Make Your Own Merit Jar
All you need to make your own Merit Jar is a Mason Jar or a clean mayonaisse jar...any medium to large jar with a lid will do fine.
Print this picture of Geshe Jinpa and paste it on the side of your jar.
Tie a ribbon around the top of the jar and decorate the lid in whatever way you would like.
Recite the dedication prayer every time you drop in your change.
If you would like to make a donation with your credit card, recite the Merit Prayer as you make your offering.
The Actual Practice
I now clear my mind of all distractions and take refuge in the Three Jewels – Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.
In order to reach enlightenment as quickly as possible for the benefit of all sentient beings, I am going to engage in the practice of generosity using the Merit Jar.
Now, I imagine that in the space in front of me appears my immeasurably kind spiritual guide, who is in essence the fully awakened Buddha, in the form of Lama Tsongkhapa or whatever deity I am practicing.
As well, I am surrounded by the numberless suffering sentient beings of the six realms in human form, as far as I can see in all directions. All of these sentient beings have been suffering incredibly since beginningless time, exactly like myself.
Thinking like this, I am filled with heartfelt and unbearable compassion for the suffering of all these sentient beings, who have been incredibly kind and have been my mother countless times in my past lives. I am filled with the wish to free them from their sufferings, at any cost, as quickly as possible.
My heart is completely filled with joy that I am able to benefit sentient beings by making a contribution to the projects of our precious teacher Geshe Jinpa Sonam and the IBC.
Now visualize your money offering benefiting all sentient beings. (Imagine that you are not just offering physical money but offering limitless skies of the most precious offering substances of all kinds to fulfill the wishes and relieve the sufferings of all sentient beings.)
The Buddha appearing in front of me is very pleased and sends forth a rain of wisdom nectar that flows into me and purifies all my obscurations to enlightenment. The nectar also flows into all the sentient beings that surround me. They too are completely purified and satisfied, and they are all transformed into Buddha.
Dedication
I dedicate these merits that in all our future lives I and all mother sentient beings may never be separated from the extremely kind and pure guru, who is the foundation of all good qualities and the only cause of our realizations along the path to enlightenment. Through these merits, may I attain the ultimate state of a guru-buddha in order to bring all sentient beings to that perfect enlightened state.