Generosity and Charitable Projects

My very dear one,
Thank you very much for your kind email and for all the practices you have done and dedicated to the Maitreya statue project and the Medicine Buddha temple. I know that your heart is always trying to help me and these projects, for so many years since I met you, and I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart, first, for being such a kind, gentle, and sweet person, and also for being very devoted.

In the case of the Maitreya Project, it is a huge project, and of course it has incredible benefits. Probably the whole cost of the project is not much when you look at its benefits and how it will help sentient beings. If the statue lasts 1,000 years or more, it will have an incredible impact on sentient beings. Of course, there will be so many obstacles to making the statue. We need so much merit, hard work, and patience. It is like achieving enlightenment, so much merit and patience is needed to achieve the result and no matter how hard it is we can't give up.

In answer to your question about improving the business, it would be beneficial for you to do the following practices.

Recite the Sanghata Sutra four times to begin with and then begin your business project. In the first three weeks, recite the sutra three times a week. Then, recite the sutra twice a week for six weeks; then there will be success.

Your business partner should recite the Sanghata Sutra six times initially, then he can begin helping the business. He should continue to recite the sutra twice a week for three months.

Please give your partner my thousands of greetings and love.

And to you, billions of love and thanks ...

Normally, worldly business people think that the best way to invest is by doing business. But that is only certain when you make a profit. Until then, it’s uncertain. My own feeling is the most reliable investment is to offer money to monasteries and offer charity to sentient beings. This way, even though the result of the investment, the income, doesn’t appear right now, it is one hundred percent certain that it will be received in the near future.

The result of karma is that not only do you receive the income back, but the result manifests in various forms, various instances of happiness. The karmic result is so much more than the profit you would get from business. The result of karma is expandable, not just in one lifetime, but hundreds of thousands of lifetimes, and can also expand up to enlightenment.

This way, there is no loss at all. In the case of business, there is uncertainty until you actually make a profit. I feel this way, investing by making charity or offerings, is more satisfying. Then, not only do you get the result of whatever you achieve, but others get the benefit also. This is something to think about.

If you use money for business purposes, it becomes much harder for that action to be virtuous. The action of offering charity becomes a virtuous action much more easily. I am not saying that you can’t use money for business purposes, what I am saying is in regards to safety and unimaginable profit.