retrofuturist wrote:there are suttas that say an offering to an arahant yields greater merit to an offering to a non-arahant.
Do these suttas instructs us to give to a "plump arahant" before giving to a "starving beggar child"?
What does it mean to "yield greater merit"?
I'd like to take a closer look at the suttas you referenced.
King Kosala once asked the Buddha to whom alms should be given (S.i,98). The Buddha replied that alms should be given to those by giving to whom one becomes happy.
It seems the OP would be happier giving to the starving beggar child than to the plump arahant.
Then the king asked another question: To whom should alms be offered to obtain great fruit?
I was troubled by how this question was phrased so I looked to Bhikkhu Bodhi's translation for comparison:
Where does what is given become of great fruit?
I think there is a difference in talking about how one
obtains great fruit and how a gift
becomes great fruit. The former seems tied up with greed while the later speaks only of cause and effect. The OP objects to approaching the question of giving in terms of what the giver will get in return. I think this is a valid objection and I think the Bodhi translation avoids this issue. Now for the Buddha's answer...
The Buddha's answer to the first question is translated by Bodhi as "Wherever one's mind has confidence" which is also quite telling; it would seem the OP has little confidence in an alleged arahant who is plump.
The Buddha's answer to the second question is given by Bodhi as "What is given to one who is virtuous is of great fruit, not so what is given to an immoral person." It would seem a teaching regarding [a virtuous person vs an immoral person] is quite different than a teaching regarding [a starving beggar child vs a plump arahant].
He then gives a simile of, while at war, employing an unskilled soldier vs employing a skilled one. Paying the first is more useful than paying the second. Again, highlighting the objective cause and effect of ones actions rather than some mystical "acquiring of merit".
The Magha Sutta (Sn.p.86) gives a detailed account of the virtues of the arahant to show to whom alms should be offered by one desiring merit.
Again with the "desiring merit". I am willing to bet this is translated differently in other sources. I found one which asks "Where will the oblation of such an offerer prosper?" That certainly makes things clearer!
The Brahmanasamyutta (S.i,175) maintains that offerings bear greatest results...
Nothing more needs to be said.
Thus the Sangha ... constitutes the field of merit (punnakkhetta, M.i,447).
And what is a "field of merit"?
"Just as seeds sown in fertile well-watered fields yields bountiful crops, alms given to the virtuous ... yield great results (A.iv,238; i,162). The Dhammapada maintains that fields have weeds as their blemish; lust, hatred, delusion and desire are the blemishes of people and therefore what is given to those who have eliminated those blemishes bears great fruit (Dhp. 356-59)."
The Anguttara Nikaya (A.iv,392-95) records... better still is the cultivation of metta, loving-kindness".
In this sutta we read: "If one were to develop even just one whiff of a heart of good will, that would be more fruitful than... if one were to feed 100 arahants."
As I said, I do not know of a teaching which instructs us to give to a "plump arahant" before giving to a "starving beggar child". I do know that Buddhism has often been misunderstood and even mistaught as having as it's highest goal a "million 'merit points' and a thousand years of feasting in Heaven" but I do not think this is borne out by a reading of the actual texts.