Merit-making & Transference of Merit:
Are we getting it right?
Merit
Venerable
Ajahn Chah in his article, ‘Making the Heart Good’ said - These
days, people are going all over the place looking for merit. And
they always seem to stop over in Wat Pah Pong. If they don't stop
over on the way, they stop over on the return journey. Wat Pah Pong
has become a stop-over point. Some people are in such a hurry I
don't even get a chance to see or speak to them. Most of them are
looking for merit. I don't see many looking for a way out of
wrongdoing. They're so intent on getting merit they don't know
where they're going to put it. It's like trying to dye a dirty,
unwashed cloth…..
What really
is this ‘merit’ that is so desirable that so many Buddhists seem to
be so earnestly chasing after to perform and
accumulate?
'Punna or
Merit' means that which has a prolonging effect on our existence.
It is brought forth by karmic fruition and is carried into a
person’s future lives as well. Such accumulated merits do also
contribute to a person’s spiritual growth towards liberation and in
accordance to the law of moral causation is conducive to the future
happiness of the doer. The thing about merit is that, no matter how good the acts done
to accumulate it, it will still keep us in the cycle of samsara,
the world of suffering. In contrast, wholesome acts is what brings
us out of suffering onto liberation as it leads to clearing the
mind of wrong mental actions, such as thoughts of covetousness, ill
will and wrong views.
Let’s look
specifically at what the Suttas have to say on the subject of
Merit.
In the Itivuttaka: The Group of Threes - Iti 51:
Ground for merit-making is
mentioned as the practices of giving, moral cultivation and
meditation and resulting in long-lasting bliss, a mind of good-will
and the wise reappear in a world of bliss
unalloyed.
AN8.36 Punnakiriyavatthu Sutta:
Ground
for merit-making is
the same as in Iti 51 above, the
practices of Giving, moral virtue and meditation
and
Resulting in happiness, calm conduct,
should cultivate lovingkindness and the wise is reborn into a happy
trouble free world
AN8.39 Abhisanda Sutta - Rewards of Merits:
This Sutta mentioned the ‘Taking
refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha’ and the practice of the
‘Five Precepts of not Killing, Stealing, Illicit Sex, False Speech
and use of Intoxicant as the ground of merit-making.
The rewards are listed as; reward of
skillfulness, nourishment of happiness, celestial, resulting in
happiness, leading to heaven, leading to what is desirable,
pleasurable, & appealing; to welfare & to happiness. And
also gains a share in limitless freedom from danger, freedom from
animosity, and freedom from oppression.
MN61 Ambalatthika Rahulovada Sutta:
This Sutta emphasizes
body, speech and mind as the observances of merit. It also states
that, if actions of body, speech and mind does not bring trouble
and unpleasantness to oneself and other than it is
merit.
Actions of body, speech and mind would
refer to the performance of the ten good deeds of: Not killing, stealing, sexual misconduct of the
Body. No lying, double-tongued, abusive, irresponsible speech of
the 4 kinds of unwanted Speech and No greed, hatred and delusion
referring to the Mind
SN
1.47 Vanaropa Sutta - Discourse on the Merit Gained in Planting
Groves: “They who plant
orchards and gardens, who plant groves, who build bridges, who set
up sheds by the roadside with drinking water for the travellers,
who sink wells or build reservoirs, who put up various forms of
shelter for the public, are those in whom merit grows by day and by
night”.
The merit from all the deeds mentioned here
is of a lasting nature in the sense that whenever these deeds are
recalled in the minds of the donors merit is gained. They are the
people that are established in the Dhamma, that are endowed with
morality and that are bound for the deva
realms."
Khp8. Nidhi Kanda - The Reserve Fund:
“When a man or woman has laid
aside a well-stored fund of giving, virtue, restraint, &
self-control, with regard to a shrine, the Sangha, a fine
individual, guests, mother, father, or elder sibling: That's a
well-stored fund. It can't be wrested away. It follows you along.
When, having left this world, for wherever you must go, you take it
with you. This fund is not held in common with others, & cannot
be stolen by thieves”.
In SN3.4 Piya Sutta - Dear: “Both the merit
& evil that you as a mortal perform here: that's what's truly
your own, what you take along when you go; that's what follows
behind you like a shadow that never leaves. So do what is
admirable, as an accumulation for the future life. Deeds of merit
are the support for beings when they arise in the other
world”.
SN3.17 Appamada Sutta - Heedfulness:
“For one who desires long life,
health, beauty, heaven, & noble birth, — lavish delights, one
after another — the wise praise heedfulness in performing deeds of
merit”.
MN117 Mahācattārīsaka Sutta - The Great Forty:
Here the Buddha points out that
Right view is of two sorts: There is right view with
effluents, partaking of merit, resulting in
the acquisitions of becoming; and there is the noble right view,
without effluents, supramundane, a factor of the path which
together with the remaining seven factors of the Noble Eightfold
Path leads to the eventual cessation of
suffering.
The above
Suttas’ teaching are directed more at lay Buddhists and preaches
the acts of giving, moral virtues and mental cultivation as the
main bases for the making and accumulation of merit. Giving is
considered to be a good starting point as it creates goodwill
amongst beings. Moral virtues is the keeping of the five precepts,
and when these two bases are coupled with the practice of the
‘recollection of charity and virtue’ joy and happiness arises in
the mind which is conducive to mental concentration in the third
ground for merit – meditation.
Merit-making
is a Buddhist concept, and not surprisingly we find in MN 8.39,
taking the three refuges is also considered as one of the base for
merit-making. In SN1.47 the benefit in the building of basic
infrastructure that benefit a great numbers people and which lessen
the hardship and suffering for those who are most in need of it, is
considered a very fruitful act of giving.
The rewards
coming from merit-making are numerous and varied, from happiness,
long life, good health, beauty, a share in limitless freedom from
danger, freedom from animosity, freedom from oppression, noble
rebirth, rebirth in heaven etc.
The below
three Suttas are directed more for Novice monks and for One who are
already Ordained.
In MN99 Subha Sutta - To Subha:
It is a
discourse directed for the basic training of novice monk - Truth,
Asceticism, Celibacy, Dharma recitation and Renunciation are listed
as the “five duties for the making of merit”. It is stated as
a prescription not just for
merit-making but also for accomplishing the wholesome.
Samnamndiká Sutta: Bodily actions,
verbal actions and a pure livelihood are observances for merit.
They arise in the mind and minds are various and different. The
minds without greed, anger and delusion are the varied and
different minds. Thus observances of merit start
here.
The Bhikkhu who is endowed with right
understanding, right thoughts, right speech, right actions, right
livelihood, right endeavor, right mindfulness, right concentration,
right knowledge and right release of one gone beyond the training,
endowed with these ten things, I declare is the most skilled
perfect recluse with the highest
merit.
MN1.
9. Sammaadi.t.thisutta.m - Right View: This
Sutta also mention the practice of the five precepts, including the
abstaining from coveting, not bearing an angry mind and right view
as merit, with the roots of merit as non-greed, non-hate and
non-delusion.
It speaks more in term of the
performance of wholesome acts which would brings the noble one out
of suffering onto liberation as it leads to clearing the mind of
wrong mental actions, such as thoughts of covetousness, ill will
and wrong views.
Transference of
Merit
Transference
of merit and merit-making for future rebirths is a popular one
especially in the Mahayanist tradition. Doing a meritorious deed
and sharing that merit with ones’ dead relatives is very much
stressed in some countries probably due to the traditional value of
filial piety and ancestors worship. This can be seen in the
Ullambana or Hungry Ghost Festival popularly celebrated by both the
Taoists and Buddhists alike across the Asian
region.
In the Ullambana Sutra,
the Buddha told
Maudgalyayana: “The fifteenth day of the seventh month is the
Pravarana day for the assembled Sangha of the ten directions. For
the sake of fathers and mothers of seven generations past, as well
as for fathers and mothers of the present who are in distress, you
should prepare an offering of clean basins full of hundreds of
flavours and the five fruits, and other offerings of incense, oil,
lamps, candles, beds, and bedding, all the best of the world, to
the greatly virtuous assembled Sangha of the ten
directions…….
If one thus makes offerings to these
Provarana Sangha, one’s present father and mother, parents of seven
generations, as well as the six kinds of close relatives, will
escape from the three paths of sufferings. And at that time attain
release. Their clothing and food will spontaneously appear. If the
parents are still alive, they will have wealth and blessings for a
hundred years. Parents of seven generations will be born in the
heavens. Transformationally born, they will independently enter the
celestial flower light, and experience limitless
bliss”.
In chapter seven of
the Sutra of The Great Vows of Ksitigarbha
Bodhisattva, it
is stated that one can ‘transfer’ 1/7 merit of an act they have
performed to a deceased loved one but such transference have to be
performed within 49 days of the passing of the deceased person.
After 49 days, the deceased is bound to receive whatever Karma he
is deserving of. Why 49 days is not
stated. But one can assumed, in accordance to the Buddhist belief,
especially with the Chinese and also in the Tibetan Vajrayana
tradition where the ‘intermediate spirit’ of a deceased person can
take up to 49 days to seek out a new body to be reborn in. It is at
this stage in a person ‘life’ that one can help to change his
future destiny for a better one.
If both the
‘Ullambana Sutra’ and the ‘Sutra of the Great Vows of Ksitigarbha
Bodhisattva’ are read literally in conjunction with each other, we
will be landed in a contradiction. The 'Ullambana Sutra' speaks of
changing the destiny of a deceased whose karmas have borne its
fruit and is already reborn into a more unfortunate realm. Whereas
‘The Vows of Ksitigarbha’ implies an ‘intermediate spirit’ whose
karma has yet to bear its fruition and is still seeking a rebirth.
It is only at this stage within a period of 49 days of death can
the benefits of merit be effectively transferred.
We might
asked, which of these two Sutras should be considered to the more
authoritative version on the subject of the transference of merit
to a deceased?
For a
Theravadin, the transfer of merit is of even less significant going
by the Malinda Pannha, as only a deceased reborn into one of four
category in the realm of the ‘hungry ghost’ can benefits from any
such act. Rebirth in the Theravada tradition is an immediate affair
after a person’s death, so whatever transference of merit is
performed, cannot logically be of any benefit to the deceased
person. He would be left to shoulder the burden for whatever kamma
that is due to him. The transference of merit for a deceased will
however benefit the doer of the act as it should bring about a
sense of lovingkindness in that person.
In the
Khp 7. Tirokudda
Kanda Sutta, it is stated: “As river when full must flow
and reach and fill the distant main, so indeed what is given here
will reach and bless the spirits there. As water poured on mountain
top must soon descend and fill the plain, so indeed what is given
here will reach and bless the spirits
there”.
However, the ‘74th
Dilemma, Offering to the Dead’ in book IV, chapter 8 of
the
Milinda
Pannha, did
mentioned that those who are reborn in purgatory, in heaven, or as
animals and petas who feeds on vomit, tormented by hunger and
thirst and those who are consumed by cravings would not benefit
from any transfer of merits at all. Only those in the category that
live on the gifts of others do derive benefits from the offerings
devote specifically to them by their relatives and those who bear
them in remembrance. Even if transference of merit did not goes to
the beneficiary living or dead, such offering would not go to waste
as the givers themselves would derive some profit from it as
well.
The
transference of merit is often the
most misunderstood of the grounds for merit-making, as no merit is
actually ‘transferred’ or ‘given’ to a deceased person
except in the sense that it will
generate a sense of lovingkindness in one who is performing the
act.
As Venerable
Ajahn Chah had pointed out at the beginning of this article, the
act of merit-making is not just about giving, we should do the all
inclusive by encompassing the purification of our virtues and the
cultivation of our mind through meditation as well. The goodwill
and joy generated in the practice of meditation and the vanquishing
of greed and hatred by keeping the five moral precepts will
certainly make the act of giving itself even more wholesome and
altruistic in nature.
