Key Terms/Pariṇāmanā
From Bodhicitta
परिणामना pariṇāmanā
dedication of merit
བསྔོ་བ་
bsngo ba
迴向
huíxiàng
Sanskrit - Noun
Basic Meaning
The Buddhist practice of 'dedicating' or giving away the positive energy from one's good deeds for the benefit of others. It ensures that the goodness created is shared with all beings and directed toward the ultimate goal of enlightenment, preventing it from being exhausted.
Has the Sense of
- Abhidharma (Indo-Tibetan): In the context of the path, pariṇāmanā (T. bsngo ba) is the mental action that determines the specific maturation of a wholesome deed. While ordinary wholesome actions naturally result in pleasant rebirths within saṃsāra, the act of dedication intentionally steers that karmic potential. It is categorized as a virtuous mental activity that transforms a simple "root of virtue" into a cause for the "higher end"—liberation or omniscience. Without dedication, merit is compared to a seasonal crop that is consumed once it ripens
,with dedication, it is like a drop of water added to a great ocean, which does not disappear until the ocean itself dries up.
- Mahāyāna (Indo-Tibetan): Dedication is the seventh and final branch of the "Supreme Worship" (anuttarā-pūjā) or "Seven-Branch Service" (yan lag bdun pa). It is the crucial step that seals all other virtuous activities. In the bodhisattva path, the standard dedication is to direct merit toward the "unsurpassable, truly complete enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings." This is often performed with the awareness of the "three circles" ('khor gsum)—the dedicator, the merit being dedicated, and the goal of the dedication—as being empty of inherent existence. This "pure dedication" (yongs su bsngos pa rnam par dag pa) prevents the merit from being destroyed by later moments of anger or regret.
- Vajrayāna (Indo-Tibetan): Within Tantric liturgy, the dedication of merit concludes every sādhana or ritual session. It is often paired with "aspiration prayers" (praṇidhāna,T. smon lam). In the Vajrayāna, dedication also carries the sense of "transmutation," where the practitioner's efforts in deity yoga and mantra recitation are dedicated to the stabilization of the "mandala of the deity" and the swift awakening of all beings within that spiritual environment. It is the bridge between the "meditative state" (samāhita-jñāna) and the "subsequent attainment" (pṛṣṭhalabdha-jñāna).
| Term Variations | |
| Key Term | Pariṇāmanā |
|---|---|
| Topic Variation | pariṇāmanā |
| Tibetan | བསྔོ་བ་ ( ngowa) |
| Wylie Transliteration | bsngo ba ( ngowa) |
| Devanagari Sanskrit | परिणामना |
| Romanized Sanskrit | pariṇāmanā |
| Chinese | 迴向 |
| Chinese Pinyin | huíxiàng |
| Japanese Transliteration | ekō |
| Korean | hoehwi |
| Buddha-nature Site Standard English | dedication of merit |
| Alternate Spellings | bsngo ba, dedication, transfer of merit |
| Term Information | |
| Source Language | Sanskrit |
| Term Type | Noun |
| Definitions | |
| Tshig mdzod Chen mo | ༡. སྔོ་བའི་མ་འོངས་པ།
༢. ཡོངས་སུ་བསྒྱུར་བའམ། ཡོངས་སུ་སྤེལ་བ་ལ་འཇུག་པ་སྟེ། འཁོར་བའི་རྒྱུར་གྱུར་བའི་དགེ་རྩ་རྣམས་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཆེན་པོའི་རྒྱུར་བསྒྱུར་བའམ། འཛད་པར་འགྱུར་བའི་དགེ་རྩ་རྣམས་མི་ཟད་པར་སྤེལ་བའི་དོན་ཡིན་ལ། རང་གཞན་གྱི་རྒྱུད་ཀྱི་དུས་གསུམ་དུ་བསགས་པའི་ཟག་བཅས་ཟག་མེད་ཀྱི་དགེ་ཚོགས་མཐའ་དག་བླ་ན་མེད་པའི་བྱང་ཆུག་ཀྱི་རྒྱུར་བསྒྱུར་སྤེལ་བྱེད་པའི་འདུན་པ་མཚུངས་ལྡན་དང་བཅས་པའོ། |
