Seeing the Fullness

"When you make merit, what is merit? It’s correctness. In other words, it’s bringing the mind to peace, away from all kinds of evil. All of you lay people have gathered to make merit, but when you look for the merit, each of you has to look for yourself. These things you’ve brought here are objects—lots of different objects. It’s like eating. You gain delicious tastes because of objects. But when you’re full, where is the fullness? You don’t know. The fullness doesn’t have any substance, but everyone knows that you feel full. Some people don’t see merit. Not seeing merit is like not seeing the fullness from eating. Suppose that we all eat a meal. We use up the curry; we use up the rice; we use up the sweets. And what do we gain? Fullness. Fullness isn’t a thing, but it appears in the mind. That’s what we gain. What does it come from? It comes from objects, from the activity of eating the objects. It’s the same with merit. I’ve heard people say, “I’ve made merit but I don’t see that I’ve gained any merit.” Apparently these people eat but without seeing any fullness. Don’t you know what fullness is? Fullness is the result that comes from eating. The activity we’re doing now is called making merit. It’s a convention. The merit is in the mind’s being serene and at ease."