102 The Buddhist Community
communities together. The traditional 'bases of merit' are gen-
erosity (dana), ethical conduct (sflalsfla), and meditation (bhiivanii).
In its widest sense 'generosity' is understood as embracing allacts performed with a generous and giving spirit, but it also has
a more specific application: it refers especially to the generosity
of the laity in supporting the Sangha materially. This first basis
of merit is thus regarded as of particular concern to the laity. Yet
as the recipients of the laity's material gifts, members of the Sanghahave a special responsibility, namely to act as the 'field of merit'
(pwy,ya-k$elra/puiiiia-kkhetta) for the gifts of the laity. A monk
is only a fertile and productive field of merit as long as he lives
according to the Vinaya, behaving as a monk should. One of the
principles of Buddhist ethics is that the unwholesome or whole-
some quality of one's acts is also affected by their object: to kill
a human is a weightier unwholesome act than killing a dog; a gift
to a spiritually accomplished monk is a more powerful whole-
some act than a casual gift to one's neighbour. Of course, pre-
occupation with a recipient's worthiness to receive gifts on the
part of the donor is liable to be bound up more with the motiva-
tions of greed and delusion than with generosity and wisdom, and
should thus be avoided as undermining the very act of giving.
The principle is more important for the one who receives a gift
than the donor. Thus the onus is on a monk to make himself a
suitable recipient of the laity's gifts. So long as a monk lives in
accordance with the basic precepts of the Vinaya, he fulfils his
obligation to society and renders himself a field of merit for the
laity. The more fully a nionk lives out the spiritual life, the more
fruitful a field of merit he becomes for the laity's gifts; thus
the Sangha consisting of the different kinds of 'noble persons'
( iirya-pudgala/ariya-puggala) of stream-attainers, once returners,
never-returners, and arhats-the Buddhist saints-becomes the
'unsurpassable field of merit'.
The practice of generosity is, however, also relevant to the
Sangha. As I suggested above, in becoming a monk one enters
into a contract with society: in return for material support one
undertakes to live the spiritual life and to give in return the gift