Maddie

Merit making is largely the main practice of lay people in Theravada countries like Burma and others. In these places it is generally the attitude that enlightenment is almost impossible for anyone other than a monk. That being said it is also generally thought that to have all the pieces fall into place to become a monk one needs a lot of merit. So the lay people focus primarily on earning merit by supporting the monks so that in the future they too can become monks. Another way of putting it is that the merit is not the building, but the scaffolding from which you build the building.

Yes that is true. Good karma or merit in and of itself will not do the job, but..... it will help you to come across the teachings and have the opportunity to do the things that do, do the job. So yes technically correct, but at the same time merit is very helpful in getting one to the place they need to be to do what they need to do on the other hand.

I'm hesitant to say more than I know, but I think the notion of good and bad karma keeping one stuck is a Hindu notion. From the best of my understanding in Buddhism good karma is what fuels successful cultivation.

The sutras tells us that once the devas exhaust their merits they fall from heaven. So if merit is not a literal thing, it at least seems to behave like one.

You can, but my point is perhaps that's not a good thing to do too often.

By using merit what I mean is that one can dedicate their own merit for specific purposes these days aka "manifesting". If one manifests too much and exhausts their merit then their life can change and not for the better.

Thought I'd dig up this old thread as merit is something I have been thinking about quite a bit lately. Specifically how using a lot of merit can cause one's condition in life to drop down, much like once the devas use up their merit they fall out of heaven.

Well if you did it and you got a job I would stick with what works. Nam Myoho...... is a very good abundance mantra. In fact the SGI group practically promote it as such. I've gotten several jobs / resolved situations well with this chant.

Interesting point. What I have noticed is that the more I do a chant, over time it seems to develop a rhythm and tone on its own. I might start off just voicing the words and as I progress the tempo and sound sort of reveal themselves to me. Sometimes I just do it mentally as well.

It has begun to occur to me that perhaps my feelings for Buddhism have cooled a little bit recently because I think it may have given me somewhat of a negative attitude as it does seem somewhat nihilistic me. It seems like a lot of nothing nothing nothing which I don't think is actually correct but I think that's the version of it that I had been taught by a lot of the western theravada teachers especially this one monk that's on YouTube a lot that always looks like he's chronically depressed.

This seems to be how it goes when I have a few people I know here try some of the mantras that I do. They don't really seem to feel much which baffles me because I do and I'm not sure why. Sometimes all I have to do is a couple repetitions to feel the effects (not always). Although if I do, do a mantra for a while and notice nothing I usually drop it and move on.

If this is an issue you have strong feelings about I have two other daughters with this same woman that have expressed the same desire to live with me and get away from their mom. I'm still working on this. 😌 **I thought I'd add some special effects to show how this makes me feel

No, no specific supplier. In your case I'd use Asian ginseng as opposed to American.

Karma is hard to see when we only consider this life.

What if one's natual aptitude was for healing and still is, but over time have developed more of an inclination to escape society and contemplate spiritual things?

Since I don't really want to start another thread, I think I'll hijack this one. In regards to one's own personal dharma (in the Hindu) sense, how is one supposed to find it?

peace of mind at the moment. In the past in helping me solve more worldly problems.

So every now and then I feel the urge to do the Catholic rosary and to my surprise it seems to be effective. Does anyone else have experience with this?

Bump...

I don't know if I am familiar with that one.

Yes I think this is exactly what happened to me, but at the same time like you said I don't feel like I had much choice. My daughter was stuck with her abusive and narcissistic mother and told me that she really wanted to live with me. I had only recently built up my good karma to the level that I had a good job and an adequate amount of money. Her mother was not going to agree to let my daughter come live with me so I had to dedicate my good karma to this purpose. I knew at the time that it was going to set me back but it seemed like the thing to do anyways. Sure enough a little while later I did indeed get custody of her but it wasn't much later that my job and financial (plus spiritual practice) began to suffer. Since then I have spent the past couple years trying to build up my good karma reserves again and just now got hired at a better job. Now that I got a better job I'm sure I'm going to need to build up my good karma reserves again since my spiritual practice has seemed to suffer as well.

*gratitude, gratitude, gratitude _/\_ _/\_

Half the time I have no idea what you're saying but I'm going to like it anyway! :-)

I happily can now report that since I made this post I have been offered a new TCM job in another city and will be moving soon. This job should pay much better than my current one. Thank you for all the well wishers, and helpful wizards :-)