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Selected dedication verses

Selected dedication verses

Dedication of merit prevents the merit from being damaged by anger or wrong views and ensures it will ripen in the way you wish. Dedicate the merit created by yourself and others in the past, present, and future. The chant below was recorded by the Sravasti Abbey Sangha in April 2010.

Due to this merit may we soon
Attain the awakened state of guru-Buddha,
That we may be able to liberate
All sentient beings from their sufferings.

May the precious bodhi mind
Not yet born arise and grow.
May that born have no decline,
But increase forever more.

Dedication of merit (download)

May anyone who merely sees, hears, remembers, touches or talks to me be freed in that very instant from all sufferings and abide in happiness forever.

In all my rebirths may I never be separated from perfect spiritual mentors and enjoy the magnificent Dharma. Completing all qualities of the stages and paths, may I quickly attain the state of Vajradhara.

Without harming them, may I always stop all beings in all worlds who wish to commit harmful deeds.

Since it is due to my teacher’s kindness that I have met the Buddha’s peerless teaching, I dedicate this virtue so that all beings may be guided by sublime spiritual mentors.

Until cyclic existence ends, may the teaching of this Beneficent One be unshaken by the wind of superstitions. May the world be filled with those who find conviction in the Teacher by understanding the teaching’s true nature.

Throughout all my births, even when giving away my body and life, may I never fail to uphold for even an instant the excellent way of the Sage, which illumines the principle of dependent arising.

Day and night, may I pass the time thinking and examining by what means these teachings can be spread in the minds of myself and others.

In order to train like the hero Manjushri who knows reality as it is and just like Samantabhadra as well, I completely dedicate all this goodness just as they did.

With that dedication which is praised as greatest by all the Buddhas gone to freedom in the three times, I too dedicate all my roots of goodness for the attainments of the bodhisattva practice.

May sentient beings, who have all been my mother and father, be completely happy, and may the lower realms be forever empty. May all the prayers of bodhisattvas, in whatever places they live, be immediately fulfilled.

May I experience whatever sufferings sentient beings have, and may they experience whatever happiness and virtue I have.

May the glorious spiritual mentors live long, and may all beings throughout limitless space have happiness. By purifying our defilements and accumulating merit, may I and all others be inspired to attain Buddhahood quickly.

May I never develop for even a moment wrong views towards the deeds of my glorious spiritual mentors. By seeing whatever actions they do as pure, with respect and devotion, may the spiritual mentors’ inspiration flow into my mind.

In all my lives, through the Victorious One, Je Tsongkhapa, acting as my Mahayana spiritual mentor, may I never turn away for even an instant from the excellent path praised by the Victorious Ones.

May I and others be able to live in pure ethical conduct, train our minds in bodhicitta, and develop pure view and conduct. In this way, may we complete our lives without corrupting the pure wisdom of Je Tsongkhapa, (who is like) the second Buddha.

Venerable Thubten Chodron

Venerable Chodron emphasizes the practical application of Buddha’s teachings in our daily lives and is especially skilled at explaining them in ways easily understood and practiced by Westerners. She is well known for her warm, humorous, and lucid teachings. She was ordained as a Buddhist nun in 1977 by Kyabje Ling Rinpoche in Dharamsala, India, and in 1986 she received bhikshuni (full) ordination in Taiwan. Read her full bio.