【尊貴的敏林堪千仁波切的叮嚀】

Second, see one’s wishes for oneself and others.

As the monks and nuns stay in summer retreat, lay practiseners can also participate by being vegetarian, and doing more meditation or dharma practices. If it is possible, try not to harm any beings. Accumulate more merits. Read more dharma books to get more information on dharma, or receive teachings, and try to meditate on the teachings. Always remind oneself to be aware of one’s actions. Pray for the dead and also for living beings. These are practices which a lay person can do. No matter what one does, big or small, please always dedicate the merits to all sentient beings.

Dedication is very important.

I hope you all can realize , the dedication of merit taught in the Buddhadharma is one of the most vital and profound part of spiritual practice and a unique aspect of the Buddha’s teachings, which is not found in the other forms of spirituality.

The reason why we are still suffering in samsara is that we have not gathered the accumulations of merit and wisdom. Although we have performed numerous positive deeds over many lifetime, we have never dedicated this merit to the achievement of full enlightenment for all sentient beings. Thus when the positive karma ripens, it simply leads to some temporary positive states or happiness which will be used up in time. Therefore, when our merit finishes, we will lose that happiness and simply fall back into suffering.

By dedicating our merits to supreme awakening for all beings, although we will also experience positive results and well-being from that merit, it will not be used up until the ultimate aim of your dedication, which is supreme enlightenment for all beings, is achieved. Thus, dedicating our merit is like adding a drop of water to an ocean, and the ocean never dries up, and the drop of water is never exhausted. The ocean is likened to the vastness of the purpose to which our merit (a drop of water) is directed to.

Another reason why we dedicate our merits is because in the teachings it is said that ‘a hundred eons of generosity and moral discipline can be destroyed in one moment of anger’.

We might also spoil our merits by the following ways:

1. Boasting of our positive deeds out of pride

2. Regretting, e.g., regretting a donation not only destroys your virtue but may also lead to negative imprints of stinginess leading to karmic results like rebirths as hungry ghosts, poverty etc.

Therefore, it’s very important to dedicate merits in a timely manner, ie. after one performs positive deed, one should try to remember to dedicate the merits immediately as negative emotions or other conditions that lead to spoilage of merit can arise at any time.

Furthermore, if we dedicate our merits, the merits increase every day. Just as negative karma increases everyday, dedicated merits increase every day so the fruition of the virtue becomes greater than the initial merit.

For example, the Sutra of Twenty-Five Thousand Stanzas says that there is more virtue and power in dedicating a small virtuous action to full awakening than sponsoring this entire world filled with Arhats and Pratyekabuddhas their entire lives without dedicating your merit.

So I hope and pray that this year people could make more effort of strengthening their dharma practices to deeper understanding.

Everything is impermanence so is our life, which is unpredictable. So when we have the ability to make a difference to benefit oneself or others, I think it is wise to give more priority to it. We all knew that , each year we are getting older and not young anymore.But ,Some people don’t have enough time to sit and eat, always working or moving because of their jobs and work.

So this time just for this summer retreat, I hope people can just sit and think how one is living a life. What is the purpose of doing so much and ultimately one dies, and what one can take with him/her when he/she dies. This is very important to think now when one has the ability to think.

Some people think dharma is meant for older people or for monks and nuns etc., or some think they will practice dharma when they retire.

However, no one can guarantee if he/she will live that long,

or he/she will have time to practice dharma.

~~~ Minling Khenchen Rinpoche