Good morning friends. It’s said that, it is in our actions that we can direct ourselves to common good. It’s true that it depends to our self if we want to make it good or to make it bad. We have to clear our mind that we have to direct our actions for the common good all the time.
On many occasions we may have a feeling to perform a virtuous or meritorious act to instil ‘the feel good’ factor. This is a noble thing to do and one can increase the benefits arising from such actions by being mindful of a few things.
Often when actions of such nature are performed they may arise out of a feeling of guilt, of pride in doing good deeds, or to fuel ambitions in this life. While such feelings will bring no benefit at all, those that arise out of a pure mind, uncontrived, unconditioned and unconceptualized, the merits of such actions can be magnified.
Actions by themselves have no direction of their own; they have no capacity to bring merit unless the action is dedicated from an arising from the source, towards a particular person or people and the goal of directing the dedication.
One day, the residents of a town invited the Buddha to a meal. Soon after they left, 500 pretas – those born in the hungry ghost realm – arrived and requested him to dedicate to them the merit of the alms the people would offer to the Buddha. On asking the reason, the pretas said they were the parents of these residents and were reborn as pretas due to their miserly behavior. The Buddha agreed on the condition that they accompany him. On seeing them the people were horrified. On the Buddha’s explanation and reassurance to them they calmed down. The Buddha made a request for dedicating their sources of merit to the pretas. The people agreed unanimously.
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