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The Diamond Sutra · 17 of 30
Chapter 19
The Lord Buddha addressed Subhuti, saying: “What think you? If a disciple, having obtained all the treasures of this universe,[1] were to bestow these in the exercise of charity, would such a disciple consequently enjoy a considerable merit?” Subhuti assenting, said: “Honoured of the Worlds! such a disciple would consequently enjoy a very considerable merit.”[2]
The Lord Buddha thereupon addressed Subhuti, saying: “If there were any real or permanent quality in merit, the Lord Buddha would not have spoken of such merit as ‘considerable.’ It is because there is neither a tangible nor material quality in merit, that the Lord Buddha referred to the merit of that disciple as ‘considerable.’”
[1] The seven treasures—gold, silver, pearls, coral, cornelian, glass, and crystal.
[2] “Because, what was preached as a stock of merit, a stock of merit indeed, O Subhuti, that was preached as no stock of merit by the Tathagata, and therefore it is called a stock of merit. If, O Subhuti, there existed a stock of merit, Tathagata would not have preached a stock of merit, a stock of merit indeed!”—The Vagrakkhedika. Max Müller.
Within the meaning of the Buddhic Law, charity is purely a spiritual concept; and merit consequent upon fulfilling the Law of charity, must have a purely spiritual realisation. This is the sense in which the Lord Buddha referred to merit as “considerable.”—Chinese Annotation.
Asked of Guide
Why does the Buddha call charity’s merit “considerable” if merit has no real, permanent quality?
The chapter says the Buddha calls that merit “considerable” because merit has no tangible or permanent essence; he uses the adjective as a conventional label for something that is essentially spiritual. The Buddha tells Subhuti that if merit were a real, lasting thing, he would not speak of it as merely a “stock of merit.”
This teaches that acts like giving function within the Buddhic Law as skillful, relational events whose worth is experiential and situational rather than ontological. For a connected treatment of conventional versus ultimate truth, see Nagarjuna’s Mulamadhyamakakarika, which argues that labels serve pragmatic purposes while lacking inherent existence.
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