Giving Out Money Because It Brings Utmost Happiness

View this page in: ไทย

CASE STUDY

With great respect to Luang Phaw.

I am a leader of merit, a person who desires merit, and never forsake merit. So I make merit in dangerous locations: the 4 provinces along the Thailand-Malaysia border. Even though there is a crisis there, it is an opportunity to dedicate myself completely to making merit of every kind. I would like to make merit with Luang Phaw with great confidence. I will not flee anywhere.

My parents have 9 children, 5 girls and 4 boys. I am the seventh child. My father died when he was 49 years old due to liver disease. After his death, my oldest sister took helped care for her siblings until we grew up. My mother was the main income-earner for the family. My oldest sister unexpectedly died in an accident at the age of 49, while she was riding on the back of a motorcycle to run errands.

My mother’s health was never good. She was short of breath, had kidney stones, and had knee problems. For 3 years she could only lie down on her bed. While my mother was confined to her bed, my older sister (the fifth child) brought her pictures of Luang Pu, Luang Phaw, and Khun Yay to view. She had my mother make merit by building personal Buddha images for the interior and exterior of the central dome of the Dhammakaya Cetiya.

My mother’s health was normal sometimes, and sometimes she had strange symptoms. For example, she reached up with her hand to grab the air, or stared angrily. I would tell her to think always about her merit by whispering in her ear sometimes and holding her hands in a position of prayer sometimes. In the end, she died at the Yala Hospital, without a single one her children present. Three days after her death, my youngest sister dreamt that our mother came to tell her that she was going to depart, that we did not need to worry. Then my mother left.

When my husband was a teenager, he used to like running off for entertainment. My mother had to tie up his legs with rope and beat him with a rice thresher. If he cried, she would stuff chili peppers in his mouth. Sometimes she would tie him to a tree and let red ants bite him. But he was not deterred. He continued to run off. When he was 20 years old, his father who had raised him died of a stroke.

When my husband was 42, he got to know a woman who was like a spiritual medium. She told him that the people who had raised him were not truly his birth mother. He did not believe her, how could this be true? From that time on, he did not meet with that woman again.

Five years later (when my husband was 47), the mother who raised him became ill and partially senile. He wanted to know if what the spiritual medium had told him 5 years ago was true. So he sought out this woman and invited her to his home. She once again stressed that the person who raised him was not his mother by birth. She also said his real father had died. She claimed that his real father still waited my husband to visit his grave. His real father had not yet been reborn as a human being and was waiting to see his son’s face.

The spiritual medium told my husband to investigate his real parents’ history. When he did the investigation, he discovered her claims were true. The person who revealed the information said that there were 6 children in my husband’s family. My husband was the sixth child.

When he was born, his family was so poor that he was given to others to raise. His real father committed suicide by hanging. His mother has already passed away. His adopted parents took him to raise because they did not have children of their own.

When he asked his blood siblings and relatives questions, they told the same story. His older brother told him that if they had not taken him to his adopted parents to raise, he would have surely died. This is because the family was so poor. My husband was taken to see the gravesites of his real parents who were buried next to one another. He told them not to worry about him, that they could be reborn as human beings.

His adopted mother is now 79 years old and has Alzheimer’s disease. One day one of the house servants asked her how many children she had. She responded that she did not have any, that she had adopted 2 children: a boy and a girl. These children were my husband and his own adopted sister. This corresponded to the story he had unearthed.

My husband has many occupations. He is a construction contractor, a builder of housing developments, owns an auto body shop, owns a car-care shop, organizes concerts, and has various other businesses. I married him in 1987. After our marriage, our situation was excellent. Our friends came to visit us constantly. It was the most prosperous time in our lives. We had luxury cars of every brand. Our various businesses all made money. We had an income of at least 10 million baht per month.

Once my husband organized a concert and made 700,000 baht in one night. He was so happy that he took all the bank notes that were in the bag with the concert proceeds and threw them to the audience members in front of the stage.

But in 1993, one company put out a tender to construct 15 rubber drying factories. The company proposed that my husband be the agent to arrange for the construction of the factories and made him sign as guarantor.

My husband was to receive 200,000 baht for each factory. But construction of the factories was not completed. The builder fled. The company who had the contract with my husband put the financial burden on him as the guarantor, about 20 million baht.

From that time on, our situation deteriorated. Whatever business we tried, they all failed.

We had to borrow money to solve the problems with our family. We had very high debts, both with banks and with private lenders. We ended up with a total debt of more than 100 million baht.

Our lives are like this. We have happiness, we have suffering. We have good times and bad times. But regardless of whether our lives meet our expectations or disappoint us, we must have concentration and do the best we can at whatever we are doing.

I and my husband had to go to the police station and court regularly for more than 7 years. Sometimes we won, sometimes we lost. For the cases we lost, we appealed many cases.

This series of events led my husband to be very forlorn. Whatever he saw that he could rely on, he would seek it out.

One of my husband’s friends was a cleric of a Chinese shrine in Yala Province. He invited my husband to meditate at the shrine. He meditated this way for about 2 years.

The cleric friend said “If you want to have good things occur and pay off your debts, you must perform a rite to respect the Chinese deities.”

My husband asked “I am meditating. Why do I need to perform a rite to respect the deities?” His friend responded: “If you perform the rite, your debts will disappear more rapidly.” He also said that my husband had his name in heaven already. If a person did not have his name in heaven, he could not be a disciple of the shrine. So my husband agreed to perform the rite.

In 2000, my brother-in-law invited my husband to be ordained in an ordination ceremony for 10,000 novice monks at Phra Dhammakaya Temple.

So we had an opportunity to know the community which had profound and vast determination. My brother-in-law became our kalyanamitta(virtue friend). He recommended that we meditate a lot to end the problems in our lives.

One night in the future, my husband paid respect to the deities at the Chinese shrine. He spoke with his cleric friend who had invited him to meditate.

They spoke about the various events that had occurred, why these events had occurred, how our businesses at that time were failures, and how our employees were troublesome. His friend said that the problems had occurred because we had changed from respecting the deities to visiting Phra Dhammakaya Temple.

Presently, my husband is very concerned. He does not dare to stop meditating according to the cleric’s instruction because his afraid the disciples of the shrine will harm him.

But presently, our family has strength of will and hope because kalyanamitta(virtue friend) in Yala suggested that we install a DMC reception dish. They invited us to make offerings, keep the precepts, and meditate regularly.

My husband and I also helped to organize a project to make offerings to the monastic order in all 4 provinces along the Thailand-Malaysia border. It was amazing that after we helped with the project to assist the 266 temples in southern Thailand, we landed a major construction project. This gave our lives hope that we could make merit and repay our debts.

Presently, we use our house as a meeting place for kalyanamitta and as a place to stay for monks and layman who come to work in Yala province.

Questions:

1. My father died from a liver disease. Before my mother died, my older sister and I told her to remember the merit she had made with the temple. My oldest sister died in an accident. My husband’s adopted father died from a stroke. Where are all 4 of them? Did they receive the merit we made on their behalf?

2. What demerit caused my husband to be born in a poor family, such that his parents had to give him to another family to raise since he was a baby? How were my husband’s adopted parents connected with him in past lives, such that they were together in this life?

3. The spiritual medium told my husband that his real father had committed suicide by hanging because of sorrow. Why did his real father hang himself? The spiritual medium told my husband to pay respect to his real father at the gravesite because his real father had not been reborn yet as a human being. Is this true? My husband has paid his respects. Has his real father been reborn?

4. Why my husband and me were very wealthy for a while then had a difficult situation with a lot of debt? We must wait for long periods between the times we receive money from our business activities. How can we solve our problems so that we will receive money easily and not have to wait?

What can we do to achieve success in business in every case? Will we be rich again?

5. The spiritual medium once told my husband that my husband had failed to respect money when he had thrown it to the crowd in front of the stage. For this reason, our family had financial problems. Is this true?

Later, my husband opened a canteen to give away free meals to make merit for the King annually during 4-6 December. He did this for 2-3 years and a financial situation improved. The spiritual medium told him that the deities had returned the money to him. This was because he had redeemed himself through making merit for the King by giving away bank notes with the King’s portrait. But the money would not be returned all at once. It would come gradually and would be more than the amount originally taken. Is this true?

6. Why did my husband have a connection with the Chinese shrine? His cleric friend said my husband was a disciple of the shrine because his name was in heaven. A person without his name in heaven could not be a disciple. Is this true?

7. Once my husband wished with Luang Pu before meditating. He wished that he could pay off all his debts by the year 2007.

He asked for the clouds to darken but not to rain. When he stopped meditating, the clouds darkened but it was raining very hard. Will our debts be repaid as he wished? Does this kind of wish combined with a bet produce good or bad results?

8. Why is it that whenever I and my husband are going to make merit, something bad happens to prevent us first. This occurs quite often and has occurred for many years. For example, once I was celebrating at our house that I was going to the temple the next day for the Kathina ceremony. Suddenly my second daughter fell from the railing that was used to block off the street. She broke her arm and had to go to the hospital.

The last occurrence was when we were going to meditate at the Suan Pannawat Retreat and major flooding blocked our travel. But we succeeded in getting there. Is there something we can do about the demerit that causes this problem? What demerit caused my daughter to have the accident in which she broke her arm?

9. I help the Dhammakaya community to organize offerings to the monastic order for the 266 temples in the 4 provinces along the Thailand-Malaysia border. Every time we finish organizing such ceremonies, we always have a new work project come along. Why this happen? What will be the result of our merit-making for the 266 southern temples?

10. What will be the results of the merit made by the monks, coordinators, merit-making leaders, and kalyanamitta (virtue friend) that have not avoided our region and have worked to bring peace there? How will the results of their merit arise? What should we do to improve safety for us and for them?

11. I always experience migraine headaches. When I have a migraine, I also get a cold. What demerit causes this and what should I do about it?

12. When my husband has a problem, my brother-in-law (my fifth older sister’s husband) advises him and performs his responsibilities as a kalyanamitta very well. How are they connected to one another? How did my fifth older sister, her husband, me, and my husband make merit with the Dhammakaya community in the past?

With great respect to Luang Phaw.

Luang Phaw's Dream

I closed my eyes, dreamed and woke up with these answers.
When you tell anybody the story like a tale, it will make anyone know more about retribution (Law of Kamma)

1. Your father died from a liver disease. After his death, he initially roamed around, then was born again as a human being. He has been a human being for a long time.

Your mother died and became an air sprite as a result of the merit that you had her make and the merit made for her, combined with the merit made on her behalf.

Your oldest sister died in an accident. She was born again as a human being because she had used up her demerit. So she did not receive the merit you made on her behalf.

Your husband’s adopted father died from a stroke. When he died, he was taken by denizens of hell to Purgatory of the 1st Major hell reserved for those who violate the precept against taking life, due to his demerit from killing animals for food and for sacrifices at shrines. He is being tortured by the denizens of hell who are cutting him open and eviscerating him. He is suffering greatly.

He received the merit you made on his behalf. His demerit has lessened. Continue to make merit on his behalf so he can end his time in hell.

2. Your husband was born in a poor family. His own parents could not raise him and had to give him to another family to raise. This is because of both merit and demerit from his past.

In one past life, he was stingy and did not like to give to charity. This led him to be born in a poor family. But in another past life he liked to care for his relatives. So there was someone in his present life that could raise him from when he was a baby.

Your husband’s adopted parents are connected to him because they were his relatives in a past life when your husband supported them. So in his present life his adopted parents supported him.

3. The spiritual medium said that your husband’s real father had committed suicide by hanging because he was depressed. This is true. His real father was dejected and had lost hope in his life.

When he died, he became a low-level earth spirit. He has a rope wrapped around his throat and stays around the area of his gravesite because he has not used up his demerit. Your husband should make merit and dedicate it to his real father very often. When he has used up his demerit, he will be born again. But he has still not been reborn.

4. You and your husband were very rich for a while, but later you had a lot of debt and a difficult situation. You also receive money from your businesses only intermittently and have to wait for each sum of money to come. This is because you did not make merit regularly in your past lives.

When you had faith, you made merit to the fullest extent. But sometimes after you made merit you felt regret due to your stinginess.

You must make merit easily and often, with a clear and cool heart. Do not be irritable when you are making merit. When the results of the merit arise, you will receive large amounts of assets easily.

You have the chance to become rich again. You must be determined to accumulate new merit to the fullest extent, using the methods I just explained.

5. The spiritual medium once told your husband that giving away the money to the crowd in front of the stage was disrespectful to the money. As a result, your family had financial problems. This is just a case of the careless use of money. The main demerit is from the past when you felt regret after making merit, due to your stinginess. So you did not have merit that would lead you to be wealthy. Your wealth was destroyed for various reasons.

Later, your husband opened a canteen to give away free meals to make merit for the King annually during 4-6 December. He did this for 2-3 years and a financial situation improved. The spiritual medium told him that the deities had returned the money to him. This is a matter of making merit through acts of generosity in his present life. His generosity stemmed from the important national holiday.

But it is not about his redemption from his giving away the money. As for the claim that his money will gradually come back and that he will receive more than he had originally, this depends on his present actions. Is he constantly accumulating merit from his great generosity or not?
If he gives to charity constantly, his merit will arise to make the situation better than it was originally. But if he does not behave this way, his desire will not be met.

6. Your husband is connected with the Chinese shrine because in his past lives he had a life pattern which believed in the Chinese deities which were earth sprites who stayed around the shrine for many lives. So he circulated in this life pattern. It is not about having his name in heaven.

7. Before meditating, your husband wished with Luang Pu that all his debts would be repaid by 2007. He wished that the sky would darken but that it would not rain. But the sky became dark and it rained heavily. Do not have this attitude. Be determined to perform major acts of merit in the future. This will make the merit in your present lives give results that improve your lives.

As for the rain falling heavily or lightly, or whether the sky is dark or bright, this all depends on the rain and sky. It is better that you accumulate merit and forget all about these stories.

Wishing combined with betting will not result in anything of value. It is better to make merit, apply wisdom, use willpower, etc.

8. When you and your husband are going to make merit, something bad happens to prevent you first. This occurs quite often and has occurred for many years. This is because you did not make merit constantly. When you made merit, you were always irritable. This caused your demerit from past lives to show its results.

The solution is to stop making your merit incomplete. You should make merit with a clear and cool mind. Also, you should not pay attention to the various bad events that occur. Do not show interest and make be determined to make merit with a clear and cool mind.

Your daughter broke her arm because in a past life when she was a teenager, she teased her friend who was sitting on the edge of a balcony. She made her friend fall off the balcony and broke his arm.

9. You help the Dhammakaya community to organize offerings to the monastic order for the 266 temples in the 4 provinces along the Thailand-Malaysia border. Every time we finish organizing such ceremonies, we always have a new work project come along. This is because the results of the merit you make are arising.

The merit you earn from assisting with the offerings for the 266 southern temples will result in your receiving help from others, regardless of where you are born. Your enemies will not be able to harm you. This results of this merit will arise in your present lives. You will have a connection with Buddhist merit. You will live long, have a good complexion, have power, possess wisdom, have a good appearance, be wealthy, have good personal characteristics, have good luck, have a high rank and position, be praised by others, and be happy.

10. The monks, coordinators, merit-making leaders, and kalyanamitta(virtue friend) that have not avoided our region and have worked to bring peace there. When the results of this merit arise, the results will be as I just described. The results of this merit will be stronger than normal because this merit is difficult to perform. They are giving their lives to make merit (currently, monks and others are being killed in Thailand’s southern provinces). It is the highest good.

Recall all the merit made. Think of the Triple Gem. Perform loving-kindness meditation. Wish for merit and the Triple Gem to protect all of you. Use wisdom and do not be careless and neglectful.

11. You have migraine headaches and colds. These are the result of the stress in your life. As for the demerit from your past lives, you used to tease young ducks who were swimming by dunking their heads under the water.

12. When your husband has a problem, your brother-in-law (your fifth older sister’s husband) advises him and performs his responsibilities as a kalyanamitta very well. In a past life, your brother-in-law was your husband’s kalyanamitta. Sometimes your husband followed his advice and sometimes not. So in many lives, he did not meet with the Dhammakaya community.

Your fifth older sister, your brother-in law, you, and your husband made merit with the Dhammakaya community as supporters in your past lives. You and your husband made merit according to your mood. Your older sister and your brother-in-law made merit continually.

In this life we meet again and diligently make all forms of merit to the fullest degree. Make the resolution that when you pass away we will all go to Tusita (the fourth level of heaven) together. Let us not miss each other.