The following is an excellent explanation of merit in the Tipitika and Commentaries as given by Thomas Bruhn in his work “Making Merits (Puñña) in Modern Myanmar Society - Will It Stand The Test Of Time?”:
"The earning of merits puñña is highly recommended in several central discourses in the Sutta Piṭaka of the Buddha Gotama. The Sutta Piṭaka is one of the three parts of the Tipiṭaka, which is the traditional term for the Buddhist scriptures. The Sutta Piṭaka can be subdivided again into five Collections. In the Gradual Collections (Aṅguttara Nikāya) (2) three bases of meritorious action are mentioned. In the Collection of Long Discourses
(Dīgha Nikāya) (3) three bases for the expectation of benefit can be found, in the Short Discourses (Itivuttaka) (4) three grounds for good works are recommended.At this point I wish to highlight the content of these three factors. It is given in a precise way by the Buddha Gotama. “There are, O monks, three ways of making merit. What three? There are ways of making merit by giving, by virtue and by the development of meditation.” (5) The Buddha usually addresses the monks and nuns in his talks but his advice is valid in the same way for lay persons. These categories are also mentioned in the commentary on the Dhammasaṅgaṇi - the Atthāsalinī. The Dhammasaṅgaṇi is one of the books of the Abhidhamma Piṭaka. The Abhidhamma Piṭakais the second part of the Tipiṭaka and also attributed to the Buddha Gotama. Here seven more “bases of meritorious action” are added. So we have a total of ten: dasa puñña kiriya vatthu. The additional seven are: “Making merit through polite and modest conduct; making merit through efforts to give practical help, offer service or do the
common good; making merit through involving others in doing good deeds; making merit through rejoicing in the good deeds of others; making merit through listening to the teaching and acquiring knowledge that is free from harm; making merit through explaining the teaching and importing knowledge that is beneficial; making merit through correcting one’s views, learning to see things as they really are so that one
attains Right View.” (6) The mention of practical help (in this translation of the V. Payutto) shows that merit making is not an egoistic procedure. These seven bases of merit should be understood as included in the first three (7).The Itivuttaka terms of “charity, virtue and cultivation” parallel the Aṅguttara Nikāya terms “giving, virtue and the development of meditation.” “Generosity, morality and mental training” are to be seen as another triad that is also frequently used in the same way. These expressions make it clear that meditation - in the way Buddha Gotama
advises - should be understood as an ongoing mental practise, not a bodily exercise. The Puññakiriyavatthu Sutta outlines and covers all these three terms (8).The three bases/grounds for making merits are popularly known in Myanmar with the Pāli words dāna, sīla and bhāvanā. Sīla and bhāvanā can be traced in the Eightfold Noble Path taught by the Buddha Gotama. Sīla - virtue/morality - comprises Right speech, Right action and Right livelihood. Bhāvanā - mental development/meditation - comprises Right effort, Right mindfulness, Right collectedness, Right aspiration and Right view. For lay persons morality/virtue means the observance of the five basic moral precepts. For Bhikkhus (monks) there are 227 Vinaya rules. There are various methods to practise mental development/meditation that are recommended by the Buddha. They are all enumerated in the Commentary “The Path of Purification” Visuddhimagga written by Bhadantācariya Buddhaghosa. The most popular traditions
of Bhikkhu teachers of meditation in Myanmar are the traditions of Ledi Sayadaw, Moguk Sayadaw and Mahasi Sayadaw. Of the traditions founded by a lay teacher, the tradition of Sayagyi U Ba Khin is best known.Mahā Thera Ledi Sayadaw kept alive Buddha Dhamma during the time when the Christian missionaries were active in Burma after the English had invaded. He emphasized the fact that lay persons can and should practise the Buddha Dhamma through meditation like Saṅgha members do. He spoke of persons “of merit” that progress “to the level of vipassanānañña,” (9) naming thus persons that have the ability to understand the three marks of suffering or unsatisfactoriness, change and no-self (Dukkha, Anicca and Anattā).
To sum up: The acquisition of merit - puññāni karoti - can be practised by living virtuously and through practicing meditation as well as through generosity. In the Burmese language getting merits or making merits is expressed by kutho ja deh or kutho lo dhe. The amount of merit one can acquire through generosity (dāna) varies according to the purity of the receiver, starting with a Buddha followed by an Arahat continuing
down to persons without any virtues and finally to animals; we can find these explanations in the Dakkhiṇāvibhaṅga Sutta (10). Dāna in recent Myanmar research is encouraged as corporate social responsibility and observed through street food donations to the general public. (Häusler, N., 2017; Hirsch, C., 2017) Although dāna is sequentially the first and most practically utilized activity of merit-making for the householder, sīla and bhāvanā are considered just as important - some say that they are more important. Sīla can be seen as the base for bhāvanā. Without sīla there can be no successful bhāvanā. To be skilled in merit one actually needs all three. If one has a strong desire to perform merits (puññakāma) one will accordingly get the results - puñña vipāka.Now we will look into these results and possible underlying motivations…"
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