[Controller]

I was looking at a thread about merit in the beginners forum and then thought I'd start one here in the debating forum.

I've always been uneasy about the idea of doing things to purposely 'accumulate merit' because it seems a contrived reason to do good things. If we only do them to try to benefit ourselves (even if we 'dedicate the merit' to others) and indeed if we have that purpose in mind in the first place, its hardly just spontaneously performing wholesome acts out of kindness and concern for others. As for others actually benefiting from having one's merit dedicated to them (if they don't know about it), I think its more of a tool designed to generate an altuistic unselfish attitude in the person doing the dedicating.

I also can't see how, realistically, certain acts to supposedly accumulate merit suggested by some traditions actually work that way, to be quite honest. It seems too contrived too,especially when a whole group of people performs an act of supposed merit together, which is said to be for the merit accumulation of the centre or monastery or wherever, and makes then feel they've done something important. I'm thinking of release of captive animals and fish at the moment - sometimes with no consideration for the fact that the environment they're being released into might not be suitable and they might have even more suffering as a result.

Another example is circumnambulating a stupa containing the remains or something once belonging to a teacher - I don't see how that would make me a better person or free from dukkha. I have, in fact, done circumnambulations of stupa's, monastery, temple, statues etc when I was younger, due to just doing what I was told was good to do at the time, ...but I don't feel any need to do it now.

Anyway, taking into consideration that there are different viewpoints on this, I wondered what your thoughts were about it.

I found this short Ajahn Chah teaching in which he mentions merit.



Making the Heart Good

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.


continued here: http://www.ajahnchah.org/book/Making_Heart_Good1.php