Gaining Merit

One corner of Buddhist practice that has me fascinated is the action of gaining merit. I am only understanding this at a beginners level. I really 'get' the Catholic deal of Heaven and Hell and confession and the redeeming power of the sacraments. If I commit a sin, go to confession, do a penance and experience forgiveness, the slate is wiped clean. So, I try to obey then Ten Commandments. I try to walk the strait and narrow because of fear of eternal damnation. There are a few heavy stumbling blocks. We are born with original sin and have to get that fixed up right away.

In my cosmology, original sin isn't too far away from karmic debt. We incarnate carrying into this life our karma from previous lives. I can't imagine not having had the experience of feeling "I know this person." when meeting someone new or "I've been here before" when visiting a new place. I've had these experiences frequently. I call them my "here we go again' experiences. These can be either joyful or miserable. Believe me, you can be born with great karma as well as crappy karma.

Everyone reading this blog has a bunch of good karma. You have education. You can read. You have food or you wouldn't have the leisure to be sitting around reading. You have access to technology and electricity. You get my drift. You are better off than almost everyone on the planet.

But this idea of gaining merit towards your next life. This was of great interest to me in my recent travels. I asked a monk at a "Monk Chat" session to tell me something about this. He said that I would gain no merit by taking care of my kids, feeding my old parents, those were my duties, the ordinary stuff of life. However, random acts of kindness, feeding or caring for strangers was very meritorious. I asked about the spiritual welfare of the young prostitutes who come to the cities. He said that if they turn to that work to provide food for the family and village back home they are gaining merit from their work. They are piling up good karma by sacrificing their own lives for the greater good.

It seems like a healthy cycle. You help yourself by helping others. I didn't run into any cynical practitioners in my brief visit. But I suppose that if someone killed a man and then bought a new statue for the temple, it wouldn't be much different from Catholics gaining their money through Mafia activities and then building a new church. But, I suspect that both heaven and hell and karma can't be so easily fooled.

In terms of a social order I think there is something simple and elegant here. If you want to be happy, make someone else happy. If you want to be wealthy, give money to others, if you want enough food, feed others. Reminds one of Saint Francis.  Not all karma is about ten lives from now. Some deeds of gaining merit can offer instant results. This is one of the principles of AA. The people in meetings get healthy by helping others get healthy.

Another merit deal that I have personally experienced is the benefits and release from offering my suffering up to alleviate the suffering of others. Try it. When I remember to do this, I feel an instant updraft.

This blog is not meant to be preachy, I am a humble bumbler on the path of life. Poco a poco, paso a paso y dia por dia. Hasta la victoria siempre!