Ledger of Merit and Demerit (I)

1
Ledger of Merit and Demerit (I)

• Demerit Ledger (50 deeds)
• 100 demerits
• Causing a person to die
• Making a woman lose her chastity
• Urging someone to drown a child or to have an
  abortion

• Merit Ledger (50 items)
• 100 merits
• Rescuing a person from death
• preserving a womans chastity
• Preventing someone from drowning a child or from
  having an abortion

2
Ledger of Merit and Demerit (II)

• 50 merits
• Arranging for the adopting of an heir
• Raising an orphan
• Burying someone who has no one to care for his or
  her remains
• Preventing a person from becoming a vagabond

• 50 demerits
• Cutting off a familys line of succession
• Preventing a marriage
• Abandoning an unburied corpse
• Causing a person to become a vagrant

3
Ledger of Merit and Demerit (III)

• 30 demerits
• Destroying a persons resolve not to do evil
• Making up slanders about a person
• Revealing a secret entrusted to you, one that
  ruins a business deal

• 30 merits
• Helping a person to dedicate himself to Buddha
  (I.e., to become a monk)
• Urging a person who follows evil ways to change
  his or her conduct
• Saving a person from oppression
• Offering land for the burial of a person who has
  no one to care for his or her remains

4
Ledger of Merit and Demerit (IV)

• 10 merits
• Recommending a virtuous man
• Removing a cause of harm to the people
• Compiling a scripture that will aid the people
• Using your skill to cure a serious illness

• 10 demerits
• Ostracizing a virtuous person
• Recommending a evil man for employment
• Having contact with a woman who has lost her
  chastity
• Keeping a weapon that can kill

5
Ledger of Merit and Demerit (V)

• 5 merits
• Urging the cessation of a court case
• Transmitting to a person a method for improving
  his life
• Compiling a book that will tell people how to
  preserve or improve their lives
• Using your skill to cure a mild illness
• Saving the life of a creature capable of repaying
  human kindness

• 5 demerits
• Destroying a scripture that would improve morals
• Compiling a work injurious to the people
• Unjustly allowing a person falsely accused of a
  crime to be thought a criminal
• Refusing to aid a sick person who is seeking
  relief
• Urging a person to start litigation
• Creating slanders about and a bad name for a
  person harming a person through slander

6
Ledger of Merit and Demerit (VI)

• 3 demerits
• Getting angry when you hear an unpleasant truth
• Reversing the order of high and low, old and
  young
• Harming someone when you are drunk
• Beating a person who does not deserve it
• Sowing discord among people by telling lines
• Wearing clothing that is inappropriate for you
  position
• Killing an animal not capable of repaying human
  kindness

• 3 merits
• Accepting a wrong to yourself without anger
• Bearing slander without complaint
• Accepting an unpleasant truth
• Preventing the beating of a person who deserves
  it
• Saving the life of a creature tat does not have
  the power to repay human kindness

7
Ledger of Merit and Demerit (VII)

• 1 merit
• Praising a persons goodness
• Concealing a persons evil deed
• Preventing a person from doing evil in one
  instance
• Preserving a person from fighting
• Helping to relieve a persons illness
• Collating and editing a moral work left after a
  persons death (1 merit for every 1,000
  characters)
• Refusing an invitation to a feast or drinking
  party
• Rescuing a person from hunger
• Giving a person shelter for the night.

• 1 demerit
• Wasting food that someone else could be eating
• Destroying anothers success
• Ignoring the good of people in making a profit
• Using other peoples money wastefully
• Neglecting to pay debts
• Embezzling an inheritance
• Extorting money with the excuse that you need it
  for public welfare
• Intriguing ti get peoples money, possessions,
  labor, and so forth for yourself