[avdddcxnelkaxz]

I've often heard of Buddhists doing acts for the "merit" it brings.

Merit seems to feature more in some traditions, less in others.

Does anyone know whether the Buddha spoke of merit when teaching lay people or monks?

I've also heard of merit being dedicated to others. It makes me wonder whether it's a transferable thing, or just an idea in the head.

[VtLe67WR]

To me the idea of giving merit can be useful on two grounds

A) It fosters a sense of good morality

B) It can help with a realization of emptiness via letting go of things

However I wouldn't get into views about it being magically transfered to other people and helping them win the lottery

[masaredera]

LOL... I understand dedicating merit as dedicating the positive results of our efforts to the benefit to others. In other words, I still get the benefit of my practice, but commit to help others with that benefit.

[amusaasyday]

For me, merit brings a tangible benefit to our life.

For example, about giving or generosity, the Buddha taught it has five benefits, namely:

1. happiness;

2. beauty;

3. strength;

4. long life;

5. self-respect.

So in my view, real merit brings real results for our life, for our mind, for our character.

It makes us a better person and better people.

Kind regards

[benderkoz]

I like Element's take on it a lot better than what I've generally heard from people who claim to be describing merit in Buddhism. What they're talking about sounds a lot like Hindu karma, only more transferrable. It also has a bit in common with the old Christian practice of praying on behalf of relatives in purgatory to shorten their stay by transferring one's own devotion and grace to them.

Most of the time I've seen this discussed, it seems to be used as a synonym for karma. Giving food to monks accrues good karma. Doing a Buddhist retreat accrues good karma. These things can be done to accrue good karma for someone else, etc. Most of the time this seems like superstition among people whose Buddhism hasn't gotten very far away from Hinduism or whatever native tradition came before (since I get the impression that "merit" also gets used to mean "luck," which seems to be pretty important in China and the countries it has colonized without any need for Hindu influence).

Seems kind of superstitious to me, and while we can say "The Buddha spoke to people from their own cultural framework to keep the teachings accessible, even if it meant advocating for things which don't belong as part of Buddhism's core" until we're blue in the face. Fact is he talked about merit, and that's going to muddle things for anybody who wants to take everything he said as being totally necessary to dharma practice without weeding out or "cherry-picking." Me, I'll cherry-pick all darn day, but a lot of people aren't comfortable with it. =P