Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c7.123

c7.123

*Giving of merit* A beautiful aspect of Buddhist belief is the ‘giving of merit.’ This is the giving to others of a share in the merit acquired by one’s own acts. The original merit is not diminished, any more than a lamp from which a hundred lamps have been lighted burns the dimmer. A Buddhist mother will take her child by the hand, when she goes with her offerings of food or flowers to the Vihāra, not merely that he may be trained in the path of love and charity, but that he may share the merit of her actions. The great pilgrimage to Adam’s Peak is similarly a means both of acquiring merit, and an opporunity of bestowing it on others. The pilgrimage to Adam’s Peak is the outing of the year. Parties of men, women, and children are made up and they trudge afoot from their own villages to the summit of the peak, there lay their offerings upon the great footmark, and so return home. A good deal of rough living is involved, but the whole expedition is a delight, as one may judge who has met such a party of pilgrims on the narrow tracks beyond Ratnapura, or even on the main roads below, singing almost continuously, carrying their little store of luggage in a double bag (ologuva) slung over the shoulder. The songs show clearly that great sympathy which the people feel for one striving to become a Buddha, and show also the spell which the great forest and high mountain cast upon them. Very magnificent and very tender is the idea of helping the god by sharing with him the merit of the pilgrimage; not that the merit is thereby lessened to the pilgrim, though it is a real gift to the divinity. A few verses from the Śrī Pāga Mana, one of the most popular songs, are as follows: