CAUSES OF FAILURES OF DOING MERIT INCORRECTLY
These days many Buddhists do not understand how to do merit correctly according to Buddhism. A good deed that has been done incorrectly which causes one’s merit failure comes from 4 reasons: performing virtue in the wrong place, to the wrong person, at the wrong time and never follow-up one virtue.
1. Perfnrming virtue in the wrong place. An example is that some people prepare food and many other useful things to do merit, but instead of giving alms as a religious tradition, they worship a spirit house, a spirit at a big tree, forest ghost or a spirit of the sea, and so on. They think they are doing merit correctly. According to Buddhism, we will not gain merit if we do it in the wrong place.
2. Performing virtue to the wrong person. This case means that we offer food and things to support those who are bad or mischievous. For example, those people who do not beleive in virtue, who do not accept the 5 precepts, who are trouble makers, heroin addicts , and so on. If we offer food, money or any other things, it will only help them and support them to perform more bad deeds. Things would be even worse as if we offered them weapons, guns, and grenades to kill other good people. This is to do good or performing virtue to the wrong person which is failure to receive merit.
3. Performing virtue at the wrong time. This is like growing plant in the improper season. The plant will not grow well. If we grow a rainy season plant during the dry season or grow a cold climate plant in a warm place, the plant will not grow; and we will only waste time in doing so.
Suppose we want to support animals like elephant, horse, cow, tiger, bear and poisonous snake that we like to take care of. If we are not aware enough of time to feed or to treat them, we may be in danger or be killed. This is to do good at a wrong time. It never works.
The result is the same when we want to do good to other people in a wrong time. We should not forget that people are born with individual differences and with different levels of intelligence. If we come across a mischievous people who carry weapons, or who are alcoholic or addicted to heroin or some other vice, and want to teach them to be good or to learn about Dhamma, they may not be ready to learn at that time. Moreover, this may contradict their defilements and make them angry. We may get hurt or be killed by them, because we are not aware of the suitable time to do this.
One other group of people that we like to do good to, but it is wrong time, are those who do not believe in religion, who never go to a Wat or any religious temple.
They may not know anything about doing merit or even paying respect in the right posture to the Buddha image. It is not the right time to teach them about the Dhamma. They may not be ready to learn.
It is not possible to force someone who is not ready to observe the five precepts or do meditation. This may cause a great deal of conflict. It is the timing that is important.
4. Performing virtue with no follow-up one’s virtue. This means that one used to do something good before but stopped doing it and did not follow-up the work. For example, when we were students, we used to study hard, then we gave up such good things we accomplished. Or once we used to work as teachers or government officials who worked responsively and then gave up such good habits.
The same goes for those who work in the fields, planting staples like rice, fruit, and many other plants, but do not take care of them. In this case, grass and weeds may cover the fields and destroy other living plants, so they will not bear any good products.
In building things like a house, flat, apartment and other constructions, if the work has been half done, we cannot earn money since people cannot live in them. The same goes for half-built roads or bridges, for they cannot be used.
On the other hand, there are people who used to help others and do merit like giving alms to monks, then for no reason, they stop doing so. Those who use to observe the 5 or 8 precepts, or practice meditation, then stop doing so, thinking of consuming time, saying that there is no time or they are too busy to do things and forget all about the religious practice.
In summary, we should follow-up or continue to perform virtue; otherwise, we will not receive good result as we wish.
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