Why Go Around Spreading Merit and Chanting?

Many people wonder why does Luang Ta Ma have to build Jakkapat Buddhas, Luang Pu Doo statues, and travel around to chant at different places.

Luang Ta replied that the reason why we have to go around praying, depositing a stream of merit there, or place some statues, amulets or even the Jakkapat Crystal ‘Look Kaew’ around is because some beings or spirits are not able to travel far beyond their place of residence.

Life in the spirit and ghost world is more difficult than that of the human world. In the human world, we can still help each other out regarding food, we can share our food and invite the less privileged to dinner.

But assuming we are all dead, we may not be able to ‘share’ our food with our friends because every spirit has to reap the fruits of their kamma. For hungry ghosts, even if we want to share our food with them, they may not be able to eat it.

Due the limitation of light and merit, some beings in the Jatumaharajika (4 Great Heavenly Kings) realm can only wander around 3km from their dwelling place. For instance, for the Nagas and Garudas, only the more senior Nagas and Garuda leaders can travel about freely. Very low-level Nagas have to stay near their dwelling and cannot go far.

Therefore it is up to us humans to go around pae-ing metta and sharing merit. We can also build Jakkapat and Luang Pu Doo statues, or give smaller Jakkapat, Luang Pu Thuad and Luang Pu Doo buchas and amulets to temples to share the light and merit around. This will allow the Earth-bound (Bhumma) Devas and spirits in the area to benefit and anumodana with our merit.

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