32. Heavenly Soul Memory
Storytelling sessions are inherently about things that are intangible and invisible, things that don't even exist in many traditional Buddhist scriptures or in history. So why do some people believe them while others don't? That's actually fate. What exactly is fate? It means that you must have heard similar things in countless lifetimes of reincarnation, but after drinking the Meng Po soup, your human soul forgot, while your heavenly soul remembered. You think you don't remember, but your heavenly soul does. When these things are mentioned, your heavenly soul senses them—though your human soul doesn't, your heavenly soul influences you. After the last storytelling session, several students heard some of the content and felt extremely wronged, with tears in their eyes—this is the memory of your heavenly soul. That's why you inexplicably feel wronged and sad, wondering how you ended up like this.
33. Karmic Backlash
Some people reacted to the stories. Some said, "I no longer doze off when listening to your stories, although my brow feels tight and swollen, my legs feel numb, but I feel very energetic"—this shows that you are gradually adapting, and listening to my stories is actually similar to the feeling of spiritual cleansing. Some people feel dizzy or sleepy while listening because their soul energy is too weak, and this happens when they are impacted. Many people feel spiritual or inspired after listening, and can see some things—this is only limited to the one-hour storytelling time; after that, they will not be in this state. Some people experience back pain or discomfort after spiritual cleansing, including you, who also felt uncomfortable while listening to my stories—these are generally the result of karmic backlash. I have found that some students or listeners like to share our content. Please share it privately, not in the public sphere. It doesn't matter if you share it overseas. Remember: in this cycle of reincarnation, when you help others gain wisdom and become enlightened, the karmic forces that hindered them from becoming enlightened or intelligent will inevitably backfire on you, sometimes even subjecting you to attacks from the Dharma realm.
34. Positive Feedback System
When you do something, it should always have a positive outcome—doing your homework correctly earns you praise from your teacher, doing a good job gets you a bonus from your boss, doing something good earns you a kiss from your wife—these are all positive feedback, positive rewards. Any effective action you take constitutes a positive feedback system. It's when you accomplish something and produce a good result, quickly giving you a feeling—a sense of accomplishment. In the human system, the strongest positive feedback mechanism is games. Why do many children enjoy playing games? Because you get an immediate reward for doing something right. If you want to go from last place to first place, it takes a long time and a lot of effort and change; many people can't wait that long and give up. All actions of all living beings, if done in a state of indifference, cannot be sustained for long—this is the positive feedback system.
35. Instant Retribution
The Dharma-ending Age is actually quite easy for spiritual practice. The Dharma-ending Age brings immediate karmic retribution, and its greatest advantage is the rapid speed of Heavenly Examination and feedback—whether you do bad things or good things, they will immediately manifest. A significant benefit of this immediate karmic retribution in the Dharma-ending Age is that all our spiritual practice and actions will more easily enter a state of accelerated awareness. In the Dharma-free Age, it's truly difficult to see results. While the reaction is also rapid, the key is that you can't easily see things beyond this plane, making it less effective—you can't divine, you can't request talismans, and other planes have little connection to our world.
36. How to measure merit
Throughout the entire spiritual practice system, including one's entire life and the entire cycle of reincarnation, you rarely change yourself. What is merit? It's the positive change you make to someone's behavior; your actions must be effective. Buddhist scriptures don't explain, or don't clearly explain, how to measure merit. The measure of merit is: the amount of positive change you bring to another being—whoever they are—is the quantity of your merit. Theoretically, it's a one-to-one correspondence without any destruction or depletion. For example, if with your help they can have 100 years of happiness, then you will have the merit of 100 years of happiness equivalent to one person. But in reality, it's very difficult to achieve because there are many places in this world where there is consumption and depletion.
37. Merits with Defilements
In the process of benefiting all beings, it's impossible for most of us to be completely without thoughts. When you have thoughts, it's easy to generate flawed merit—it's impossible to obtain 100% merit; it's almost always flawed. The same action, the same result, yields completely different merits due to different thoughts. There was once a very capable student who was the river god in charge of a river. This river was about to flood, potentially drowning hundreds of thousands of villagers. The river god sacrificed himself to save many people. With the result unchanged: Scenario 1: The river god felt he had to sacrifice himself, but he accepted it to protect so many people—almost 100% merit. Scenario 2: He hesitated, wanting to live, and after much deliberation, gritted his teeth and rushed forward—at most 90% merit. Scenario 3: He didn't want to go, but his superior found out and said it was his duty—directly cutting 50% merit. Scenario 4: He didn't want to go in the first place, but was forced to go—at most 20% merit. The actions and results are exactly the same, but the thoughts are slightly different, resulting in completely different amounts of merit—this is flawed merit, also called the law of contamination.
38. Why is the merit of giving the Dharma so great?
Giving the Dharma is about resolving a person's mental problems. Once a person's thoughts change, it is very likely that their thinking and behavior will change throughout countless lifetimes of reincarnation. Giving the Dharma is equivalent to rescuing a problematic being from the cycle of rebirth and bringing about a positive change in them—not just a change in one lifetime or one city, but also including the change in other beings because of them. The accumulated merit is immeasurable.
39. Why is it so difficult to accumulate merit in the human world?
If you're trying to help others in this world, but you yourself are struggling and facing difficulties, how can you change their fate or life? It's almost impossible. Many people spend their entire lives practicing and still can't change their destiny. Some people ask if they can practice Dharma giving. Yes, but there are two difficulties: First, can you truly understand the Dharma? If you don't have a certain level of understanding of Buddhism and the Great Way of Heaven and Earth, you can only parrot others, be a broken record, or explain Buddhism using worldly ideas. You have to break these things down, explain them in simple terms so that others can understand, and even test them. Second, there's a huge gap between reality and ideals. Many things in Buddhism and the Way of Heaven sound simple, but are extremely difficult to do. It's not enough to just know the principles; reality needs to be changed little by little, and you have to fight against it little by little. All sentient beings possess Buddha-nature, but not every sentient being can become a Buddha—Buddha-nature and becoming a Buddha are two different things. Accumulating merit in this world is extremely difficult.
40. Methods for Accumulating Merit in the Human World
There are now six ways to accumulate merit: fortune telling (the number of merits is extremely limited), requesting talismans (some have a lot of merits, some have a little), ritual implements (ritual implements that can ward off disasters generate a lot of merits), repaying karmic debts (the one that generates the most merits among the six), salvation (far exceeding ordinary merits, it is the greatest merit), and cleansing the spirit.
41. Why does repaying karmic debts generate more merit?
Ghosts in the underworld desperately want to be reborn as humans because their suffering there is too great. Repaying karmic debts from past lives is extremely effective. When you diligently help clients or those you wish to guide to liberation resolve their karmic debts accumulated over countless lifetimes, it may seem like you're helping them repay one debt. But they might have 100 creditors; by resolving the debts of all 100, you're essentially helping 100 beings. You may only be helping one person, but in the Dharma realm, benefiting any being is meritorious. Repaying karmic debts resolves problems that have existed for decades or even centuries; the more debts you resolve, the greater the merit you accumulate.