In generations past, in many households, when a son or daughter was married, the parents would solemnly counsel them: “Remember this, my child — from this day forward, you must live by the merit you yourselves have made. Place an alms bowl at the front of your home. Whether the two of you will sustain your life together, or not, depends upon how much merit you make together.”
If you do not do so, your accumulated past merit will eventually be exhausted, and you will drift apart — each going your own way. This is the only warning that can be given. If you do not wish for misfortune to befall you in the future, and since we cannot know how much past merit the two of you have made together, begin making new merit in this very lifetime. Place an alms bowl at the front of your home, and each morning, both husband and wife should offer alms together.
Furthermore, when one marries, it is as good as declaring: “I am ready to be a fully responsible adult, standing on my own merit.” While living under your parents’ roof, their merit served as a protective shelter over your head. Now the time has come to prepare your own merit to shelter yourself. And when you become parents in turn, you will need sufficient merit to serve as a protective shelter for your own children as well. Set out your alms bowl and make the offering faithfully.
This wisdom may rightly be called the genius of our ancestors — yet today, this tradition has largely faded away.
June 24th, 2017
