What is merit? In general terms it can be equated with good karma: accumulated by doing good things to benefit sentient beings. However, our aim should not be simply to accumulate vast amounts of merit by performing good deeds. Offering flowers in a temple, for example, is one way of gaining merit and offering one flower, or 500 flowers has the same merit. Offering a visualization of a flower is just as effective. Quantity is not important but intention is crucial. When a buddhist offers a flower in a temple with the motivation of asking the Buddha to help them to go beyond good and bad karma and achieve liberation, they are generating the purest kind of merit.

Onsite Translation: Spanish