A key feature of Buddhist practice is generating merit. Merit is primarily cultivated through the performance of ethical actions and is largely based upon metaphysical assumptions grounded in Buddhist philosophy. Most Buddhists do not aspire to awakening in this life but aim to generate enough merit so that in a future life they might be born with the necessary conditions available for them to renounce the world and join the Sangha.





The idea of “merit” (punna/pon) implies an auspicious or fortunate act. A “wholesome” (kusala/kutho) action – one based upon generosity, compassion and wisdom – is described as one that generates merit. These are actions that purify the mind and lead to good fortune. This good fortune could occur in this life or the next.

Acts based upon greed, hatred and delusion are considered “unwholesome” (akusala/akutho). They are described as inauspicious and lacking in merit. These actions do not create merit, and have negative outcomes. As we might expect, Buddhists are keen to perform auspicious actions that produce merit, such as through generosity or giving, known as dana, and ethical conduct, or virtue, known as sila.

The most meritorious act is that of giving, primarily by making offerings to Buddhist monks. The Burmese term for a monk is pongyi, one who has great merit. The Burmese term pon is derived from the punna. The Buddhist Sangha, the monastic community, are a great “field of merit” (punna-khetta). By making offerings to Buddhist monks one generates great merit. It is more meritorious to give to a monk than to an ordinary person. This is due in part to the assumed ethical behaviour of the monastic, and their status in terms of the generation of merit. The Buddhist monastic community is required to make itself available every day to receive food from the lay community. By receiving food and other offerings by the lay community, a monk is a “field of merit”. The presence of a monk at a wedding or funeral serves the same function. These occasions become opportunities for the generation of merit.

In the wider context of Buddhist thought, and in a slightly more philosophically sophisticated understanding, the act of giving may be understood as a practice that lessens attachment, particularly attachment to the notion of a permanent and enduring “self”, or atta/atman.

The texts of the Pali canon in general talk of the great fruit and profit that arises from an act of giving. They also warn that the way in which one makes an offering has an effect on the merit it produces. If the gift is given with the thought of a reward, the fruit and result of that act of given will be much less than one who gives without selfish motivations (Anguttara-nikaya, IV 60-63). In fact, the mind of the person who gives the gift is of some considerable importance, and those who make even a small offering with a pure mind get considerable merit. Even if someone has nothing to give, a person can still rejoice in another’s act of giving, and this itself will generate merit.

In some cases the idea of merit is used in a political context. The turning-over of the alms bowl (pattam nikkujjeyya/tha beit hmaut) is an act whereby a monk might show displeasure with a lay person by refusing his or her offering. There is also a more controversial act whereby a monk refuses offerings from someone he disagrees with politically and therefore prohibits the acquisition of merit to an individual or group. Of course, the state itself is often involved in the generation of merit through supporting the Sangha and by constructing Buddhist monuments. These acts would also legitimate power in a Buddhist society.

Merit can also be generated through ethical conduct. Primarily this entails the adoption of five precepts, or five virtues (panca-sila) by the Buddhist. These five are to refrain from harming living creatures, to refrain from taking what is not given, to refrain from sexual misconduct, to refrain from false speech and to refrain from intoxicants that cause heedlessness.





The first precept involves refraining from harming any sentient being. This includes animals and insects, but not plants. In the description of this precept in the Pali canon it is important to note that “intention” (cetana) is heavily emphasised. Buddhism understands the notion of intention as being central to the generation of “actions that have consequences” (karma/kamma).

The first precept does not mean that most Buddhists are vegetarian, and there is some evidence that the Buddha accepted meat in his alms bowl. If one does not intend to kill the animal for food, then there is no harm, in karmic terms, in eating it. In the Buddhist texts we find it said that food is blameless if a monk has not seen, heard or suspected that the creature has been specifically killed for him (Majjhima-nikaya, II 368-71). A monk is intended to live on alms placed in his alms bowl and acts as a field of merit by accepting such food. He should therefore accept whatever is offered.

If one does not intend to kill a living being, there are no negative consequences. It is for this reason that vegetarianism is not common in Buddhist Asia, and that the eating of meat does not contravene the first precept, or hinder the generation of merit.

An important point to note then in Buddhist ethics is that responsibility for ones actions are based in what one intends to do. The first precept raises certain other issues. In general in Asian Buddhist culture abortion is seen as breaking this precept. On the one hand rebirth as a human is seen as great opportunity to achieve awakening and traditionally a Buddhist would not favour abortion. Added to this is the ancient idea that the living being is considered present in the womb soon after conception. The other precepts can be analysed in a similar way.

The point in this description is that by adhering to the precepts one generates merit. By making offerings to the Sangha, one generates merit. But it is enshrined in the Pali canon that only by giving and performing ethical actions with a mind based in metta can the benefits of the activities – namely, the generation of merit – be acquired.

The generation of merit rests upon the logic of Indian karmic theory, in which actions have a metaphysical basis. Indian philosophers came to the conclusion that all actions have consequences. In most Indian religions, including Buddhism, this is an immutable law. Therefore, through performing activities in which the generation of merit is central, a Buddhist is participating in this same understanding.

Paul Fuller has taught religious studies at universities in Southeast Asia, Australia and the United Kingdom. His research interests include early Indian Buddhist philosophy, the Buddhist ideas of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and ethnocentric Buddhism in Myanmar and Sri Lanka.