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How to Accumulate Merits

Listen: Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse's public talk, August 25, 2008


Sharing of Merits

"Even if they give just one cent, people should have the motivation of putting a drop of water in the ocean. A drop of water on its own will easily evaporate, but in the ocean it will always remain."

- Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche


"The first is that material donations differ fundamentally from the donation of the Law. To donate material things to others is certainly a good deed. But the benefits of such actions are limited and relative. For example, suppose that we give some money to destitute people. A relatively small sum may lead one person to find his feet again. But another person may lead a more comfortable life with that sum of money while he has it, and when he has spent it he may be no better off than before. On the contrary, the money may even have a harmful effect on a person, encouraging him in idle or luxury-loving habits. Thus, though a material donation is indeed good, it is a limited and relative good.


When we donate money and goods to others, if we can teach them how to start their lives anew by using these things effectively, this kind of donation will help them. This kind of teaching should be included within the donation of the Law (Dharma); material donations become more effective when the donation of the Law is added to them. The ideal would be for social security to be enforced thus. But even this kind of donation is still limited and relative because its benefits will end with one's life. The donation that is truly sacred and is eternally effective is that of the Law, meaning that we give the Buddha's teachings to others. This kind of donation is not limited to one's life but extends to posterity. Therefore, nothing is so important as the merits obtained through this donation."

- from http://www.rk-world.org/ftp/bft023.html

 

A Short Story Told By Mindrolling Khenchen Rinpoche


         the Great Stupa Jarungkhasor