Wishes Come Through and the Importance of Merit : หน้า 72/135

103. WISHES COME THROUGH I made the following resolution while leaving a robe-offering ceremony to monks on the occasion of the Magha Puja Day® in which I was the ceremonial leader. Bring your mind to the center of the body and ask that tree-spirits, earth-spirits, celestial beings from the six heavens, Brahmas from the sixteen Brahma Spheres and the four Higher Brahma Spheres, and beings from throughout the vast universes, to acknowledge and rejoice in the merit that I am making in offering this saffron robe. Let everyone share in my merit. Let Luang Por Dhammayo, Luang Por Dattajevo, and every monk at the temple, share in my merit. May everyone receive merit with an open heart, and the more open your heart, the more merit you will receive. Those who fully open their heart to receive this merit will receive it in full; those whose heart is only partially open will receive it partially--like water spilling away from a container. February 11, 1991 *Magha Puja* a Buddhist holy day commemorating the Buddha's delivery of a landmark sermon to 1,250 enlightened disciples mona. 104. MERIT IS NEVER WASTED While inviting people to attend the Robe Offering Ceremony on Magha Puja Day of 1990, I delivered the following address: You can take merit with you. Even if you have only a little to make an offering, do it anyways. Little by little, your merit builds up, like putting coins into a piggy bank. If you were a billionaire, but you never made any merit, then after death you will become empty-handed. Merit is the only thing you carry with you through the lifetimes. Merit is never a waste. As for your worldly possessions, they no longer belong to you once you leave this world. Someone else will be using them, or they will fall back into the earth. November 13, 1989