5. Becoming Member of Sangha - Becoming Monk or a Nun

As I have mentioned earlier, Merit Accumulations (福 ) can be gained through positive actions and lost or destroyed through negative actions, moment to moment in our lives. Hence we have to be very careful indeed at all the time, to watch out our actions which are performed through our body, speech and mind. Why? Because when we are lacking the merit accumulation (福 ) we are not going to have good lives.

Sincere motivation (without expectation of returns) is necessary when doing Merit Accumulations (福 ).This is not an easy task. Hence, Merit Accumulations (福) are difficult to gain but easily lost. This is rather similar in dealing with our money. Most of us find it difficult to earn money and save it. But to spend it, everyone can do it excellently. Hence, Credit Card Companies are making millions, year after year, because of the over whelming spending habits of credit card holders.

How are we able to do Merit Accumulations with sincerity? One of the many methods taught by the Buddha is renunciation for worldly gains. Through pure loving kindness and compassion for others, one can work for the benefits for others with sincerity.

The Buddha set an example by giving up his throne to become a monk. Buddha renounced worldly interests such as fame, power, wealth and etc. He created the Sangha community.

The community of Sangha consists of ordained monks or nuns, bodhisattvas, yogis or yoginis. Buddha advocates that Members of Sangha are excellent field for us to sow the seeds of Merit Accumulations. This is very well understood and being carried out in Buddhist countries but not so in non-Buddhist countries although Buddhism is being practiced by the minority people of the country.

Countries like Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Europe, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and others, although Buddhism is being practiced, many of these Buddhist devotees do not understand the meaning of offering to Members of Sangha. Some of the people in these non-Buddhist nations even consider that monks and nuns are defeated people; fail to take challenges, jobless and need financial support. They are the outcasts of the society. They have mental problems and etc. I have met such kind of people having wrong thoughts about monks and nuns.

Once, I was invited to give a Dharma Talk (Teaching on Buddhism) to the members of a Buddhist Association in Malaysia. I was invited by the Chairman to her home for lunch. She introduced me to her husband, and told me that her husband was a retired School Principal. She let her husband know that I was a school teacher too before I became a monk. While she was laying out the dishes for my lunch, she told the husband to attend to me. We sat down on the sofa after greeting each other. We drank our tea and started our conversation. Our conversation went smoothly. He asked me about my travels. I related my travels with enthusiasm to him. Then he asked suddenly.
“Did you become a monk because you had mental problems?”
So I spontaneously replied;
“Well, did you always ask this question to all the monks who visited your home?”
Then I looked closely into his face and asked with a serious tone,
"May I know how they answer?"
He was stunned by my questions. He looked blank, stood up and left with head bending down. This experience in Malaysia was just one of the many I had gone through. There were more stunning questions posted to me during my Travels in various countries as a monk.

Since then, I have found out that many Buddhists in non-Buddhist countries have mistaken the meaning of Merit Accumulations (Taan Boon in Thai language).They think that it is a charity for the monks when they give money or offer meals to them. At another time, I was with a high ranking Tibetan Lama (addressed as Rinpoche). A Buddhist devotee presented to Rinpoche a sum of money in an envelop.
“Rinpoche, this is my contribution to you,” said he.
Then Rinpoche replied;
“Please keep it for yourself. I don't need your contribution. Thank you." He said it politely.
The Buddhist devotee then took back his money and put it into his bag.

The Tradition of Merit Accumulations was started by Buddha himself. It was started more than 2,500 years ago after He had attained His Supreme Enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree in Bodhgaya, India, After spending some time in Bodhgaya, Buddha then went to Sarnath, Varanashi, where He gave His first discourse on The Four Noble Truth to His first 5 disciples. After spending some time with His disciples at Sarnath, Buddha decided to visit His father who was a king, together with His disciples.

After having stayed in His father’s palace for a few months, Buddha told His monks that they had to go to city for allowing people to give alms to them so that the city folks would have the opportunity to accumulate merits. When Buddha and the monks returned from city after gathering alms, the King was rather angry because he thought that his son had brought shame to him. Buddha then explained patiently to His father that receiving alms from public was a Lineage of Buddha. It was His duty to carry out the Tradition handed down by the past Buddhas. This Tradition was to provide opportunities for people to accumulate merits through offering alms to Buddha and monks. It was not an act of begging like the ordinary street beggars. It was an act of loving kindness and compassion for the people. It was an act for benefiting them. From then on, the Tradition of receiving alms from public by members of Sangha was handed down till today.

The present King of Thailand, His Majesty, King Bhumibol Adulyadej is 80+ years old now. His Majesty is the longest living reigning monarch in this world, and also the most revered King by His citizens. He is highly well recognized and respected in this Modern World. His Majesty has once been a ordained monk. He took ordination as a Monk for a short period (a few months) when he was a young man. His Majesty went receiving alms from public just like any other monks did. Thus His Majesty the King followed the foot-step of the Buddha.

Buddha said that if a person had been ordained as a monk even for a day, he would gain much merits. The merits gained by becoming a monk can benefit seven generations of one's ancestors. Hence, in Thailand, when a member of a family passes away, a member next to kin of the family, usually one of the deceased’s sons or a grandson, will quickly ordain to be a monk for a day, or 3 days or a week or more. He will then dedicate the merits gained by being a monk for that period to the Deceased. It is believed that such a virtuous act will help to bring a good rebirth for the Deceased.

Most of the Thais wish to be monk at least for a short period once in their lifetime. Many Thais take up monkshood for the rest of their lives when they have retired from their professions. I have met a number of these monks who had high academic qualifications. Some even resigned from high positions held in International Companies to take up lifetime monkshood after their children have completed university education.

May the Merit gained through writing this article is dedicated to the enlightenment of all sentient beings especially to the well beings of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej so that H.M. may have long life.

4. Importance of sincerity

In the previous article, I mentioned the correct way to gain "福" or Merit Accumulation. Here, we shall analyze how those actions, which are defined as “Merit Accumulations” or increasing of our "福" –the essence of positive energy- are made possible.

For example, when we buy a Buddha statue and consecrate it. We put it on the shrine. We do some offerings such as flowers, lamps, fruits and etc, this action brings us “福". When we offer food or anything to a member of Sangha, this gives us the merit accumulations in return. We offer to print or help to print Dharma books, these are actions to increase Merit Accumulation. But are these actions mentioned, same as actions of trying to buy "福"? Some people may think so, because in both circumstances, we have to spend money on them. We do this to gain "福”.

However, for Merit Accumulations or gaining "福”, we have to be sincere with right motivation. When we offer to Buddha, the action itself signifies appreciation of Buddha’s Teachings and Buddha’s Activity etc., and we should bear these in our mind. Whenever we do offerings to Sangha and Dharma, we do it with correct motivations. In this way, we are creating positive energy through positive action. When we appreciate the Buddha, we are appreciating the activity of benefiting others, appreciating the teachings which will give us wisdom and freedom from ignorance, and also motivating ourselves to become like Buddhas to benefit others. Hence, those actions are not only for ourselves, but bear a great significance of benefiting all sentient beings. As the result of that, those actions can generate much essence of positive energy -"福” - to oneself and others. That is the difference from the action of buying Lucky Charm Items, which is mostly intend for benefiting oneself only.

In Buddhist practice, we sincerely dedicate all our merits gained to the Enlightenment of all sentient beings. This action brings great benefit to others and oneself. Dedication of merit is just like dropping a spoonful of water into the ocean. A spoonful of water will dry up in a few days. But when this spoonful of water is dropped into the ocean, the amount of this spoonful of water will never dry up.

When we do positive action, we accumulate "福”. Offering to The Triple Gems- Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, is a positive action, which will generate positive energy as described above. When our positive energy ("福”) increased, it combines with effort, skilful means, right timing etc, to be transformed into whatever form of things we need. It is necessary to have lots of "福” for our wishes to come true. In short, our wish to have a good life will come true.

3. Can we buy "福"?

In the old days, people knew that when they wished to get crops, they would have to sow the seeds into the earth and would then water them. They would take the necessary steps of taking care of the seeds until these seeds germinated and grew to maturity to bare fruits. They would wait patiently for the harvesting time. However, as the society becomes more developed, we get more impatient. We want everything to be fast. We want things to be auto operated. We want a supermarket to supply everything we need so that we just go into one of them with some money or a credit card and we hope to get everything of our daily needs. Life has become so convenient and comfortable. When we need something, a service or a material thing, we just have to buy it. This is the system of getting things in our society…..we buy, buy and buy! Then it becomes a strong habit for us. We think that everything can be bought. This habit of buying and collecting has become our second nature. We, the human beings, have become less patient and tolerant.

Thus, when we come to dealing with "福", we believe that we can also buy it. In our Asian societies, when we are unlucky in certain ways in our daily lives, or business is down, or fail to pass an exam, or cannot get a good job, cannot find Mr./Miss Right, cannot get promotion, cannot give birth to a child and etc. etc … we think we are lacking of "Good Luck". So what do most of these people would do? Most of them would go and buy Good Luck Charm!

Many people try to do that nowadays. Have you ever buy some kind of "Power Stone" necklace or bracelet? Or a toad made of brass, having a duplicated old big coin in its mouth? Or a carved jade dragon, and etc. being sold in retailed shops or supermarkets. Many Asian Chinese believe that these items possess Good Luck Charm. They believe that these items can attract "福" for its owner. Do you think so?

Many people think that lacking of "福" is just like having a headache. When they experience a headache, they would take a headache pill such as paracetamol and wait for 30 minutes, hopefully the headache would go away. By buying and possessing those things so called Lucky Charm Items, these people are expecting their bad situations would be overcome. This action is just like taking palacetamol for curing a headache. They would wear or put them on the shrine or at the place recommended by a “Fen Sui master”. At the beginning they would feel happy about the whole thing. They think that they are getting some good energy from them. But after some time, their problems - financial situation or whatever – remain unsolved, or became worse, then they would think of getting more “powerful ones". In this way, they go on "shopping" and have their homes crowded with Lucky Charm Items!

Those of you who have already read my earlier two articles may realize by now that there is no paracetamol for curing the lacking of "福". When we are in a situation of Lacking of "福”, as most of us do, we could treat this situation for ourselves as having contracted a chronic disease or a sickness. It would require time to cure it. We would take the medicine regularly as given to us by our doctors. If the drugs given to us have side effects, as most of the drugs do, we may have to take some natural or traditional herbal medicines. We should be selective in our diets and do exercise daily if possible. Through this way, slowly but steadily, we would be able to cure our chronic disease completely. Our body have been lacking of some nutrients, accumulating cholesterol, breathing in the polluted air, taking in wrong foods etc. for so long, we would not expect to get cured by just taking one paracetamol.

The only remedy for Lacking of "福" is constantly doing Merit Accumulation. We accumulate “福” wherever and whenever we can. It must be a constant practice. We should try to make use of every opportunity to do it. Just like we have to eat every day. To live today, we have to consume energy from what we eat today. So is "福" too. We are using it everyday,. This means that we are loosing (consuming) it everyday. So we need to replace the amount of "福" we have consumed, even just for staying alive! If we wish to have something big or better, something special, or wish to change the negative situation to be positive, we need to have much more "福" to accomplish them.

Then, what is actually the essence of the action that can create “福”? There is a significant difference between buying Lucky Charm Items and that of Merit Accumulations, I shall continue in the next article.

2. How to obtain a good life - Luck?

Everybody wants to have a good life. However, until today, how many of us have really achieved this? For those who are already past their sixties, ask frankly to yourself, have you lived the way you wanted?

Many of us may not have lived the way we wanted. Why is this so? There are of course many reasons to this. My many years of searching for the answers has led to me the conclusion that many people believe that they would be able to live the way they wanted if they had better "luck" in their early days.

“LUCK” is what many people believe in. They believe that luck plays an important role in life. They believe that besides being hardworking, honest, the academic qualifications and etc., “luck” is still necessary to make things happened. They quote examples after examples. Some even quoted to me the famous film show “My Fair Lady” in which the song, titled “With a little bit of luck" to justify their claims!

What do you think? Is there such a thing as “luck”? Do you believe in luck?
Here I would like to share with you some of my findings from my travels to many places during these last 10 years of my life. I met people from different parts of the world and from different walks of life. I realize that most people are not sure of what they mean when they say by "being lucky”. Some believe that "luck" just happen by chance. I find that Japanese can interpret the word" luck" with clearer expression.

The Japanese word for “luck” is ”運”(pronounce as “wun”). ”運” can be good or bad. But ”運” is customary followed by another word ”気” (pronounced as “qi”) which means energy. Let me quote here what a Japanese had said to me,"When “運気” goes up, you can attract good luck or fortune. When the “運気” comes down, you'll attract bad luck." This is similar to the Chinese belief that when one’s essence of positive energy “福” becomes strong, life is good. Things go smoothly. Everything is fine. Most Japanese think this way too. Hence, we need to create the causes and conditions for “福” or "運気" to take place in one’s life.

Buddhists believe that we have sown the seeds of both good and bad Karma in our countless past lives. If the seeds of good Karma manifest in this life in abundance, we will have a good life, no doubt about this. But if we lack the “福” in this life, we shall have obstacles. However, we can remove these obstacles. We do this by prayers and merit accumulations.
Buddha has taught many ways to increase our “福” (merit accumulations). Thailand is a Buddhist country. They take the advice of Buddha very seriously. They go to “taan bun” (merit accumulations) whenever and wherever they can.

On 21st Feb. was an important day for the Thais. The day was known as "Makha Bucha" Day. It was the 15th of 1st Lunar Month, a full moon day. It is an auspicious day for both Thais and Chinese. Traditionally, it is the last day to celebrate the Chinese New Year.

The Makha Bucha Day is for merit accumulations. On that day, the Thai Buddhists circled around temples or holy stupas with candles in the evening. (Enclosed here are some of the pictures taken in Wat Phra Sri, Bangkok. Wat Phra Sri is only 20 minutes of walking distance from where I live.) The Makha Bucha Day is a public holiday in Thailand. Millions of Buddhists all over Thailand go to monasteries in the evening to do "wian tian" (candle circling), which is one of the important events in Thai Buddhism.

When we do merit accumulations in this life, it may help to kindle the seeds of merits sown in our past lives. We don't know exactly which kind of good deeds we have done in this life that would help to kindle the seeds of good Karma done in the past lives. Therefore, try to do as many different types of good deeds and as much as possible. There is no such thing as we have done enough good deeds in this life already. If you have such a thought, it boils down to the same thing by saying that "I have enough money already!". I have never heard people saying that they had enough money already. But I always heard people saying, "I have done enough merit accumulations already!"

This is the mistake many people made. Like money, Hock （福）is being used up moment to moment in our life. We transform our Hock （福）in life energy in order to carry on living and dying and living daily, moment to moment in our life. Hock （福） is being destroyed at the moment our defilement (e.g. pride, jealousy, greed, etc... ) appear in our mind. Hock （福）can be decreased and increased moment to moment in our life. So, it's very important to keep on increasing our Hock（福）. Spending some money or efforts to do good deeds are similar to investing in blue chip stocks. There will definitely be good returns in the future.

Merits （福）are accumulated from generosity practices with right motivation (i.e. compassion and loving kindness) . The merits--Hock（福）-- gathered in this way would definitely help to kindle further seeds of merit planted in the past. When abundant seeds of merits ripen in this life, we would definitely have our wishes come true.
For certain, a good and wonderful life is attainable. Some people may think this is just "lucky".

In conclusion, "luck" does not happen by chance or at random. "Luck" is dependent on its own causes and conditions to bloom. We can plant the seeds of these causes and conditions for it to blossom through accumulation of merits--Hock （福）.

1.Chinese New Year Message - To have good life

Hi,
恭喜发财 （ Gong Xi Fatt Chai ） !!!!!!!

And a very Happy Chinese New Year to you!

Buddha says: Life lingers on from moment to moment; life after life. He taught this in the Abhidharma (The Higher Teaching). We can experience the well-being, moment to moment, life after life, is due to our Merit accumulations.

Our present lifestyles on this Earth are possible because of our collective merit accumulations. Different countries or societies will experience different lifestyles because each country or society’s collective merit accumulations is different. Merit accumulations can be gained through positive actions and lost or destroyed through negative actions moment to moment in our lives.

During this festive season, you'll notice that the Chinese word "福 (Fu)" is being displayed in every Chinese house. The ancient Chinese Sages discovered this principle before Buddhism had arrived in China. Throughout the ages, the Chinese Sages emphasized that "福" is very closely woven in our lives. "福" has to do with all the good things we wish to have in our lives. And they are not wrong about this idea because Buddha taught about this too.

Buddhism emphasizes Merit Accumulations, which is a similar concept to the Chinese Sages’ concept about "福". Nowadays, Buddhist devotees are constantly reminded by monks, nuns, lamas and Rinpoches that Merit Accumulations are important for their well-being including to progress in their Dharma practices. Therefore, there are many methods in Buddhist practice for merit accumulations.

In Thailand, to accumulate "福" is to “taan bun”. The Thais are very happy when they visit monasteries to “taan bun”. There are four special days in a month (called “wan phra” – Buddha’s day) where Thais crowd the monasteries to “taan bun”. They rejoice very much after they have “taan bun”, because they believe that “taan bun” will help their lives to become better. You can see this in their faces after they have completed the ceremony of "taan bun".

"福" appears as an Essence of positive energy in our mind stream. This Essence can be transformed into anything through right combination with right timing. In Tibetan Buddhism, there are various skillful methods of transforming this Essence of positive energy. Our creative ideas sprung from this Essence in our mind stream.

Unknowingly, we can destroy our ”福” too. This is done through body, speech and mind. We do this by having negative actions moment to moment in our daily life. What are the negative actions that destroy “福”? Both the Chinese Sages and Buddha agrees that “福” or Merit Accumulations are destroyed through negative emotions such as jealousy, anger, hatred, pride, stinginess and uncontrolled desires arising in our mind from moment to moment. However, all these negative emotions can be corrected through practicing the Teachings taught by Buddha.

Buddhism emphasized Mental Development Activities commonly known as Meditation. Through this method, we can develop healthier minds, which can reduce negative emotions slowly but steadily. As a result, we are able to save ourselves from destroying this precious Essence of positive energy in our mind streams.

Most people can't have their wishes come true because they are lacking the “福”.I notice that most of us have destroyed more “福” than gaining it. Hence, when we lack merit accumulations (福), obstacles are sure to appear on our way to achieve our goals and our wishes may not come true.

In my opinion, if we wish to materialize our dreams in careers or businesses, our “福” (Merit Accumulations) need to be increased and activated so that it can be transformed into monetary terms or prosperities, opportunity to practice Dharma without obstacles in order to gain joy, happiness, peace of mind and etc. We can have good lives through constantly accumulating the “福” wherever and whenever we can.

WE NEED MERIT ACCUMULATIONS ( 福 ) FOR EVERYTHING WE DO , OR HAVE OR ACHIEVE OR WHATEVER!

In my next message, I shall write about methods of accumulating “福”.

May this New Year Message benefit you.

With Best of regards.
Achan Lama Hui Guo