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puñña: what has more merit? Acts of kindness or meditation?

 

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what has more merit? Acts of kindness or meditation?

KN Iti 27 worldly merit, none are worth a sixteenth part of the heart’s release by friendly-kindness

AN 9.20 successfully more meritorious activities, meditation trumps generosity

SN 20.4 a moment of metta more meritorious than offering 100 meals

DN 5.5 successfully more meritorious activities, with 4 jhānas and 6 higher knowleges at peak




sīla and dāna just as important as samādhi?



And some comments I made in this discussion,

where someone thinks sīla is not inferior to samādhi as described in suttas above

https://www.dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.php?p=762125#p762125




You're missing the point. No one is saying sīla is unnecessary, just because it's inferior to paññā and samādhi.
It's about the ceiling.
Someone who only does sila but not samādhi has a low ceiling, can not break through to nirvana.
Someone with sīla and samādhi has arahntship as a ceiling.
Someone with no sīla, corrupted sīla, with excellent samādhi, can not have right samādhi and also would have a very low ceiling preventing awakening.



See SN 56.1.


Someone can have the best sila in the world, best demeanor in the world, even better than everyone with samādhi, but without samādhi, they can't break through to pañña and awakening.
At best they'll just be reborn in favorable realms again and again until they slip up, but always revolving in samsara, just having better karmic fruits than those without sila.
That's the 'ceiling' I refer to.
Someone with the best samādhi in the world, but doesn't direct it towards seeing the 4 noble truths, will also be stuck in samsara revolving.
Somone with the best samādhi but with poor sīla, will also fall and continue to revolve.




Akashad wrote:

For example,if I wanted a good rebirth or good circumstances wouldn't it be more beneficial for me to practice Dana and Sila than meditation.


...See my previous answer, but in a sense yes, if you're chasing good karmic rewards and want the slowest way to attain nirvana but in the most comfortable way then focusing time and effort more on sīla and dāna could have more tangible favorable impact.

For example, some monks who get 4 requisites very easily while other monks struggle to get any,
could be a result of the former doing better dāna and sīla in past lives.

But the goal should be to attain nirvana as soon as possible, and get out of suffering ASAP,
which is why the Buddha places even a finger snap's time of metta as more meritorious than dāna and sīla,
and why the jhānas and perceiving a moment of impermanence even more meritorious than that.


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