The Prosperity Dhamma

There are not many areas where Buddhism even approaches the success of Christianity. But there is one. Since the 1980’s a new interpretation of Christianity called the prosperity gospel, the justifications for which are worked out in what is called prosperity theology, has become very popular in charismatic and Pentecostal churches. The prosperity gospel is very simple – accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior and you’ll get rich, real rich. It’s a sort of modernized and americanized version of the cargo cult. Although nowhere near as slick, savvy or successfully promoted as the Christian version, Theravadins have had their own equivalent of the prosperity gospel for at least a thousand years. Who would have thought that stodgy, conservative, unimaginative old Theravada could be so far ahead of the game?
I am of course referring to the Theravadin teaching of merit. In the Tipitaka, merit (punna in Pali, bum in Thai and pin in Sinhalese) is the joy one feels having done good. In Theravada, but particularly in Thai Theravada, the meaning of merit has been seriously misunderstood and perhaps even deliberately distorted. Rather than thinking of merit as a psychological quality derived from a particular type of behaviour, it has come to be seen as an object or even a commodity that can be ‘earned,’ ‘accumulated,’ stored up to be used later and even ‘transferred’ to others. The idea that it is possible to ‘transfer’ merit, is of course not mentioned in the Tipitaka because it contradicts the doctrine of kamma which teaches that it is our intentional actions that have an effect on us and that each of us is responsible for what we do. Also, it undermines the whole idea of moral causation. Think about it! If it were possible to ‘transfer’ to others the result of the good we do, it must likewise be possible to transfer to others the result of the evil we do and thereby avoid its consequences. These misunderstandings has had a corrupting influence on the practice of Dhamma in Thailand. I believe that anthropologists call Thai Buddhism ‘the Buddhism of merit’ and with good reason. More than a few Thais understand this as the basis of Buddhism – take bribes at the office, spend an hour in the bar after work for a few glasses of Mekong, pop into the massage parlour on the way home and tomorrow visit the wat and donate some money to the monk to make up for the previous days bad kamma. Thais may well help an old person across the road, forgive a transgression or visit the sick in hospital but they don’t think of such actions as ‘merit making.’ You can only ‘make merit’ from monks. Thais see their monks like vending machines – put in the money, pull the handle and the merit is credited to your account. ‘Accumulate’ more merit than evil and the next life should be okay. As a result of seeing Buddhism in there terms Thais generally don’t do good out of regard for the Buddha’s teaching, for the simple joy of doing good or because it is the right thing to do, but in order to ‘earn merit’. Generosity (dana) has been downgraded from an act of giving to a means of getting. People believe that they can ‘make merit,’ by performing certain rituals - putting gold leaf on statues, circumambulating stupas and most effectively, by giving things including money to monks - rather than by having integrity and being virtuous in their everyday lives. If you think this is a parody of Thai Theravada, spend a little time in the country.
And all this despite the Buddha’s exhortation ‘Do not think that an external action brings purity. The skilful say that purity cannot be gained by one who seeks it in outward things’ (S.I,169). According to the Padhana Sutta, Mara, tried to dissuade the Buddha from his spiritual practice by suggesting that he ‘heap up merit’ (ciyate punnam) instead, exactly the suggestion Thai monks make to their supporters today. The Buddha rejected this insipid compromise saying, ‘I have not the slightest use for merit’ (Sn.428-31). And if a person practices the Dhamma sincerely and fully they should have no need of it either. In the Itivuttaka the Buddha said, ‘Doing meritorious deeds with the aim of having a favourable rebirth is not worth so much as a sixteenth of having that love which frees the heart’ (It.19). So being loving and acting with love is 16 times better that making merit, although this idea doesn’t seem to get much of a mention in Theravada.
Recently a young Malaysian came to see me. He bowed before me, held out a red envelope with money in it and said, ‘Venerable sir, I would like to make merit.’ I replied, ‘Good! Then do your work conscientiously, be kind to other, always tell the truth and nurture love in your heart.’ I could see from his perplexed expression that he didn’t have the faintest idea what I was talking about and that he must have learned his ‘Buddhism’ from Thai monks. Our subsequent conversation confirmed this.
I find it interesting that Christian prosperity theology has evoked the strongest criticism and detailed refutations from properly schooled theologians and mainline churches. No Theravadin scholars, thinkers (are there any?), learned monks or lay people seem particularly interested in critically reassessing the ‘prosperity Dhamma.’ I wonder why.