Daily chants

Sharing merit with all beings

Puññabhāgadānaṃ

A four-line verse sharing the merit of what you have done with all beings, not only with relatives or people you know.

When it is chanted

Chanted right after the dedication of merit, or to close a daily chanting session: first to relatives, then widened out to every living thing.

It works well on days when what you did feels too small to mention, because the verse does not measure the merit — it trains the mind to be willing to share.

Background

In Buddhist thought, sharing merit does not diminish your own, any more than lighting one candle from another makes the first flame smaller. What actually happens is that the giver's mind grows wider, and whoever rejoices in the good gains something from that gladness.

The idea is rooted in the Tirokuḍḍa Kaṇḍa, on dedicating merit to the departed, and in the Karaṇīya Metta Sutta, which teaches boundless goodwill towards all beings. This short verse is the form Thai temples use to hold both ideas together.

The Pali word satta here means every living being, not animals only.