Dedicate whatever good came of it
Close each session, or each day, by turning whatever was good in it toward the awakening and welfare of all beings.
Why it works
Khenpo Shenga presents Mahāyāna practice as three noble principles: arousing bodhicitta at the start, resting without reference points in the main part, and dedication at the end. Whatever virtue was gathered, however great or small, is dedicated to all beings’ awakening. Śāntideva’s chapter 3 does the same in verse, asking that through whatever virtue was gained, the pain of every being be cleared away. Ending this way closes the loop the aspiration opened. It also checks the quiet habit of treating practice as a private achievement to keep.
How to do it
- At the end of a session, pause and notice anything good that came of it, however small: a moment of patience, a softening toward someone.
- Without measuring or grading it, offer it in your own words to the welfare and awakening of all beings.
- Optionally recite a traditional dedication verse from a translation you trust.
- At the end of the day, do the same for the day as a whole, including small acts of kindness outside practice.
- Notice, over time, whether dedicating changes how attached you are to how a session “went.”
Evidence
The three-part structure and its instruction on dedication are in Khenpo Shenga’s Three Noble Principles. The dedicatory verses appear in Bodhicaryāvatāra chapter 3, and Patrul Rinpoche’s Brightly Shining Sun treats dedication as the seventh branch of the preparatory seven-branch practice. The idea that dedicating loosens attachment to results is the tradition’s claim and has not been tested. (anecdotal)
The idea of “merit” as something that can be dedicated rests on Buddhist views of karma that not every reader holds. Some people practise dedication purely as a closing intention.
Sources
- Khenpo Shenpen Nangwa (Khenpo Shenga). The Three Noble Principles, trans. Adam Pearcey (2007). Lotsawa House.
- Śāntideva. Bodhicaryāvatāra (Introduction to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life), Chapter 3: Fully Adopting Bodhicitta, trans. Adam Pearcey (2007). Lotsawa House.
- Patrul Rinpoche. The Brightly Shining Sun: A Step-by-Step Guide to Meditating on the Bodhicaryāvatāra, trans. Adam Pearcey (2004; revised 2007 and 2019). Lotsawa House.
Common mistake
Dedicating only when a session felt good, which quietly makes dedication a reward for success. The instruction is to dedicate whatever virtue there was, however small, including on days that felt like nothing happened.
Practice this with IX Coach
More practices for Bodhicitta: The Awakening Mind and How It Is Cultivated
- Tell the wish to go from setting out on the journey
Notice whether your bodhicitta is still a wish (aspiring) or has become a way of acting (engaging), and let one grow into the other.
- Hold relative and ultimate bodhicitta together
Pair the heartfelt wish to benefit beings with the recognition that nothing, including that wish, is as solid as it seems.
- Recognise beings as your mother, remember their kindness, wish to repay it
Lay the first three links of the sevenfold instruction: see others as having once cared for you, recall that care, and let the wish to repay it arise.
- Carry love and compassion into the superior intention
Complete the sevenfold chain: from love and compassion, take personal responsibility for others’ welfare, and from that the wish to awaken arises.
- Equalise yourself and others
See plainly that everyone, like you, wants happiness and does not want suffering, so there is no principled reason to put yourself first.
- Exchange yourself and others through envy, rivalry and pride
Imaginatively take another person’s position and look back at yourself from there, until self-cherishing loosens its grip.
- Recite the refuge and bodhicitta aspiration
Begin practice, and your day, by voicing the aspiration in a short traditional verse, so the intention is renewed rather than assumed.
- Work with “who am I to aspire to this?”
When the aspiration feels absurdly too big for someone like you, treat that feeling itself as part of the practice rather than a verdict.
Related concepts
- Tonglen: The Tibetan Practice of Taking and Sending
Moving toward suffering on the breath — Tibetan Buddhism’s radical compassion practice
- Lojong: Tibetan Mind Training
The 59 slogans and their practical application to everyday adversity and compassion
- Metta Bhavana: The Practice of Loving-Kindness
Systematic cultivation of goodwill toward self, others, and all beings
- Karuṇā: Compassion Meditation in the Theravāda Tradition
The second divine abiding, practised the way the Theravāda commentaries lay it out
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