Dedication of Merit

Dedication of Merit

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The Bodhicaryāvatāra concludes with the tenth chapter devoted to the dedication (pariṇāma) of the merit (puṇya) accrued from Śāntideva's composition of the text. Merit is considered indispensable in Mahāyāna Buddhism, as it is due to one's stores of merit that progress towards enlightenment is possible. Furthermore, it is believed that one must dedicate this merit for the welfare of oneself and others in order to safeguard one's stores of merit from being exhausted.

...just as there is no destruction or interruption, until the end of the aeon, of a drop of water that has fallen into a great ocean, there is no destruction or interruption whatsoever of the roots of virtue that have been dedicated to awakening until the bodhisatvas sit on the seat of awakening... The bodhisatvas dedicate the roots of virtue they accomplish to protect all beings, to bring them to maturity, and to introduce them to the roots of virtue. They dedicate those roots of virtue to realize the wisdom of omniscience. They dedicate those roots of virtue to nourish all beings. They dedicate those roots of virtue to establish all beings in complete nirvāṇa and in the wisdom of omniscience.

~ The Teaching of Akṣayamati: Akṣayamatinirdeśa (Braarvig, J.) (48)

Merit is a crucial concept in Mahāyāna Buddhism in which it is viewed in conjunction with wisdom as the two accumulations that are perfected in the attainment of a buddha. It is also the last of the three excellences (dam pa gsum), in which the bodhisattva ideally performs all activities in the context of the excellent preparation by arousing bodhicitta (sbyor ba sems bskyed), the excellent main part is then undertaken without any reference point (dngos gzhi dmigs med), and the excellent conclusion is to dedicate the merit (rjes bsngo ba) to the welfare of all sentient beings.

Śāntideva concludes his composition of the Bodhicaryāvatāra with a lengthy dedication, which is often extracted from the treatise to be used as a stand alone liturgy for the dedication of merit in the Tibetan tradition.

By all the virtue I have now amassed By composition of this book, which speaks Of entry to the Bodhisattva way, May every being tread the path to Buddhahood.

Verse 10.1

[ src citation ]The Way of the Bodhisattva (2006)
Page(s) 163
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.

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༈ བདག་གིས་བྱང་ཆུབ་སྤྱོད་པ་ལ། །

འཇུག་པ་རྣམ་པར་བརྩམས་པ་ཡི། ། དགེ་བ་གང་དེས་འགྲོ་བ་ཀུན། །

བྱང་ཆུབ་སྤྱོད་ལ་འཇུག་པར་ཤོག །

bdag gis byang chub spyod pa la/_/

'jug pa rnam par brtsams pa yi/_/ dge ba gang des 'gro ba kun/_/

byang chub spyod la 'jug par shog_/

And now as long as space endures, As long as there are beings to be found, May I continue likewise to remain To drive away the sorrows of the world.

Verse 10.55

[ src citation ]The Way of the Bodhisattva (2006)
Page(s) 171
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.

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ཇི་སྲིད་ནམ་མཁའ་གནས་པ་དང་། །

འགྲོ་བ་ཇི་སྲིད་གནས་གྱུར་པ། ། དེ་སྲིད་བདག་ནི་གནས་གྱུར་ནས། །

འགྲོ་བའི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་སེལ་བར་ཤོག །

ji srid nam mkha' gnas pa dang /_/

'gro ba ji srid gnas gyur pa/_/ de srid bdag ni gnas gyur nas/_/

'gro ba'i sdug bsngal sel bar shog_/

May the Doctrine, only cure for sorrow, Source of every bliss and happiness, Be blessed with wealth, upheld with veneration, And throughout a vast continuance of time, endure!

Verse 10.57

[ src citation ]The Way of the Bodhisattva (2006)
Page(s) 171
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.

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[ tib / wyl ]

འགྲོ་བའི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་སྨན་གཅིག་པུ། །

བདེ་བ་ཐམས་ཅད་འབྱུང་བའི་གནས། ། བསྟན་པ་རྙེད་དང་བཀུར་སྟི་དང་། །

བཅས་ཏེ་ཡུན་རིང་གནས་གྱུར་ཅིག །

gro ba'i sdug bsngal sman gcig pu/_/

bde ba thams cad 'byung ba'i gnas/_/ bstan pa rnyed dang bkur sti dang /_/

bcas te yun ring gnas gyur cig_/

Notes

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Bibliography: Works on Dedication of Merit

Bodhicitta - The altruistic thought to seek enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. It is said to have two aspects: compassion aimed at sentient beings and their problems and the wisdom of enlightenment as the solution. Skt बोधिचित्त  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས།  Ch 菩提心  

Go to the page with the definition of 'bodhicitta'

Bodhicitta - The altruistic thought to seek enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. It is said to have two aspects: compassion aimed at sentient beings and their problems and the wisdom of enlightenment as the solution. Skt बोधिचित्त  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས།  Ch 菩提心  

Go to the page with the definition of 'bodhicitta'

Stender, Daniel. "Bodhicitta." In Buddhism and Jainism, edited by K. T. S. Sarao and Jeffery D. Long, 252–54. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer, 2017.

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Ringu Tulku. "Bodhicitta." In Śāntidevas "Eintritt in das Leben zur Erleuchtung", transcribed and prepared by Gabriele Hollmann, 171–84. Vol. 3 of Buddhismus in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Hamburg: Universität Hamburg (Weiterbildendes Studium), 1999. https://www.buddhismuskunde.uni-hamburg.de/pdf/4-publikationen/buddhismus-in-geschichte-und-gegenwart/bd3-k10rinpoche.pdf.

Go to the page with the definition of 'Bodhicitta'

Bodhicitta - The altruistic thought to seek enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. It is said to have two aspects: compassion aimed at sentient beings and their problems and the wisdom of enlightenment as the solution. Skt बोधिचित्त  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས།  Ch 菩提心  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Bodhicitta'

Bodhicitta - The altruistic thought to seek enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. It is said to have two aspects: compassion aimed at sentient beings and their problems and the wisdom of enlightenment as the solution. Skt बोधिचित्त  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས།  Ch 菩提心  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Bodhicitta'

Śāntideva (ཞི་བ་ལྷ་). Bodhicaryāvatāra [बोधिचर्यावतार]. byang chub sems dpa'i spyod pa la 'jug pa [བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་སྤྱོད་པ་ལ་འཇུག་པ།]. [The Way of the Bodhisattva]. Tengyur, RKTST 3216 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=3216&typ=2.

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Weeraratne, D. Amarasiri. "Bodhicaryāvatāra." The Maha-Bodhi 79, nos. 2–3 (1971): 406–9.

Go to the page with the definition of 'Bodhicaryāvatāra'

Potter, Karl H., David J. Kalupahana, and Michael J. Sweet. "Śāntideva." In Buddhist Philosophy from 600 to 750 A.D., edited by Karl H. Potter, 516–25. Vol. 21 of Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2017.

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Potter, Karl H. ed. "Śāntideva." In Bibliography: Part 1, Texts Whose Authors Can Be Dated; Authors Listed Chronologically, 5th through 9th Century. Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies. Online edition. Last updated Apr 15, 2020. https://faculty.washington.edu/kpotter/xtxt2.htm.

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Lele, Amod. "Śāntideva." In Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, edited by James Fieser and Bradley Dowden. Accessed Feb. 11, 2021. https://iep.utm.edu/santideva/.

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Tsukamoto, Keisho, Yukei Matsunaga, and Hirofumi Isoda, eds. "Śāntideva." In A Descriptive Bibliography of the Sanskrit Buddhist Literature. Vol. 3, Abhidharma, Madhyamaka, Yogācāra, Buddhist Epistemology and Logic, 250–69. Kyoto: Heirakuji-Shoten, 1990.

Go to the page with the definition of 'Śāntideva'

Lang, Karen. "Śāntideva." In Buddhist Philosophy from 600 to 750 A.D., edited by Karl H. Potter, 137–39. Vol. 21 of Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2017.

Go to the page with the definition of 'Śāntideva'

Goodman, Charles. "Śāntideva." In Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Accessed March 15, 2021. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/shantideva/

Go to the page with the definition of 'Śāntideva'

Mahāyāna - Mahāyāna, or the Great Vehicle, refers to the system of Buddhist thought and practice which developed around the beginning of Common Era, focusing on the pursuit of the state of full enlightenment of the Buddha through the realization of the wisdom of emptiness and the cultivation of compassion. Skt महायान  Tib ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ།  Ch 大乘  

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Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'bodhisattva'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

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Gzhi - The foundational basis of both saṃsāra and nirvāṇa. It is often used as a synonym for tathāgatagarbha and dharmadhātu. Tib གཞི་  

Go to the page with the definition of 'gzhi'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Bodhisattva'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

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Ātman - Though it can simply be used as the expression "I" or "me", in Indian thought the notion of self refers to a permanent, unchanging entity, such as that which passes from life to life in the case of people, or the innate essence (svabhāva) of phenomena. Skt आत्मन्  Tib བདག་  Ch 我 and 灵魂  

Go to the page with the definition of 'བདག་'

Ātman - Though it can simply be used as the expression "I" or "me", in Indian thought the notion of self refers to a permanent, unchanging entity, such as that which passes from life to life in the case of people, or the innate essence (svabhāva) of phenomena. Skt आत्मन्  Tib བདག་  Ch 我 and 灵魂  

Go to the page with the definition of 'bdag'