your own enlightenment. Others who have gone before you have done everything for you, so now your enlightenment is because of their merit. Anything that you do in this life is not for yourself. It is just for someone else. It is almost like a cosmic pay it forward. So whether you take that literally or not, I think it is a beautiful idea, and if you practice with that kind of attitude, believe me, it will transform the way you act in the way you practice and the way you meditate. So instead of trying to meditate to get something out of it, know that everything is already given to you. There is nothing that you need to do to be enlightened. You already have the gift of enlightenment right there within you, as you, so anything that you do is an expression of gratitude for the enlightenment that is already your birthright, your inheritance. That you give and cultivate good merit and service, and you just meditate because you want to offer it to others. Maybe there are some people in this world that are definitely not at the stage where they can even meditate, and they need a lot of help. So you meditate for them. Do not do it just for yourself. That will make it a lot easier for you to meditate even on days when you do not feel like it and it is hard. You are not just doing it for yourself. It is for others, especially those who will never meditate in this lifetime, who just do not have that kind of karma yet. That is just not going on in their lessons. They are just not at that stage yet. So you do it for them. We practice for all of these baby Buddhas—some of these crying, screaming toddler baby Buddhas. We practice for them. Maybe some of us here are like the teenage Buddhas and our teachers are more mature Buddhas, but all of us are in it together. This is why we practice. So let us co-create a new reality moment to moment. Let us create heaven on earth, the Pure Land of the Buddha. ~Transcript of a talk delivered by Brother ChiSing April 28, 2013
Posted on: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 17:00:01 +0000
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015