Final precepts, daily conduct · Verse 37 of 37
Verse 37: Dedicate the merit
Verse 37 of The Thirty-Seven Practices of Bodhisattvas, the fourteenth-century Tibetan poem by Gyalse Tokme Zangpo (1295–1369). It belongs to the section on final precepts, daily conduct.
With the wisdom of threefold purity, dedicate to enlightenment all the merit gained from having made such effort. Dedicate it to dispel the suffering of limitless beings. This is the way of a bodhisattva.
The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to dedicate towards enlightenment
All the virtue to be gained through making effort in these ways,
With wisdom that is purified entirely of the three conceptual spheres,
So as to dispel the sufferings of the infinity of beings.
To dispel the suffering of beings without limit,
With wisdom freed from the three spheres
Direct all the goodness generated by these efforts
To awakening — this is the practice of a bodhisattva.
A facilitator's reading across the commentaries
KS's ocean-drop vs. hot-stone-drop is the image to close every session with — and his workaround ("dedicate as the buddhas dedicated") solves the practical problem that three-spheres purity is beyond beginners. A dedication verse the group recites weekly would make this verse lived rather than studied.
GR Garchen Rinpoche · HHDL H.H. the Dalai Lama · AB Dr. Alexander Berzin · KTGR Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche · KS Khenpo Sodargye · TC Ven. Thubten Chodron · KM Ken McLeod
What the teachers say
Garchen Rinpoche Drikung Kagyu
(Briefest of all.) All good deeds aim at beings' escape from suffering and enlightenment; dedication via the three-wheel method — purity of agent, act, object — purifies the mindstream: "all sentient beings are Buddhas."
Full commentary: 37practices.info (37practices.info serves this as one long page; find the verse by number.)
H.H. the Dalai Lama Gelug
(Brief.) Dedicate not to one's own well-being or rebirth but "solely to the attainment of buddhahood in order to relieve the suffering of others," conjoined with three-spheres wisdom. "So the main part is now finished."
Full commentary: 37practices.info (37practices.info serves this as one long page; find the verse by number.)
Dr. Alexander Berzin Gelug
Proper vs. self-centered dedication: "may everybody achieve enlightenment," not "may I achieve enlightenment so that I can eliminate the suffering of everybody." The caravan metaphor: add your small store of grain to the bodhisattvas' vast stores, all spent for the general good. The complete purity of the three spheres prevents grasping at a solid "me" attaining enlightenment.
Full commentary: studybuddhism.com
Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche Karma Kagyu
The distinctive image: awakening from a dream while dedicating — no one dedicates, nothing dedicated, no one receives, all dreamlike. Dedication with this understanding renders merit inexhaustible.
Full commentary: dharmaebooks.org (Free ebook, trans. Suzanne Schefczyk.)
Khenpo Sodargye Nyingma, Larung Gar
Every Dharma activity has three parts — virtuous beginning (bodhicitta), middle (illusory accumulation), end (dedication) — and dedication determines destiny. Merit shared with all beings lasts like "a drop of water that we put into the ocean," while undedicated merit evaporates like a drop on a hot stone and can be destroyed by anger or pride. For ordinary practitioners who haven't realized emptiness: dedicate "in the same way as the past buddhas and bodhisattvas dedicated" — which makes it equally great.
Full commentary: khenposodargye.org (Free ebook PDF.)
Ven. Thubten Chodron Sravasti Abbey, Gelug
Winter Retreat vv29–37 talk.
Full commentary: thubtenchodron.org
Ken McLeod Shambhala / independent
Talk 12: dedication done through presence rather than conceptual effort. Tricycle v37 (video/subscriber).
Full commentary: unfetteredmind.org (Tricycle's per-verse written commentary is behind a subscriber paywall.)
Further reading: Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, The Heart of Compassion (Shambhala). A purchased book — no text is reproduced here.