Toh 286The Noble Dedication “Protecting All Beings”

Summary

This text is a prayer of dedication that strongly resonates with the later Tibetan literature of mind training (blo sbyong). In addition
to the classic element of dedication of merit to all beings, a substantial part of the text comprises a passage that enumerates the many faults, shortcomings, and afflictions that
burden sentient beings, as well as the many possible attainments that they consequently may not have realized, and culminates in the wish that everything negative that would
otherwise ripen for sentient beings may ripen instead for the reciter, so that all sentient beings may thus be liberated and purified.

Acknowledgements

This text was translated from the Tibetan, introduced, and edited by the translator Zsuzsa Majer in collaboration with Karma Dorje (Rabjampa), a native Tibetan speaker and
Tibetan language expert; Beáta Kakas, the Sanskrit expert for checking Sanskrit terms; and Nathaniel Rich, the English-language editor, in the framework of the Alexander Csoma de
Kőrös Translation Group.

The translation was completed under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha.

Introduction

This short text and
The Dedication “Fulfilling All Aspirations”

(Toh 285) that precedes it appear to constitute a pair, and this for several reasons. First, the two texts, both of which lack Sanskrit titles, appear side by side both in the
Denkarma (ldan dkar ma) imperial catalog and in the extant Kangyurs of the Tshalpa and Thempangma lines. In the Tshalpa Kangyurs, the two
are placed at the very end of the Mahāyāna division of the General Sūtra (mdo sde) section, and in the Thempangma Kangyurs toward the end
of the entire General Sūtra section. Their function as dedications therefore seems to be reflected in that placement, and—in the Tshalpa Kangyurs at least—the two appear to be
dedications meant specifically to seal the sections of Mahāyāna sūtras.

Furthermore, since the two texts are dedications, it is perhaps not surprising that they are neither called sūtras, nor show features typical of sūtras, such as the
opening “Thus did I hear” or an introductory passage describing the setting and audience of the discourse. What is somewhat surprising is that both are nonetheless
included in the sūtra section of the Kangyur, indicating that they are to be considered discourses of the Buddha. Along those lines, the lack of features that typically
distinguish sūtras led the fifteenth-century scholar Pekar Sangpo (pad dkar bzang po), in his analytical survey of all the sūtras found in
the Kangyur, to conclude that the two texts are extracts from another, longer sūtra—though he does not say which, and our own search for matches
(at least in the Tibetan corpus) has not yet identified any such text, sūtra or otherwise. What can be said with a reasonable degree of confidence is that, regardless of their
exact provenance, the two texts were translated from Sanskrit or another Indic language in the late eighth or early ninth century. The short colophon to the present text attests to that, providing the names of the two translators, the Indian preceptor Vidyākaraprabha and the Tibetan
translator Bandé Yeshé Nyingpo, and the senior editor-translator Bandé Paltsek, who edited and finalized the text. The text is also listed in both the Denkarma and Phangthangma
(’phang thang ma) catalogs. This confirms the dating of the Tibetan translation to the early ninth century at the latest.

There is no extant Sanskrit text of this sūtra, and there are no known canonical or Tibetan commentaries. There is no known English translation of it nor any translation
into any European language, and no academic research or scholarly studies of it are known. A translation of the Tibetan text is, however, available in the Mongolian
Kangyur. The translation
presented here is based on the Tibetan version in the Degé Kangyur and consultation of the Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma) as well as
the Stok Palace manuscript.

The structure of the present text partly reflects the liturgy of “seven branches” or “seven limbs” (yan lag bdun pa), a
set of practices that came to serve as the basic structure of many Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna Buddhist prayers, sādhanas, and pūjās. The seven branches are commonly as follows:
prostration or homage, offering, confession, rejoicing in virtue, requesting the buddhas to teach, requesting the buddhas not to pass into nirvāṇa, and dedication of merit. Not
all of these seven are present in this text, which suggests that perhaps the set was formalized only later. The structure of the present text also partly reflects the structure
of the preceding text. For example, here there is also only a single line of homage at the very beginning, which might indicate that the line was intended only as the customary
line of homage found at the beginning of all Kangyur works. Also in common with the preceding text, the line of homage is followed by a request that the buddhas and
bodhisattvas pay heed to the reciter. And what immediately follows are four brief lines, each of them devoted to a single act in the order in which they appear in the preceding
text: confession, rejoicing, supplicating the buddhas, and dedicating all merits.

What sets this short text apart, however, is the extensive dedication that follows, comprising the bulk of the prayer. This features an enumeration of the many faults,
shortcomings, and afflictions that burden sentient beings, as well as the many possible attainments that they may have consequently not realized, with the reciter expressing
the wish that everything negative that would otherwise ripen for sentient beings may instead “ripen for me” (bdag la smin), so
that all sentient beings would thus be liberated and purified. This strongly resonates with the much later Tibetan mind training (blo
sbyong) teachings, especially their central contemplative exercise of “giving and taking” (gtong len).
Considering how pervasive the mind training teachings became, and still remain, in the Tibetan Buddhist world, it might come as a surprise to learn that other sūtra sources in
the Kangyur for the development of that specific aspiration—that the suffering and negative karma of sentient beings “ripen for me”—are practically nonexistent. In fact, it
would appear that this hitherto unnoticed dedication contains the only explicit articulation to be found in the Kangyur of the paradigmatic aspiration of mind training—the wish
that the suffering of others instead “ripen for me.”

The Translation

The Noble Dedication

Protecting All Beings

I prostrate to the Buddha, to the Teaching, and to the entire Assembly.

Blessed buddhas and all bodhisattva great beings, please pay heed to me!

I confess all sins.

I rejoice in all merits.

I pray to all buddhas.

I dedicate all merits so that all sentient beings attain the unsurpassed wisdom of omniscience.

Just as by their truth and true words the blessed buddhas who teach the truth have dedicated their perfect roots of virtue, in the same way do I, too, make this
dedication. By that truth and those true words: whatever sins, nonvirtuous deeds, and evils that all sentient beings have committed; whatever falsehoods they have spoken and
harmful thoughts they have had; whatever obscurations—afflictive obscurations, karmic obscurations, ripened obscurations, and cognitive obscurations—have obscured, veiled, and
fettered them; that they have not correctly known their own and others’ aspirations, latent dispositions, constituents, or intrinsic nature; that they have not correctly known
their differences in faculties and diligence or in their virtues and nonvirtues; that they have not correctly known those qualities that are blameworthy, not blameworthy, to be
relied upon, or not to be relied upon; that they have not succeeded in encountering holy beings, listening to the holy Dharma, directing their minds appropriately, or
practicing in accordance with the Dharma; that they have not correctly known the various methods of taming by which beings may be tamed however they are obscured, veiled, and
fettered by obscurations: the taming of sentient beings, the taming of self, the taming of others, the taming of both, taming gently, taming wrathfully, taming with equanimity, taming threateningly, taming by exorcism, taming with censure, taming by means of acts of service,
veneration, and worship, taming by explaining the Dharma, taming by smiling, taming by going into seclusion to meditate, taming by means of the ascetic disciplines and having
few possessions, taming through the practice of the perfections of generosity, ethical discipline, endurance, diligence, meditative absorption, and wisdom, and taming by faith,
ethical discipline, learning, renunciation, wisdom, and meditative cultivation; that they have not given rise to the causes of ethical discipline; that they have not made pure
the causes of meditative concentration, the causes of mental focus, the causes of meditative absorption, the causes of calm abiding, the causes of transcendent insight, the
causes of the superknowledges, the causes of the exhaustion of defilements, or the causes of the discernments; that they have not actualized the meditative absorptions, the
liberations, the meditative concentrations, and the meditative attainments, and that when appearances arise they have allowed what has arisen to decline; that they have given
rise in their minds to the wish for gain, the wish to be honored, the wish for fame, and the wish for followers; that they have harbored in their minds thoughts of desire,
malevolent thoughts, violent thoughts, thoughts about immortality, thoughts about children, thoughts about relatives, and thoughts about the requisites of clothing, food,
bedding, and medicines for treating illness; that they have experienced short lives, much ill health, bad complexions, poor figures, weakness, low status, meagre resources, stupidity, being reborn in the lower realms among the hell beings, in the animal realms, and in the realm of
the Lord of the Dead, and that they have experienced many such kinds of suffering deriving from their bodies and mental unhappiness deriving from their minds; and that they
have delighted in wrong aspirations and have not realized rightful aspirations—may everything that will ripen for sentient beings obscured and fettered by these and any other
obscurations ripen for me! And may all sentient beings thus be liberated and purified.

Whatever extent the Buddha element may have, whatever extent the Dharma element may have, whatever extent the Saṅgha element may have, whatever extent the very limit of
reality may have, whatever extent nonduality may have, whatever extent suchness may have, whatever extent sameness may have, whatever extent the elements of desire, anger, and
ignorance may have, and whatever extent those who are bound and will be bound in saṃsāra may have—to that very extent may all sentient beings’ primary afflictions, all their
secondary afflictions, and whatever elements of affliction itself there may be, all ripen for me! And may all sentient beings thus be liberated and purified.

However many roots of virtue I have created and accumulated from cyclic existence’s undiscoverable beginning, I dedicate them to all sentient beings. Attached to
desire, tormented by anger, confused by ignorance, and yoked to the primary afflictions, secondary afflictions, and affliction itself, I do not correctly know, see, or
understand how to dedicate the roots of virtue. But the blessed buddhas do know, see, and understand such things, and just as they dedicated their roots of virtue, so too do I
dedicate mine. I dedicate them in accordance with the mind of the tathāgatas. Just as they tamed sentient beings;
just as they ripened their roots of virtue; just as they multiplied their roots of virtue; and just as they knew suffering, abandoned its origin, realized cessation, cultivated
the path, attained the unsurpassed wisdom of omniscience, abandoned all roots of nonvirtue, possessed all roots of virtue, vanquished the latent tendencies, and attained the
state of non-forgetfulness and the knowledge of all aspects—in just the same way that all the buddhas appearing in the past, the present, and the future dedicated their roots
of virtue when they were bodhisattvas, so too do I dedicate mine. I dedicate them through sameness; I dedicate them through nonduality; I dedicate them by means of the
dedication that completely protects all beings; and thus I recite a second time, and thus a third time.

May sentient beings see me in whatever manner will tame them, without their having any such thoughts in mind. And may I always engage
in physical, verbal, and mental actions in whatever ways sentient beings will be purified.

In whatever time, whatever place, and whatever way sentient beings will be tamed, may the sphere of reality be thus revealed to them without confusion!

The Noble Dedication “Protecting All Beings” is concluded.

Colophon

Translated by the Indian preceptor Vidyākaraprabha and the translator Bandé Yeshé Nyingpo, and edited and finalized by the senior editor-translator Bandé Paltsek.

Notes

Bibliography

Main Sources

Secondary Sources

sameness

meditative absorption
bsam gtan
བསམ་གཏན།
dhyāna
One of the synonyms for meditation, referring specifically to states of mental stability or one-pointed abiding in an undistracted state of mind
free from afflicted mental states. bsam gtan/dhyāna can refer to the
specific states of absorption of the form and formless realms (eight in total). One of the six perfections of the bodhisattva.

The senior editor-translator who edited and finalized this text.

Translator of this text.