One Baht Offered with Joy is Worth a Billion
When one has made merit, let a firm and wholehearted aspiration accompany the act: “By the power of the wholesome merit accumulated through this act of generosity — from this moment forth, whenever I shall make merit or offer in giving, may I never know regret in the aftermath.” This aspiration must be held with steadfast care and intention.
Beyond the absence of regret, let the heart be filled with genuine joy — such that even the offering of a single baht brings a gladness as full and complete as though one had offered a billion. This is the standard to be aspired to and cultivated.
Yet for the heart to rejoice at the level of one baht as though it were a thousand million, there is this to be entrusted to reflection: the heart must be truly and thoroughly satiated within the merit itself — and must perceive with clarity the full measure of benefit that this act of merit-making has brought forth.
- In what ways does this act of merit benefit oneself — in this present life and in all lives to come?
- In what ways does it benefit one’s family — in this present life and in all lives to come?
- In what ways does it bring benefit to one’s nation, and extending further still, to all beings throughout the world?
- And in what ways shall the merit one has made here serve as a benefit to the continuation and flourishing of the Buddhist Dispensation?
Should one be able to perceive these four dimensions of benefit with clarity and vividness, then even the offering of a single baht shall fill the mind with joy as boundless as though one had offered a thousand million. And from that place of inner fullness and gladness, one is most welcome to aspire further still — to dedicate and resolve one’s merit toward ever higher and more far-reaching purposes.
12 May 2014
