US dollars on Buddhist money tree to make merit and donate to local temple, Wat Naxai Buddhist Temple, Vientiane, Laos, Indochina, Southeast Asia, Asia

Buddhist stone monument of merit, Bongeunsa Temple, Seoul, South Korea, Asia

Quan Am Bo Tat temple, Buddhist ceremony of releasing birds back into the wild to help an individual accrue merit, Vung Tau, Vietnam, Indochina, Southeast Asia, Asia

Releasing of birds to gain merit, another facebook opportunity, Bangkok, Thailand, Southeast Asia, Asia

Merit's Funeral Mask, Floor 1, Tomb of Kha and Merit, Museo Egizio, Egyptian Museum, Turin, Piedmont, Italy

Buddhist money tree to make merit and donate to local temple, Wat Velouvanaram, Bussy Saint Georges, Seine et Marne, France, Europe

Buddhist money tree to make merit and donate to local temple, Wat Velouvanaram, Bussy Saint Georges, Seine et Marne, France, Europe

Vultures, drigung. bodies what we most attached to, says of monks. Thats offering ones body carries greatest merit. believe that should benefit other beings at every stage of ones life. After completion of powa ceremony, corpse is traditionally offered to great vultures lammergeiers that frequent charnel grounds. Vultures descend on flayed corpse. Offering bodies to birds is same as reciting mantras. It brings merit benefit to dead person as well as to family friends bring here. While cutting up corpse i to keep a pure compassionate mind. would feel if someone felt cutting up your body. -tomdenla. Tibet

Elemental forms of chortens in the valley of chortens below Shey. The king had ordered prisoners to build chortens for merit. Shey, Ladakh, India

Elemental forms of chortens in the valley of chortens below Shey. The king had ordered prisoners to build chortens for merit. Shey, Ladakh, India

Dollar bills pouring out of faucet

Dollar bills leaving nest

Mixed race woman balancing bride and groom statues on coin stacks

Gambling chips at baccarat table

A boy builds a fire in preparation to spend the night out and earn the WIlderness Survival Merit Badge, at the end of Troop 693's six day backpack trip through the High Uintas Wilderness Area, Uintas Range, Utah

India, Bihar, Bodhgaya, Buddhist monk lighting merit-making candles in the grounds of the Mahabodhi Temple.