Sharing merits, is it really useful for the departed one?

[Gabriel_L]

Related to the topic’s question, I share below links to two interesting and related topics previously discussed here in D&D:

Sharing merit: a note on puñña and puññamahī

The concept of puñña, merit, and the offering or dedication thereof, is a central one in Buddhist culture. The idea is that by doing good one creates merit, experienced as happiness in future lives. While this teaching is central in the Early Buddhist Texts, the later traditions came to emphasize the idea of making merit on behalf of another. This idea is obviously problematic in the context of the teachings of kamma, which emphasize that one is the owner of one’s own deeds (kammasakomhi). Ther…

Sharing of Merit: Offerings To the Dead

Hello everyone, I would like to share with you all some interesting answers presented by the legendary Ven. Nagasena to the sceptical King Menander I Soter on the topic of dedication of merits to the dead: ‘Venerable Nāgasena, these givers when they bestow their offerings, devote them specifically to former (relatives) now departed, saying: “May this gift benefit such and such.” Now do they (the dead) derive any benefit therefrom?’ ‘Some do, O king, and some do not.’ ‘Which then are the…