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|quote-text=Dedication is the path of never-ending merit | |quote-text=Dedication is the path of never-ending merit | ||
For virtue is augmented and transformed thereby.<ref>Kunzang Pelden, ''The Nectar of Manjushri's Speech: A Detailed Commentary on Shantideva's Way of the Bodhisattva'', trans. Wulstan Fletcher and Helena Blankleder (Padmakara Translation Group) (Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2007), 394.</ref> | For virtue is augmented and transformed thereby.<ref>Kunzang Pelden, ''The Nectar of Manjushri's Speech: A Detailed Commentary on Shantideva's Way of the Bodhisattva'', trans. Wulstan Fletcher and Helena Blankleder (Padmakara Translation Group) (Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2007), 394.</ref> | ||
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Dedication is a way of building virtue on top of virtue. The merit that we have already amassed from other virtuous practices is further increased and augmented in the very process of dedicating it so that all beings attain the highest enlightenment. | |||
As Khenpo Kunpal says: | |||
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|quote-text=If the wishing gem, the two accumulations, | |||
is not well polished with good aspirations, | |||
the needed, wished-for fruit will not arise. | |||
So finish off all your works with dedication.<ref>Pelden, ''The Nectar of Manjushri's Speech'', 393. Khenpo Kunpal does not provide a source for this verse.</ref> | |||
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In commentary on this verse Khenpo Kunpal [LINK to text] also draws an important distinction here between dedication and aspirational prayers: | In commentary on this verse Khenpo Kunpal [LINK to text] also draws an important distinction here between dedication and aspirational prayers: | ||
Dedication and prayers of aspiration are crucially important. According to our tradition, the difference between dedication and aspiration should be understood in the following way. Dedication consists in pledging one’s positive actions to perfect enlightenment for the sake of beings. By contrast, a prayer of aspiration is just the wish that beings themselves attain enlightenment; it is not connected with the performance of wholesome deeds. | Dedication and prayers of aspiration are crucially important. According to our tradition, the difference between dedication and aspiration should be understood in the following way. Dedication consists in pledging one’s positive actions to perfect enlightenment for the sake of beings. By contrast, a prayer of aspiration is just the wish that beings themselves attain enlightenment; it is not connected with the performance of wholesome deeds. | ||
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