Creative Merit

When you make merit—in other words, when you’re generous, when you observe the precepts, and when you meditate—reflect on the fact you’re fortunate you have the opportunity to do this. You’ve been born as a human being. You’re still alive. Life is a very precarious thing. So it’s good to make the most of it while you have it. And take joy in the fact that you can do good. When the Buddha talks about the happiness that comes from acts of merit, it’s not just something that happens afterwards. It’s in the act itself. There’s happiness when you know you’re doing good, and it’s a goodness that spreads around. It’s good to reflect on that to encourage yourself to keep on doing good things.

Being generous is something you do from time to time. You can do it every day, of course, but not 24 hours a day. But you can observe the precepts 24 hours a day. You can meditate 24 hours a day, except when you’re asleep. So try to take advantage of the fact that we have this time; we have this opportunity. And find joy in doing it.

Some people think of merit as delayed gratification, and there will be some long-term gratification. But there should be some gratification even in the anticipation that you’re going to do good. You’re finding your happiness in a way that doesn’t cause any harm to anybody. That was the Buddha’s instructions to King Pasenadi. He said you could go the whole world over, and you can’t find anybody that you love more than yourself. And in the same way, other people love themselves just as fiercely. So the wise attitude is to find happiness in ways that don’t harm anybody, that don’t involve doing anything to harm them or getting them to do harm.

And here you are. The Buddha’s laid it all out. All you have to do is use your sense of inspiration. Give wherever you feel inspired. Give in whatever creative ways you want.

The same with the precepts: The precepts require creativity, too, because there are times when you’re tempted to break a precept, and you have to give yourself good reasons for not doing so. But the reasons that work today may not work tomorrow. So you have to be creative in anticipating what your mind wants—why it would break a precept—and figure out some way to counteract that. And then, of course, there are times when someone asks you a question—you know if they get the information from you, they may abuse it, so you have to figure out some way not to give the information but also not to lie. That requires creativity as well.

And, of course, in meditation, you have to be creative with how you get the mind to settle down. You have to figure out: What does the mind like? The Buddha compares it to being a cook. The cook has to notice what kind of food the people he’s cooking for like. They may not say anything, but they show by what they take and what they praise to other people. So if the cook is observant and makes more and more of what the master likes, he’s going to get a reward.

The same way with your meditation: You have to figure out: What does your mind like of all the various topics of concentration? Say you choose the breath. What kind of breathing would you want to engage in right now? Because there are all kinds of ways to breathe, and you can learn about the body, you learn about the mind, as you explore what kind of breathing feels good right now.

And what does it mean to feel good? Sometimes feeling good means energizing. Sometimes it means soothing. You have to think of different ways in which you relate to the breath in the body—and the ways you relate to the pains in the body, so that you can see the body as one thing, but the pains are something else. That way, you’re not using your pains to breathe. You’re not using your pains to move. You’re actually using the body itself. These are all things that require creativity.

So there’s a joy in being creative as you do good. The Buddha gives you the basic principles, but you can work with them as you like. That way, you can find happiness in the anticipation, happiness in the doing, and happiness in reflecting on the results, realizing that it’s harmless in all three areas. That’s a happiness that goes deep inside and that lasts.