Merit
Posted: Wed May 06, 2009 6:02 pm
Can anyone point me to any suttas in which the Buddha teaches about merit?
Thanks!
Thanks!
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good kamma ...retrofuturist wrote: Generally speaking, merit is also synonymous with kamma.
I don't understand your statement. Would you care to explain it in the context of some Buddhist source?Santeri wrote:happiness is merit
Merit is a spiritual currency.BlackBird wrote:It seems a lot of time is spent, at least in predominantly 'Buddhist' countries, trying to generate merit, as if merit is some sort of spiritual currency.
A skeptic might ask, "So, where is this merit collected?"Dhammanando wrote:Hi Jack,
Merit is a spiritual currency.BlackBird wrote:It seems a lot of time is spent, at least in predominantly 'Buddhist' countries, trying to generate merit, as if merit is some sort of spiritual currency.
For example, for progress in Dhamma to be possible one needs to encounter a faithworthy object — the Buddha, Dhamma or Sangha, or something representing these. Each such encounter will consist in the arising of a sense-door process comprising wholesome resultant consciousnesses (kusala vipaka-cittas — eye-consciousness, ear-consciousness etc.) that have one of the three jewels as their object. These cittas don't arise from nothing, but rather, are paid for by past merit. ("There's no such thing as a free vipāka-citta," as Milton Friedman might say).
Where the currency of merit differs from ordinary currency is that one can't get it by being greedy for it. An act of giving, for example, is puñña only to the extent that it is motivated by a non-greed-rooted consciousness.
Ummmmm ... you're sure about that, are you?mikenz66 wrote:good kamma ...retrofuturist wrote: Generally speaking, merit is also synonymous with kamma.
Mike
http://what-buddha-said.net/library/Bud ... %B1%C3%B1a" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;genkaku wrote: Ummmmm ... you're sure about that, are you?
MikePuñña: merit, meritorious, is a popular term for kammically advantageous kusala action. Opposite terms: apuñña= demerit. pāpa= 'bad', 'evil'. The value of meritorious action is often stressed, e.g., in the Treasure Store Sutta see: Khp. Tr., Dhp 18, 118, 122. - The Community of Noble Bhikkhus ariya-sangha the third Refuge see: ti-sarana is said to be;the incomparable field of merit in the world; anuttaram, puññakkhettam see: anussati 3. The Arahats, however, having transcended all life-affirming and rebirth-producing actions, are said to be;beyond merit and demerit;; see Sn. 520, 547, 636, 790. - See foll. 3 articles.
Puññābhisankhāra: 'meritorious kammic-constructions' of the sense-and fine-material sphere; see: sankhāra I. 1.
Puññā-dhārā: 'streams of merit'. It is said that one produces 4 streams of merit by offering the 4 requisites robes, foodfood, dwelling, medicine to a Bhikkhu who has reached the conditionless deliverance of mind; further by being filled with unshakable faith in the Buddha, his doctrine and community of disciples, and by being perfect in morality A. IV, 51, 52. A. VIII, 39 describes 4 further streams of merit.
Puñña-kiriya-vatthu: 'bases of meritorious action'. In the suttas, 3 are mentioned consisting of giving generosity; dāna-maya-p of morality sīla-maya-p and of mental development meditation; bhāvanā-maya-p. See D. 33; It. 60; expl. in A. VIII, 36.
Commentaries have a list of ten dasa p which is very popular in Buddhist countries: 1-3 as above, 4 reverence apaciti5 service veyyāvacca 6 transference of merit pattānuppadāna 7 rejoicing in others' merit abbhānumodana 8 expounding the Doctrine desanā 9 listening to the Doctrine savana 10 straightening one's right views rectification of views; ditthujukamma - Expl. in Atthasālini Tr. 209ff.
See 'The Advantages of Merit', by Bhikkhu Khantipalo BODHI LEAVES B. 38.
Individual wrote:Correct me if I'm wrong, but puñña is also distinguished from ordinary currency in that it is not a limited commodity. How, though, can something real thus impermanent be limitlessly produced? If puñña could be limitlessly produced and puñña brings happiness, how could one even say that life is dukkha?