Sutta Question - Three Ways of Making Merit
Upvote:0
AN 8.36 is for puthujjana (ordinary people), who have cravings & lusts for worldly pleasures, power & status. It is bribing puthujjana with promises of worldly rewards if they do good, as stated:
surpass... in divine life span, divine beauty, divine happiness, divine power, divine sights, sounds, smells, tastes and touches.
For those who doubt my explanation, MN 75 makes it clear what divine sensual pleasures are:
Having conducted himself well in body, speech and mind, on the dissolution of the body, after death, he might reappear in a happy destination, in the heavenly world in the retinue of the gods of the Thirty-three; and there, surrounded by a group of nymphs in the Nandana Grove, he would enjoy himself, provided and endowed with the five cords of divine sensual pleasure.
Meditation is not for puthujjana, i.e., not for those unwilling & unable to abandon craving. This is why meditation is not mentioned in the sutta.
This sutta is unrelated to the core essence (heartwood) of Buddhism but is a peripheral subject.
This sutta is similar to Islam, where a man doing good receives a reward of 72 virgins in heaven.
Has the news of the.. Resurrection...reached you?... Some faces on that Day shall be joyful, well-pleased with their endeavors, in a lofty Garden; there they shall hear no idle talk. In it there will be running springs; in it there will be raised couches, goblets set forth, cushions ranged in rows and fine carpets spread out.
Koran Surah 88
Upvote:0
Whenever Buddha taught, nibbana is the aim, without nibbana, it is not Buddha teaching. For ordinary people, to achieve nibbana, attachment for worldly goods must be reduced, after that observing good virtue and only after that developing insight meditation, i.e, step by step approach for some but not all people. And also whoever prefer dana, talking about dana would lead to piti feeling based on this concentration and insight toward nibbana. The same applies to sila. It is not bribing the ordinary people. Some said ordinary people are bribed by celestial abodes and frightened by hell, it is totally wrong. All the dhamma talk aimed at some person to achieve nibbana. If somebody would achieve nibbana, in some instances, Buddha knowingly did give such dhamma even some other people would turn against Him. Regarding insight meditation, noting rupa(matter),50 million merit occurring in a wink of time, while noting nama(mind), one billion merit in a wink of time, topmost dana, unsurpassable dana, dhamma dana, Buddha and arahant used to praise such dana because by insight meditation, one is just giving away, not taking for himself with delusion for all these mind and matter that come and go unnoticeably, it is the highest dana of all only with such dana one will definitely lead to nibbana.
Upvote:2
AN8.36 is mainly dealing with giving as it comes under the category of Dana Vagga.
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