At the end of the text, Gyalse Togme Zangpo finishes up with a dedication. Let’s try to follow him and dedicate whatever knowledge we have received from him. Then, his dedication and ours join together nicely.
(37) A bodhisattva’s practice is, with the discriminating awareness of the complete purity of the three circles, to dedicate for enlightenment the constructive forces realized by efforts like these, in order to eliminate the sufferings of limitless wandering beings.
Over the past few days, we have been talking about the practices of the bodhisattvas, and how we might include them in our own practice. I tried to express the qualities and benefits of practicing voidness and bodhichitta. All of us here following this precious text have accumulated a huge amount of positive potential. In the sutras, the Buddha himself says that just listening or reading texts on voidness brings immense benefit. This is the only way to get enlightenment. Just having a small doubt about the solidity of existence cracks the foundations of samsara. We have done a great job together.
Please dedicate whatever positive force you have built up so that it is not only for yourself or just for this life, but with the strong aspiration that we can come back in future lives and study this beautiful text until we become the same as Gyalse Togme Zangpo. We can aspire to be able to benefit all sentient beings by knowing voidness non-conceptually.
We should also dedicate our positive potential to the long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. We should know that the person who dedicates and the positive force dedicated are both like all illusions. The object we dedicate the positive potential to is also like an illusion. His Holiness is like an illusion, your constructive deeds are like an illusion and you yourself are like an illusion. So, why dedicate to His Holiness? So that he lives a long, healthy life and can continue to teach us. All other teachers too. There are so many humble monks too. And many great teachers with no titles. We only look for big titles, but we have to be careful to find hidden treasures. It could be a simple layperson, a nun, anyone. They don’t need to be Buddhists. They could be Muslims or Christians or Hindus.
A bodhisattva’s prayer is not to be reborn as a human being with a perfect physical form and perfect mental form. No. They pray to be reborn whenever and wherever they will be of most benefit. Even if this means being reborn among tiny insects.
On the Discovery Channel we can see so many beautiful things that shouldn’t happen, biologically speaking. Scientists say it is not possible, but sometimes we see things beyond the ordinary, extraordinary. Lions kill calves for food, but I have seen lions adopting calves. Cranes eat fish normally, but I have seen cranes feeding fish, which is incredible. Like these examples, bodhisattvas pray strongly to be reborn where they can benefit others most. Who knows, maybe some of these animals are manifestation of bodhisattvas.
Finally, we don’t know when we will die. I have seen those younger than me dying. Age is not a concern. We don’t know. I have seen great masters passing, great rinpoches dying of cancer and other illnesses. I remember His Holiness the Dalai Lama sharing a story of the First Dalai Lama. He was a student of Lama Tsongkhapa, and a great practitioner. At one point, he felt ready to leave the world, and so his students were very worried and sad. One said, “You are a great practitioner, you don’t need to worry, you will go to a Pure Land.” With a serious look, the First Dalai Lama said, “I have never prayed in my life to be reborn in a Pure Land. I have only prayed to be reborn where I can be of benefit for any sentient beings, even if I have to suffer a lot.” This is what we should do. If there are next lives, we don’t have to worry because we’ll be able to continue learning until liberation.
Read and listen to the original text “37 Bodhisattva Practices” by Togme Zangpo.