The second cause is to gather the accumulation of merit. There are many wonderful ways that we can accumulate merit using our body, speech, and mind. 

With our body, we can offer prostrations. With our speech, we can recite mantras. With our mind, we can practice deep samadhi and meditate on love, compassion, and bodhichitta. 

We can also use our possessions and our wealth to make offerings to the buddhas and the Three Jewels and to make gifts to the downtrodden. 

In terms of practice, often the best way to accumulate merit is through what is known as the seven-branch prayer. 

The seven branches are to [1] prostrate, [2] make offerings, [3] make confessions, [4] rejoice in the virtue of others, [5] request the buddhas to turn the wheel of Dharma, [6] supplicate the buddhas and bodhisattvas not to pass into nirvana, and [7] dedicate the virtue to the benefit of others. 

Accumulating merit by means such as the seven-branch prayer is the second cause for rebirth in Amitabha’s pure realm of Sukhavati.

Source: Khenchen Thrangu. Advice from a Yogi: An Explanation of a Tibetan Classic on What Is Most Important. Padampa Sangye’s One Hundred Verses. Boston, MA: Shambhala Publications, 2015.

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The second principal meditation to cultivate as a condition necessary for rebirth in Sukhavati is to accumulate merit. Even though the transfer of merit from Amitabha is a principal force in our rebirth in Sukhavati, we need our own merit. 

[Note: Merit is virtually synonymous with good karma and is a cornerstone in Pure Land doctrine. Merit is what created Sukhavati and what is transferred to us by Amitabha that enables us to be reborn there. Good deeds are the best way to accumulate merit. See the many references to merit in Luis O. Gómez, The Land of Bliss: The Paradise of the Buddha of Measureless Light (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1996).]

Source: Holecek, Andrew. Preparing to Die: Practical Advice and Spiritual Wisdom from the Tibetan Buddhist Tradition. Boston & London: Snow Lion, 2013.

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