Merit

Merit (Skt. puṇya; Tib. བསོད་ནམས་, sönam, Wyl. bsod nams) is one of the two accumulations.

Definitions

Sogyal Rinpoche says:

Merit is the positive power and benefit, the peace and happiness that radiate from your practice.

Mingyur Rinpoche says:

Merit is connected with the power of interdependence. Each phenomenon has its own characteristics and power. Interdependence has outer and inner power. The inner power is dependent on the mind. It can be either negative or positive. The positive is what we call merit. The negative, which is a cause of suffering, is non-virtue. Merit is the same as virtue.

Subdivisions

• merit tending to happiness (bsod nams tsam po pa or bsod nams cha mthun)
• merit tending to liberation (thar pa cha mthun)

Quotations

ཇི་ལྟར་ཆུ་ཐིགས་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ཆེ་ནང་ལྷུང༌། །

རྒྱ་མཚོ་མ་ཟད་བར་དུ་དེ་མི་འཛད། །
དེ་བཞིན་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཡོངས་བསྔོས་དགེ་བ་ཡང༌། །

བྱང་ཆུབ་མ་ཐོབ་བར་དུ་དེ་མི་འཛད། །

Just as a drop of water that falls into the great ocean
Will never disappear until the ocean itself runs dry,
Merit totally dedicated to enlightenment
Will never disappear until enlightenment is reached.

Buddha Shakyamuni, Sutra Requested by Sagaramati

Teachings Given to the Rigpa Sangha

• Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche, 10 June 2010, Lerab Ling, France
• Gyurme Avertin, international streaming, 2 June 2020

External Links

• Teachings on Merit by Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, Santiago, Chile, 2019