Date: 10/25/2025 10/26/2025
Location: Star Ocean Meditation Center
Teacher: Sara
Sitting Meditation
Final Liberation and the Fulfillment of Merit
The ultimate aim of practice is not the attainment of special experiences, but complete liberation from attachment to birth, death, affliction, and self. When ignorance is fully illuminated, grasping naturally ceases, and the mind is no longer driven by conditions. The fulfillment of merit does not lie in external accumulation, but in the full maturation of wisdom, compassion, and awareness as they function freely in life. Liberation is not separation from the world, but freedom within it.
1. The True Meaning of Liberation: Freedom from Suffering, Not Escape
1.Liberation is not withdrawal from life
It is living within conditions without being driven by greed, aversion, or delusion.
2.Liberation arises from direct insight into reality
When impermanence, non-self, and non-substantiality are clearly seen, the roots of suffering dissolve.
3.Liberation results from the cessation of clinging
Not by suppression, but by understanding the illusory nature of attachment.
2. The True Source of Merit: Inner Transformation
1.Merit arises from purified intention
Each moment free from afflictive reaction contributes to genuine merit.
2.Wisdom is the highest merit
Seeing reality clearly brings all wholesome qualities to completion.
3.Compassion naturally follows wisdom
As self-centeredness fades, care for others arises effortlessly.
4.True merit seeks no reward
Its fulfillment is inherent in the act itself.
3. Signs of Fulfillment: Ease and Stability of Mind
1.Unshaken by circumstances
Gain and loss no longer disturb inner balance.
2.Emotions arise without bondage
They appear but do not entangle the mind.
3.Action becomes naturally ethical
Conduct aligns with clarity without contrivance.
4.Life itself is practice
All activities unfold within awareness.
4. Conduct After Liberation: Returning to Benefiting Others
1.No fixation on personal attainment
Avoiding subtle identification with liberation itself.
2.Action guided by wisdom
Responses arise from clarity rather than habit.
3.Compassion toward all beings
Recognizing others still caught in confusion, patience and kindness prevail.
4.Non-abiding in merit
Beneficial action remains free from self-reference.
5. Fulfillment Is Not an Endpoint: Ongoing Unfolding of Awareness
1.Nothing to attain, nothing lacking
Without seeking an endpoint, completeness is present everywhere.
2.Awareness continues without effort
It manifests and functions naturally.
3.Great freedom within birth and death
Phenomena continue, but bondage does not.
Conclusion
Final liberation is the end of deception by illusion; the fulfillment of merit is the natural expression of wisdom and compassion in life. When clinging ceases and awareness is present, liberation is not future attainment, but complete realization in this very moment.
