Wheel of Merit
It is not our fame or fortune, or popularity amongst friends, our reputation in society or our loved ones that we take with us when we die. It is our field of merit. This and this alone travels with us at all times, and whether it is to our favor or detriment depends upon the benefit we have brought to ourselves and others with our lives.
Most of you who read this are fortunate enough to be enjoying the rarest of opportunities in this human life. That is, to be well supported, born in a place without strife, physically and mentally able and with access to and opportunity to learn the Dhamma.
The chances of us ever coming into such good fortune again are so remote as to be almost negligible for it is almost inconceivable what must be our past accumulation of merit and good fortune to have brought us to this point. I wonder how many of us can look at our lives and say we have renewed our field of merit in this life, for our well faring in the next: ask yourself: if you are borne in the top five percent of the fortunate, have you lived among the top five percent of the virtuous in order to renew this extraordinary opportunity?
If you are reading this then the chances are you have made efforts already in this life to learn Dhamma. Or at least you are interested in doing so. I have urged you to practice sincerely in this life to free yourselves from suffering while you are well and able, and the opportunity is close to hand. Some of you do others don’t.
Now I am inviting you to join me in setting in motion our group field of merit to stand alongside our efforts to practice Dhamma and seek an end to suffering. Unless you are ardently striving for enlightenment in this very life, then our practice is empty if it does not prompt in us the aspiration to make our lives a field of merit for the benefit of others. To live selfishly for our own ends alone while believing we are practicing Dhamma is little more than vanity.
Many of us are struggling to find meaning in our lives as we deeply question the values we have lived by. Until we are free from all ignorance and come to the fully awakened state of being, our sense of meaning might come from feeling that our presence here on this earth is of benefit and not a detriment to the planet and those around us.
When I started teaching Dhamma here in England I knew that only a handful of people would totally commit themselves to the quest for the cessation of suffering. It is a path that takes much time to complete. Rather I hoped that by introducing people to Dhamma I might help them to begin to untangle the knot of confusion and unhealthy attachment and begin to live life more virtuously and less harmfully.
Over the last five years I have begun to set up various works to help others in ways that I consider to be meaningful and tangible. To this point it is my field of merit. But at this time I want it to become the foundation for a far larger group effort that we all might put fourth for the benefit of others.
The works I have thus far participated in, using the money I have received from you as donation and from the medicines I have sold are as follows. These are what it has contributed to.
1. An orphanage in Yangon with 75 resident children between the ages of three and sixteen. It is run by monks and I have insisted the children are taught Dhamma as well as regular schooling.
2. Bringing a fresh water supply and building a school room in a remote village in the flood planes of southern Burma. This area was ravaged by a terrible cyclone last year. There is still so much need for support in this area.
3. The renovation of ancient and significant pagodas
4. Providing food and medicines to monks and nuns who are committed to the practice of dhamma.
I have thus far focused my efforts in Burma because it is a country so contrasting to ours and one close to my heart. It is one of the poorest countries and yet a land in which the Dhamma holds together the people through terrible hardships. It is the land that has kept alive the Dhamma I have learned for over two thousand years and so is worthy of our support. Further more, because of sanction imposed upon its government, it receives little foreign aid. And yet is a place where even small dana can bring so much tangible benefits.
Added to these projects in an area of obvious need, I intend to begin similar projects here at home in our own country. The two greatest merits are the gift of dhamma and the gift of human life. The next two projects will be to make my teachings more freely available through sponsorship and subsidisation (the gift of the Dhamma). I also intend to start to make available my medicines to more freely to those who might need it (the gift of life/ health). These are just two of many projects I hope that we might together initiate and nurse to fruit as a group. As we grow we will begin other projects that we consider to be worthy and in tune with our vision. It will be our contribution as a gift of gratitude for the tremendous good fortune we are enjoying in this life.
If it is our wish to continue our group efforts to learn and grow in Dhamma while bringing benefit to others, then we should join together as one in this effort so that together we might achieve far more than we ever could alone.
I invite you to join our wheel of merit. There will be so many ways to contribute and you are all invited to regularly put forward suggestions as to how we might as a group bring benefit to others. Each of you who contributes in any way will be able to follow the progress of the projects you support and maybe even have the chance to participate actively in them.
At this stage I am building a team who wish to front this side of our work. It will need to be skilfully co-ordinated and administered with vision and love.
This year I am beginning the Bodhisattva Warrior programme. This programme will become a training for service. I hope that those who participate will find ways to actively contribute to our Wheel of Merit. For example I want to teach all the kids at the orphanage in Yangon to speak English. Maybe there is a tefel teacher out there interested in such a post for a while. Once we start putting our heads together we will find countless ways to help others.
We are in the process of establishing a charitable status, but this will take time. However we are going to start our work now. We need to sow our seeds thoughtfully. If you wish to join the Wheel you may make a contribution at any time and if you wish you may let us know exactly in which field you wish it to be used. I will be sending out regular updates on all our projects to everyone on the wheel. I urge you please not to see what I am doing here as a plea to raise money but as an invitation for us all as a group to join together and achieve more than any of us could ever achieve alone.
And remember it is YOUR field of merit and it goes with you always and everywhere. Generosity is the first parami for it is the foundation for all the others. Without good fortune, much effort may bring little reward. With good fortune a little effort may bring boundless benefits. Your real investment is in your future wellbeing. I hope we can all learn to make giving and service an important part of our lives and delight in what we might come to do for others.
Hold in your mind your vision of how you want your life to make a difference and begin to make it happen. You will forever delight in your merits.
With Boundless Metta
Burgs
A Reflection On Giving
It is often argued that one should give and make merit without reflecting on the merit that it brings to us. This argument suggests that to reflect on our merits shows a pride and not selflessness. This is a false view. The Buddha taught us to contemplate the making of merits and to delight before during and after giving so that the merit may be multiplied. Without merit you will not renew the good fortune you are enjoying now. While less fortunate in the future it will be far harder for you to continue to make merits and be of service. Contrary to the western mind set , which often doesn’t understand the law of karma, to delight in ones merits doesn’t defile the mind set of giving. On the contrary it makes it more powerful to reflect upon the merit of ones deeds because it becomes triple rooted (wisdom is present) instead of twin rooted (non greed and non hatred.) Its actually the other way round and peoples false pride that objects to this. They feel themselves to be more virtuous if they can convince themselves that their giving is more selfless than the man who reflects upon his merit…This is a common new age attitude that masks misunderstanding and arrogance at a subtle level.