After attending a blessing ceremony, do I still need to keep doing good?

Yes. You still need to continue doing good after the ceremony. During one ceremony, the Heavenly Official, the Civil God of Wealth, compared the blessings given to everyone to a seed of goodness. Once you receive the seed, cultivating it and helping others are your own next tasks.

This is also what the deities hope people understand. The discussion was not simply about paying five hundred dollars and receiving blessings. The Bodhisattva responded to people’s prayers by offering a little goodness and blessing for them to continue cultivating. Once they understand the teaching, they can share it with others. Teaching received through a ritual needs to connect with action afterward.

When someone asked what to watch out for on the ceremony day, my reminder was not to do bad things. A fellow practitioner added that doing good and accumulating virtue should be daily work: helping others and building good connections, rather than doing so only on the ceremony day. Speaking fewer hurtful words, not taking emotions out on children, relatives, friends or a partner, and keeping the mind clearer are all things to practice in everyday life.