Religious Giving and the Invention of Karma in Theravada Buddhism

Although the doctrine of karma is one of the best known aspects of Buddhist thought, Buddhist texts present other, less systematic, ways of speaking about the effects of good and bad actions. This book draws attention to one of these neglected discourses by showing that the interpretation of religious giving as acts of sacrifice directed toward the Buddha or Buddhist monastics has been an important theme in Theravda Buddhism. Sacrifice and karma differ significantly: whereas karma can be analysed as an inward, psychological process in which one's volition purifies or defiles one's mind, discussions of giving as sacrifice stress that the qualities of the recipient as well as the intentions of the donor affect the merit produced by a gift. Sacrificial and karmic discourses also present very different understandings of the dedication of the effects of a gift (i.e. a merit transfer).