Creating Karma vs Creating Merits

[vajratruth]

Thank you for this post DS friend. It is true; people often talk about karma…perhaps because it has become the “in” subject. However, how many truly understand the significance of karma beyond its definition in texts and related material? I would imagine, very few. Thus, it is good to use this opportunity to reflect on our thoughts, understanding and relation with our karma.

From my understanding, karma is the seeds that we have sowed and accumulated in our mind stream as a natural consequence of our actions. On the other hand, merits are like the fertilizer or insecticide that helps us enhance the harvest of positive karma or protect us by reducing or minimize the damaging impact of negative karma.

Thus, with the amount of karma we have already accumulated and waiting to open to bring about its corresponding  consequences, I imagine that we should put our efforts to generating merits that will enable us to counter the opening of our negative karma and fully reap the manifestation of our positive karma.  In engaging in meritorious actions, we not only collect merits that fuel our Dharma journey, it also prevents us from generating more negative karma and create the causes for positive karma.

[bambi]

On how to create merits, there are some points that can be found in this topic http://www.dorjeshugden.com/forum/index.php?topic=988.15

Dear DS Friend, there are SO many ways to collect merits everyday! Sometimes even without knowing it.
From offerings to your Guru(if you have 1), the holy statue, water offerings, food offerings, butterlamps or candles, sound offerings, dana offerings, incense offerings, circumambulation of temples or stupas, reciting mantras, mandala offerings, pujas, etc.


Buddha in the Sutra of the Mudra of Developing the Power of Devotion:

The minute you see a holy object you create infinite merits,
So, no question, if you actually make prostrations,
Offerings, and so forth, you create far greater merit.

For example, in India, a person made one offering to a fully ordained monk. In his next rebirth, he was a powerful king in India. This result came from offering to a powerful object and the fact that karma is expandable. Just one simple offering to a monk or nun is so powerful. Offering to numberless buddhas, the Dharma, Sangha, statues, and scriptures means you receive a lot of merit. But offering to yourself as the guru/deity gains much greater merit than offering to numberless buddhas, the Dharma, Sangha, statues, and scriptures—it is far more powerful karma.

Benefits of Offering to Buddha
Offering one tiny flower to a statue or picture of Buddha receives immeasurable, limitless, merit. All the paths to happiness result from that. With just one grain of rice or one tiny flower, you can enter the path and achieve total enlightenment—the completion of all good qualities.

After achieving enlightenment, you can liberate so many sentient beings from so much suffering and samsara and bring them to enlightenment. This is the result of offering one tiny flower. Each offering has all this benefit—like putting money in the bank. One dollar equals one billion trillion dollars in interest. This is an amazing benefit. It is important to remember this every day and offer as much as possible. If you see a beautiful flower, you visualize offering it to the guru and Buddha. The result and benefit is incredible. You can offer every single flower in a garden—the merit received is mind-blowing.

This is how you use your precious human life, which is extremely rare and hard to find. Every time you see an object, use it to become closer to liberation and enlightenment. Many times each day, use your precious human rebirth to bring you closer and closer to liberation and enlightenment and thus to enlighten all sentient beings.

One more I think you will find interesting. 

Multiplying Mantras to Increase the Merit 100,000 Times:

CHOM DEN DE DE ZHIN SHEG PA DRA CHOM PA YANG DAG PAR DZOG PAI SANG GYE NAM PAR NANG DZE O KYI GYAL PO LA CHAG TSAL LO (3 times)

JANG CHUB SEM PA SEM PA CHEN PO KUN TU ZANG PO LA CHAG TSAL LO (3 times)

TAYATHA OM PANCHA GRIYA AVA BODHANI SOHA

OM DHURU DHURU JAYA MUKHE SOHA (7 times)

CHOM DEN DE DE ZHIN SHEG PA DRA CHOM PA YANG DAG PAR DZOG PAI SANG GYE NGO WA DANG MON LAM THAM CHE RAB TU DU PE GYAL PO LA CHAG TSEL LO

[Dondrup Shugden]

"This is how I understand this to work:

good karma = positive potential created from acting virtuously
merit = very powerful good karma created in connection with virtuous actions that are associated with the spread of Dharma and that are free from worldly motivation

our mindstream = a field
8 worldly concerns = poison / pollution
merits = crops

Crops cannot grow in a polluted field.
Merit cannot arise from actions motivated by worldly concerns.

However, the actions of our guru have a bodhichitta motivation, they are free of worldly motivation.
When we assist our guru in his mission to spread the Dharma, to help all sentint beings, to achieve the 4 immeasurables, we "tap" from his/her virtuous motivation, and we can create merit that way.
This is why we say our guru is our merit-field.

But, because we are not yet free of worldly concerns, we may not be able to keep the merit, not to mention accumulate merits.
Indeed, the very first anger we allow our mind to indulge with will destroy the merit we created, just like poison on a healthy crop would destroy it.

DEDICATION:
This is why we dedicate immediately after any action that may have been merit producing.
We dedicate the merit for the sake of all sentient beings, we "give it away".
How does this work?
Simple: once we got the crop, we distribute it to others before we spoil it. By acting this way, later on, when we need crops ourselves we will get some in return."

I have extracted the above contribution by Hope Rainbow and it has helped me to understand a lot about Dharma work and practice.

Do read this to assist in our spiritual path.