ASK A LAMA: What exactly is merit? Gyume Khensur (Lobsang
Tenzin) Rinpoche spoke to students at Maitripa Institute in
Portland, Oregon in late 2006. One of the students, frustrated
by how the term “merit” seemed to be loosely thrown around in
Buddhist circles, asked Rinpoche the following question …
Question: What exactly is meant by the term “merit”? For
example, if I practice the merit of generosity, is it considered
merit because it lessens my karmic tendency toward greed, or
does it actually change the conditions of my life in some way?
Answer: Merit, in general, means everything which is virtuous.
And you can have all kinds of virtue. When we talk about the
result of happiness in our life, you can have all kinds of
happiness or well-being. For example, when we talk about being
very affluent in one’s material resources, when we look at what
is the specific meritorious cause for that, it is the virtue of
generosity. Again, when we talk about generosity, that doesn’t
mean that we have to have something to g