Anumodana means rejoicing others positive actions. Or in simple words it means appreciating others positive actions from our heart.
It is very important and the easiest way to accumulate merits. Just by rejoice others positive actions we can accumulate such merits, for example: if a person engage in a very big merit by saving the life of 100 people, we can just rejoice what he did and that’s how we can accumulate the same merits as him simply from our home in seconds. That’s the power of Anumothana or rejoicing others positive actions.
In Thailand people often says that “I will give my merits or bun to you”. But in fact you cannot transfer your bun or merits to someone simply by saying this, however if the other person Anumothana or rejoice your merits then the other person can accumulate the same merits as you do.
Practicing Anumothana is the easiest and simplest way to accumulate lots of merits in a very less time, also this practice help us to reduce Ego and envy and increase love and compassion towards others. It is one of the seven branches of practices in Buddhism or saptavidhā-anuttarapūjā.
Seven branches of practices are:
- Prostration, the antidote to pride
- Offering, the antidote to avarice
- Confession, the antidote to aggression
- Rejoicing or Anumothana, the antidote to jealousy
- Requesting to turn the wheel of Dharma, the antidote to ignorance
- Requesting teachers to live long, the antidote to wrong views
- Dedication of merit, the antidote to doubt.