Grounds for Making Merit (Puññakiriyavatthu)

Giving, ethics and meditation, as the Buddha taught, and the list of ten from the commentaries

The grounds for making merit are the bases or ways of doing good. In the Grounds for Making Merit discourse (Iti 60) the Buddha names three: giving, ethical conduct and meditation. Merit here is goodness whose result is happiness, as the verse in the discourse says. The list of ten that many people look for is not in this discourse. It is an expanded list from the commentaries, written later.

Tīṇimāni, bhikkhave, puññakiriyavatthūni.
Katamāni tīṇi?
Dānamayaṁ puññakiriyavatthu, sīlamayaṁ puññakiriyavatthu, bhāvanāmayaṁ puññakiriyavatthu.

Mendicants, there are these three grounds for making merit. What three? Making merit by giving, by ethical conduct, and by meditation.

Iti 60

The three in the discourse

1. Giving: merit from sharing things, food, time or knowledge, with a heart free of stinginess.
2. Ethics: merit from keeping precepts and not harming others by body or speech. The verse calls it even conduct.
3. Meditation: merit from developing the mind. The verse gives developing a mind of love as its example.

Puññameva so sikkheyya,
āyataggaṁ sukhudrayaṁ;
Dānañca samacariyañca,
mettacittañca bhāvaye.
Ete dhamme bhāvayitvā,
tayo sukhasamuddaye;
Abyābajjhaṁ sukhaṁ lokaṁ,
paṇḍito upapajjati.

One should train in good deeds, whose happy result stretches far ahead: giving, even conduct, and a mind of love. Having developed these three sources of happiness, the wise one reaches a happy world free of harm.

Iti 60

The list of ten from the commentaries

The commentaries, explanations of the canon written later, expand the three into ten by adding seven more:

• Humility: showing respect to those who deserve it.
• Service: helping with good work.
• Sharing one's merit with others.
• Rejoicing in the good done by others.
• Listening to the Dhamma.
• Teaching the Dhamma, sharing right understanding.
• Straightening one's views.

Every item in the list of ten unfolds from giving, ethics and meditation, so the three in the discourse remain the core.

Making merit every day

• Give: share something small each day, such as food, time or help. It need not be money or anything costly.
• Ethics: keep all five precepts today. That is merit that costs nothing.
• Meditation: before bed, sit quietly for five minutes and send loving-kindness to yourself, your family and someone you find difficult.

Based on: Puññakiriyavatthu Sutta (Iti 60) · The list of ten grounds for merit, from the later commentaries