Shundo David Haye – Zen Priest

‘Making offerings results in external merit. Reciting sutras results in internal merit. External merit includes food and clothing, while internal merit includes wisdom. Although people possess food and clothes, if they are deluded, then during the course of their previous lives they made offerings but did not recite sutras. And if in this life they are intelligent or wise but are impoverished and short of food and clothing, then in the course of their previous lives they recited sutras and listened to the Dharma but did not make offerings. Money and wealth are treasures of the world. Prajna is the jewel of the mind. Only if people practice both internal and external cultivation will their merit be complete.’ (Commentary on the Diamond Sutra)