【Description】
Merits seem abstract but they do impact your living condition and even fate. Your health, life span, happiness, and fortune are closely tied to your merits. So how do you accumulate merits?
In this video, Grandmaster JinBodhi points out an illuminated path that not only enables you to accumulate merits and virtue, but also enables you to obtain a way of self-cultivation that will help you gain fortune, wisdom, health and longevity. As long as the method is correct, you will be able to quickly accumulate merits and virtue and turn your fate around.
【You will learn】
- The way to gain health and longevity
- Ways to gain merits and virtue
- The secret to accepting suffering with joy
【Featured aphorisms】
- Practice diligently and advance in spite of difficulties; accept suffering with joy.
- When compassion and generosity are incorporated into your life, worries and fatigue will vanish in an instant.
- With a heart of compassion, kindness and radiance, you will dissolve all worries and fatigue.
【Content】
The path of self-cultivation is a comprehensive process. Firstly, there are various meditation practices that allow you to gain health and happiness. Secondly, there are ways to gain merits and virtues.
If you wish to live a long life, you need to accumulate merits and virtues. Many people die from reasons other than disease. They had no health issues. Some of them died of sudden cardiac failure because of anger. These people had good health. Their muscles, bones and internal organs were healthy. But they died of sudden cardiac failure caused by anger. So one can die unexpectedly for many reasons, although people with illnesses have a higher risk of dying.
So I help you accumulate merits and virtues by letting you volunteer in our meditation center. Our meditation center is a place where people can gain health, happiness and compassion. It is also a place that teaches meditation practices. If you practice well you will become a buddha, bodhisattva or arhat. If you are not as good as them, you will still gain health and longevity. Even if you are at the lowest level, you will become a kind person. Hence, Bodhi Meditation Center is a very auspicious place. By volunteering at the meditation center, you are accumulating merits and virtues. You may live a long life, be wealthy, healthy and joyful. So accumulating merits and virtues is important.
Doing good deeds plus self-cultivation can be summarized as 6 major aspects. We call them the “6 Perfections.” Giving. (Giving.) (Discipline.) Discipline. (Tolerance.) Tolerance. (Diligence.) Diligence. (Meditation.) Meditation. (Wisdom.) Wisdom. There is a lot of content in each aspect. “Giving” is divided into 2 parts: giving and offering. Discipline. There are 5 basic precepts in many Buddhist schools. We need 8 precepts, given that nowadays some new issues have emerged, such as gambling, drugs and indiscriminate eating. Hence, you have to abide by the 8 precepts.
Self-cultivation isn’t an easy path. These 6 Perfections are easier said than done. Take diligence for example: You have to advance in spite of difficulties, and accept sufferings as joy; you have to dissolve the fatigue mentally. If you realize that you are working for a compassionate undertaking, your tiredness will vanish in an instant. Without such perception, you will find it difficult to stand even for 2 hours at our center.
This was the case with a fellow practitioner. She was frowning when I saw her. I asked, “What is bothering you? Who beat you or cheated you of your money?” “No one.” “Then why do you look so miserable?” “I stood at the entrance for 2 hours yesterday during the dharma event.” I asked, “What happened?” “My back is aching. I have 7 servants at home. Here, I am the servant.”
I said, “Good. Tell me your name. I will tell your manager, so you can stop working.” She said, “No, I still want to work!” “You said that you were tired. Why do you still want to work?” “Staying at home is too lonely.” “Staying at home is too lonely. Volunteering is too tiring. What can I do for you?” “Master, can I do something that isn’t tiring?” “I am afraid not. There is no work that isn’t tiring.”
She was still new, after all. I often saw senior fellow practitioners working till late at night. When I asked them, they said they weren’t tired. Because of the devotion and compassion in their mind, their fatigue is dissolved instantly with a single thought. Buddha, Bodhisattva and deities will help clear your fatigue and worries. With a heart of compassion, kindness and radiance, you will dissolve all annoyance and fatigue.