Tuesday 18 August 2009

Ten Bases for Meritorious Deeds

The following list of ten bases for meritorious deeds (pu~n~nakiriyavathu) shows ten ways to develop wholesome kamma for the sense sphere (kammavacarakuala.m).

I strongly recommend everyone memorise this list and make strenuous efforts to put the list into practice. This will be for your benefit now and for a long time into the future.
  1. Daana - giving generously and freely to worthy recipients such as virtuous monastics
  2. Siila - ethical conduct; keeping at least five precepts every day and regularly observing
    8 precepts on Uposatha days (about once a week)
  3. Bhavanaa - mental development through meditation either vipassana-insight meditation or samatha-concentration meditation
  4. Apacaayana - reverence and respect for elders, parents, teachers, monastics, officials and so forth; recognising the importance of their senior or guiding role
  5. Veyaavacca - service for promoting the Dhamma, assisting others to do meritorious deeds
  6. Patidaana - sharing merit with others while undertaking meritorious deeds oneself
  7. Pattaanumodana - rejoicing in others' meritorious deeds; congratulating them and being happy with them during their meritorious conduct
  8. Dhammasavana - hearing the Dhamma or reading the Dhamma
  9. Dhammadesanaa - teaching the Dhamma either by speech or writing
  10. Ditthijukamavasena - straightening out one's views, studying Dhamma to be sure that one understands the Dhamma correctly (also sometimes spelled: ditth'uju-kamma)

2 comments:

sv said...

Hi, thanks for sharing. By the way, the pali words for no 8 should be Dhammadesana and no 9 dhammasavana

Kaliyuke said...

Hi SV, are you saying I should swap 8 & 9 around? Maybe you are right. Can you let me know your source?