Do good deeds need a return before we can continue?

You need not wait for a return before continuing good deeds. First examine whether you genuinely want to help. Calculating what each contribution will bring turns it into an exchange. Learning the deities' way of thinking includes caring beyond our own relatives and friends, being willing to help someone unrelated to us.

This can begin with sweeping, mopping, and organizing the surroundings. Claiming a wish to help living beings while regarding cleaning as lowly and wanting only spiritual powers calls for examining where the heart really is. Willingness to bend down and do what is available also practices groundedness, humility, and gratitude.

My disciples and I have experienced giving simply to help, then unexpectedly receiving assistance elsewhere. We paid for sacred work to protect Taiwan without anyone paying us at the time, and later felt other gains. Miao Nian also shared changing jobs within the industry after an invitation from a former supervisor, with an increase in pay. Through her experience, she understood that money needs to circulate and that willing giving and helping also receive a Bodhisattva's response. Her faith experience and the actual career change need to be understood together.

We also discussed news of a monk helping a lottery seller. What mattered to me was buying to help, not first intending to win. The heart remains central to doing good. Following the story by buying a ticket does not secure the same result. Contribute money or effort as able and begin with small things if capacity is limited. Be grateful for a response, but lack of thanks does not make the contribution meaningless.

Nearly a year into recording, we had received no online financial sponsorship but much encouragement from listeners. Some commented that they had gained something; some visited and later became clients or friends. These connections were unanticipated. We continued to share useful knowledge, not because we had calculated a particular amount of sponsorship in return.

A mind without contrived purpose helps naturally without concealing a further demand. For example, saying a contribution is voluntary while planning to win someone's approval first and later sell expensive items calls for clarity about whether we want to help or are using goodwill as another strategy.

The story of Emperor Wu of Liang asking about merit also offers this reminder. After building temples and making offerings, he asked how much merit he had, and Bodhidharma answered that there was none. In discussing this traditional story, I mean that acting solely to obtain merit still involves an exchange in the heart, differing from a natural wish to help.

Still, complete selflessness is difficult to reach at once. Beginning with some expectations and purposes is acceptable to me to a degree. If you cannot yet immediately feel another person's suffering as your own, that is all right. Adjust gradually and become kinder. Do the outward work while continuing to understand your motives. Remaining expectations do not require abandoning your willingness to help altogether.

Not expecting a return also has a scope. Giving time and effort at work and receiving wages or bonuses is not wrong. Life also includes another kind of giving: parents caring for children through love, without demanding an equivalent item back for every act. This example invites understanding of sincerity and learning the deities' love for living beings.