The real "grateful dead" - Transferring Merit

K, Bhante, Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit; Spirit Tribe Awakening

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The Dead are American cultural icons of the 60s.

The band the Grateful Dead took their name from the idea of dead ancestors and friends expressing gratitude for those things done on their behalf by the living. This welling up of gratitude is their good mental karma, the merit that they accrue or that gets "transferred" to them by acts done here for them. Our karma (actions) and our results (phala and vipaka) cannot be given to anyone else, but what can be done is to do something for someone else that generates something in them, their own good karma.

Do you agree? - Why, yes I do!

Transferring merit (Sanskrit pariṇāmanā, Pali pattidāna or pattānumodanā) is a standard part of Buddhist spiritual discipline where the practitioner's religious merit, resulting from good deeds, is transferred to deceased relatives, to deities, or to all sentient beings.

Such transfer is done mentally, and it is believed that the recipient can often receive this merit, if they rejoice in the meritorious acts of the person transferring. In Buddhism, merit transfer is seen as a better alternative than mourning.

Western scholars have discussed how the doctrine of transferring merit can be reconciled with the individual nature of karma ("intentional action") in Buddhism.

Some scholars believe that the idea originates with early Buddhism (revived by Theravada), whereas others suspect a later origin. It is widely recognized that transferring merit was the Buddhist response to pre-Buddhist Brahminical customs of ancestor worship.

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  ["Hinduism" did not yet exist and would not come into being for many centuries. What did exist were the Vedas of the Brahmins, the priestly caste. "Indus river -ism" or "Hinduism" was the collective name for all the religious, spiritual, scientific, and superstitious customs of India British anthropologists applied to what they found and cataloged. The sage Sri Shankara later codified and standardized as the single indigenous religion of India -- because at that time everyone understood that Buddhism had come from outside India before "India" even existed -- when there was actually such a diversity of beliefs as to include every possibility with a few lines of belief (rebirth, karma, freewill, determinism, fatalism, eternalism, annihilationism, monotheism, polytheism, atheism, pantheism, humanism, and so on) running through the mindboggling diversity.]

In Buddhism, such ancestor worship was given a moral or ethical emphasis. The doctrine may also have been influenced by pre-Buddhist ideas of a transference of powers. In later Mahāyāna Buddhism, transferring merit became an essential aspect of the ideal of the bodhisattva, the "savior" Buddha-to-be or "being bent on enlightenment," who uses his or her own merits to help all living beings.

Transferring merit is widely practiced in all Buddhist countries, in ceremonies, festivals, and daily practice. In the present day, transferring merit has become an intrinsic part of Buddhism and serves an important social function.

Description

"Merit" (Sanskrit puṇya, Pali puñña) is a concept considered fundamental to Buddhist ethics [11]. It is a beneficial and protective force that accumulates as a result of good deeds (physical acts), words, and thoughts [12, 13, 14].

Merit-making is important to Buddhist practice because merit or good karma brings good and agreeable results [15], determines the quality of future lives [16], and contributes to a person's growth towards enlightenment [17].

Apart from the concept of merit, in Mahāyāna pariṇāmanā is also associated with the concept of "roots of virtue" (Sanskrit kuśala-mūla or "wholesome roots") [18].

Transferring merit is a widespread custom in all Buddhist countries, Theravāda, Mahāyāna, and Vajrayāna [19, 20, 21] and is often practiced at ceremonies and festivals in remembrance of the dead [22, 9].  More