Special Topics
Happiness Comes as We Cultivate Blessings
Everyone desires happiness. However, where do the blessings of happiness come from? As Master Sheng Yen said, "Anyone who seeks blessings must first sow the seeds of blessing, cultivate blessings, and cherish blessings!" Most people associate blessing with enjoying good health and having everything go smoothly as one wishes, which, in fact, belongs to karmic rewards in the human and heavenly realms. The true sense of blessing is to attain human birth, so as to be able to ...
Cultivating Merit to Become Blessed
Everyone wants to have karmic blessings. However, in addition to recognizing and cherishing our blessings, it is necessary to take necessary action to cultivate blessings. We should make good use of the karmic reward of human birth to accumulate provisions for spiritual cultivation by practicing the bodhisattva path to move towards liberation. Photo credit: Li Cheng-feng (李澄鋒) Original Chinese text / Qiu Huimin (邱惠敏) Buddhists often use the term "karmic blessings&...
Concepts for Cultivating Meritorious BlessingsThe Buddhist Approach to Nurturing Merit and Spirituality
Giving, morality, and meditative practice are three bases of meritorious actions. According to the Buddha's progressive instruction, the practice of giving is the foremost in cultivating merit as practicing giving constantly not only helps us cultivate the mental strength to let go, but also facilitates attainment of the merits for maturing in morality and meditative practice. One can thereby develop insight to see through the essence of phenomena, as well as achieve the ultimate goal of ...
Fu-yan Monastery, founded on the basis of merit cultivation
Fuyan Monastery (福嚴精舍) was founded by Elderly Ven. Yin Shun (印順長老), an eminent Buddhist scholar. He was candid about his focus on intellectual and scholarly studies. As indicated in his autobiography An Ordinary Life (平凡的一生), "In Buddhist terms, my cultivation predominantly lies in wisdom." That being said, why did he name the monastery he first established "Fuyan," which means "being adorned with meritorious blessings?" Even Elderly Ven. Dao Yuan (...
Reflections and Habits to Cultivate BlessingsDebunk the Myths about Sustainability
To cultivate blessings, we need to develop good habits in our daily life. Nowadays, although many people have raised their environmental consciousness, are we really protecting the environment? Or have we accidentally become accomplices of greenwashing and guilt-tripping? Let's debunk the myths about sustainability by examining our own actions, and establishing wholesome habits that cultivate blessings. Original Chinese text by editorial team of Humanity Magazine ．X D...