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Entry: blessings
Chinese char: ºÖ
Explanation:
One who cultivates blessings and not wisdom
Is like an elephant wearing a necklace;
One who cultivates wisdom and no blessings
Is like a Arhat with an empty bowl.
(DFS 1080)
"How does one accumulate blessings? It is from a number of actions, not just one. There is a saying, 'Don't skip doing a good deed just because it is small, and don't do a bad deed just because you think it is insignificant'. . . . For example, you should not think that a little lie is of no major importance. If you tell a lot of little lies, they become a big lie. In the same way, you should not think that killing an ant is a small and unimportant matter, because if one day you kill a person, it will have begun with your killing the ant. You should pay attention to little things and not follow your whims and wishes. To cultivate diligently the accumulation of blessings involves being very careful to do the deeds that should be done, even if they accumulate only a small amount of merit and virtue. Gradually they cause an accumulation of great merit and virtue. Mount Tai [a sacred mountain in China] is made up of individual motes of dust, but even though motes of dust are small, many of them gathered together make up a mountain. So too is the creating of blessings." (UW 77)
The Buddha, said, 'When you see someone practicing the Way of giving, aid him joyously, and you will obtain vast and great blessings.'
A Shramana asked, 'Is there an end to those blessings?'
The Buddha said, 'Consider the flame of a single lamp. Though a hundred thousand people come and light their own lamps from it so that they can cook their food and ward off the darkness, the first lamp remains the same as before. Blessings are like this, too.' (S42 23)
Sometimes a distinction is made between worldly 'blessings' or good karma and world-transcending merit and virtue.
Blessings attached to marks reap the
result of the heavens.
But just as an arrow shot into space
Falls as its velocity wanes,
So too, what you get in the life after that will make you unhappy. (FAS Ch24 44)
Building temples and giving sanction to the Sangha, practicing giving and arranging vegetarian feasts is called 'seeking blessings'. Do not mistake blessings for merit and virtue. Merit and virtue are in the Dharma body, not in the cultivation of blessings.
(PS 133)
A confused person will foster blessings,
but not cultivate the Way,
And say, 'To practice for the blessings
is practice of the Way.'
While giving and making offerings
brings blessings without limit,
It is in the mind that the three evils
have their origin.
By seeking blessings you may wish
to obliterate offenses,
But in the future, though you are blessed,
offenses still remain.
You ought simply to strike the evil
conditions from your mind
By true repentance and reform
within your own self-nature.
(PS 194-195)
Pinyin: fu , fu bao
Sanskrit: punya[-phala]
Pali: punna
Alternative:
See Also: merit, karma.
BTTS Ref: S42 23-27; DFS 1080-1; UW 77; PS 133-134, 194.
Last Updated: 12/26/2001 10:58:57 AM EST
Updated by: 12.232.178.51
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