Concept

Merit (Buddhism)

Overview

concept considered fundamental to Buddhist ethics

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

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i, 9). Or else it will have to be said, as some others have maintained, that the angels merit beatitude by their present ministrations, while in beatitude. This is quite contrary, again, to the notion of merit: since merit conveys the idea of a means to an end; while what is already in its end cannot, properly speaking, be moved towards such end; and so no one merits to produce what he already enjoys. Or else it…
Aquinas Thomas, Summa Theologica, Part I
Names Merit several times; states what Merit is.
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But we must notice that the merit of our prayers sometimes lies in something quite different from what we beg for. For whereas merit is to be especially referred to the possession of God, our petitions in our prayers at times refer directly to other things, as we have pointed out above. Consequently, if what a man asks for will not tend to his ultimate attainment of God, he does not merit it by his prayer…
Aquinas Thomas, On prayer and the contemplative life
Names Merit several times; states what Merit is.
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These are Merit and Demerit, the qualities of deserving reward and of deserving punishment. It has already been observed, that the sentiment or affection of the heart, from which any action proceeds, and upon which its whole virtue or vice depends, may be considered under two different aspects, or in two…
Adam Smith, The Essays of Adam Smith
The chapter “SEC. I.--OF THE SENSE OF MERIT AND DEMERIT.” is titled for Merit; names Merit twice.
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Merit (Buddhism)

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