Bodhicitta Sangha

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Bodhicitta

I will now teach you a little bit about Tibetan Buddhism.   I am a Buddhist and my whole way of training is according to the Buddhist teaching or Buddha Dharma. I speak from my own experience and I feel that no one has the right to impose his or her beliefs on another person. I will not propose to you that my way is best. If you find some point which may be suitable for you, then you can investigate and play with these ideas for yourself. If you find that they are of no use, then you can discard them. The decision is up to you.

Now, I would like to share with you two of the most important principles of the path. The first is Bodhicitta and the second is Renunciation. Bodhicitta is the foundation of the Mahayana (Greater Path), while Renunciation is the foundation of the Hinayana (Lesser Path).
 So therefore, before listening to the teachings it is very important to give rise to Bodhicitta, the supreme mind of enlightenment. Bodhicitta has a very profound meaning. The essence of Bodhicitta basically means having a good, kind heart. Another meaning is that you help others when you are able.  Then, when you are not able to help, you refrain from causing them harm and refrain from having negative emotions towards them. For example, if you are standing on a beach and someone is drowning and if you are a good swimmer you would help them. But if you don’t know how to swim at least you wouldn’t throw rocks on their head. Without Bodhicitta, even if you practice a lot, it will not be beneficial for you or anyone else. So the first step in your practice should be to give rise to Bodhicitta. Bodhicitta is the foundation and most important principle of the entire Mahayana path.
 

There are two levels of Bodhicitta. These are Absolute Bodhicitta and Relative Bodhicitta.  Absolute Bodhicitta is the realization that the ultimate nature of all phenomena is emptiness. In order to realize Absolute Bodhicitta, we first need to cultivate Relative Bodhicitta. Relative Bodhicitta has two types, which are Aspiration and Application Bodhicitta. Aspiration Bodhicitta is about wishing good things for other people. It is desiring all people to be free from suffering and to have happiness. It is mostly a state of your mind does not include activities of compassion. 

Application Bodhicitta is the implementation of the plan. Here you really do something and help the people that you were thinking about helping in Aspiration Bodhicitta. 
How do you practice these two types? You practice Aspiration Bodhicitta by meditating on the Four Immeasurables and you practice Application Bodhicitta by putting into action the six Transcendent Perfections.

The Four Immeasurables are Equanimity, Love, compassion, and Joy. First we should by developing Immeasurable Equanimity. If you do not do this, then whatever love, compassion and sympathetic joy you develop will be one-sided towards friends and relatives and therefore not equal towards all beings. So it is important to start by meditating on equanimity. Equanimity means giving up our hatred of enemies and attachment towards friends.

Immeasurable Love means wishing that all sentient beings have happiness and the causes of happiness. They way you do this is by being loving with your body, speech, and mind. "In all my lives, may I never harm another sentient being and may I always help each and every one of them" You should always keep this prayer in mind.

Immeasurable Compassion means wishing all sentient beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering. When you first meditate on compassion, it is important to focus on the suffering of just one person. Then slowly train yourself, step by step, to include more suffering beings in your meditation. 

Immeasurable Joy means wishing that people who have happiness, good health, and good things, continue to have these wonderful qualities and that these qualities to grow for them. The meaning of sympathetic joy is to have a mind that is free from jealousy. Therefore you should try to train your mind with all sorts of methods to stop the harmful jealous thoughts from arising.

Renunciation

The second most important principle is Renunciation. To understand Renunciation you must first to know what Samsara is. Samsara is the Sanskrit term for wheel. Just as a wheel goes around and around, and has no beginning and no end, Samsara depicts the endless cycle of existence. As long as you return to Samsara again and again you will continue to experience suffering. Therefore, you need to break free from Samsara in order to find freedom from suffering. So, in Tibetan Buddhism, Renunciation means knowing that the nature of Samsara is suffering and with this realization giving rise to the desire to be free from suffering.  

Renunciation is difficult for most Westerners because they do not recognize that Samsara is suffering.  But if you really think about it closely and analyze it you will see the truth in this idea.

For instance, when you buy something new you are very excited about the purchase, like a computer, for example.  However, sooner or later something will happen.  Perhaps a new version of the computer becomes available and yours is now outdated, or you get a scratch on the screen or spill your soda on the keypad.  Then you will become very angry and upset or at least withdrawn and disappointed.  This is the nature of impermanence and change.  The suffering of Samsara occurs because of changes like this.  So you must remember that Samsara will not bring lasting happiness.  You should try to cultivate the desire to be free from Samsara.

According to Buddhism, these two concepts, Bodhicitta and Renunciation, are very important for beginners to understand and apply.

How to investigate the teacher and the teachings

As you know, in Buddhism it is very important to investigate the teacher and teachings. To examine the teacher in a general way means to check whether or not he or she has all the qualities described in the sutras and tantras. In particular, it is absolutely necessary that he should have Bodhicitta. If he or she does, then she or he will do whatever is best for the students. So, before you start any practice, you should take care to check the teacher. Buddha said, "In the beginning, do this by skillfully examining the teacher. In the middle, skillfully follow the teacher. In the end, skillfully follow his realization and action. A student who does that is on the authentic path." You do not go by blind faith, but must come to a decision through your own reasoning that Buddha and the Buddha are believable. 

In the beginning, do this by skillfully examining the teacher. In the middle, skillfully follow him. In the end, skillfully emulate his realization and action. A student who does that is on the authentic path.

But there is only one situation where you do not need to investigate your teacher. This is when you have a karmic connection with him or her form a past life or this life. In this situation, simply to meet him or hear his voice or even just hear the name can change everything for you immediately. It can move you with such faith that every hair on you body stands on end or it brings tears to your eyes.

Ordinary people like us are, for the most part, easily influenced by the people and circumstances around us. That is why we should always follow a good teacher. If you live and study with a perfect teacher full of good qualities, you will be filled by the essence of those qualities and everything you do will be similar to him. So, before you start any practices, you should take care to check the teacher.

It is also important investigate the student. It is necessary that the student should have at least three things. The student should be tolerant, intelligent and motivated. The students need to be unprejudiced and unbiased toward others, have the capacity to think critically and have a desire and interest to engage in the teachings.

According to Buddhism, the first thing you need to do is understand the difference between Buddhism and other religions. What are its special qualities that make it unique? Once you understand special qualities of the different religions, then you can make the decision on which one will be most beneficial for you. In Buddhism it is very important to investigate the source of what you are learning. You do not go by blind faith, but must come to a decision through your own reasoning that Buddhism and the Buddha are believable.

From Buddhist point of view it is completely your choice if you want to practice Buddhism and to follow the Buddha. If you have decided that you want to follow the Buddha and practice Buddhism, then it is no longer up to you. You must follow what the Buddha says. In Buddhism there are two main paths that you can follow. One is the HY and the other is the MY. It all depends on your motivation and who you are that will decide which path you follow. So therefore, you need to check and investigate your motivation.

For instance, there are three people who each offer three candles of the same quality to the Buddha. We need to investigate the intention of these three people. One person's motivation is to be successful in business and to have a happy life. The second person's motivation is to escape the suffering of Samsara and achieve liberation for him or herself. The third person's motivation in offering the candle is for all sentient beings to have happiness and freedom form suffering.

All the candles are the same; there is no difference between them, and the offerings all go to the same Buddha. We cannot see the difference between the HY and MY by looking at the candles. But the offerings do not lead to the same result. The first person will achieve temporary happiness. The second person will achieve the HY liberation and the third person will achieve Buddhahood. 

So this means that from the Buddhist point of view, at all times your motivation is important. Nothing exists outside of your motivation.

How to start and finish your meditation

When you meditate there are two important things to remember. How you start and how you finish. So first when you meditate is to correct your motivation. This means there is not a single being in Samsara, this immense ocean of suffering. Tell yourself that it is for their well being that I am going to practice the profound dharma and put it into practice. This is the great compassion or Bodhicitta. It is important to have this attitude each time you start your meditation practice.

The second important is when you have done anything that is good or virtuous, it is always good to seal that practice by offering all that virtue to the welfare of all beings. This is dedicating the merit. So when you dedicate, you should start by thinking about all the virtuous things you have done in your life. Then, you should also think about all the virtuous activities and deeds completed by all of the Buddhas. Then you bring all of that together in union and visualize dedicating that merit in the same way the Buddhas dedicate that merit.

When you wake up in the morning, do not suddenly jump out of bed like a cow or cat from its pen. And while you are still in bed, relax your mind. Arouse compassion, thinking "today I will do whatever positive good actions I can and do my best to avoid doing anything negative or evil."

At night, when you go to sleep, do not just drop off into unconsciousness. Take the time to relax in bed and examine yourself in the same way. "What have I done that is positive today?" If you have done some good, be glad and dedicate the merit. If you have done something wrong, you should think, confess it and vow never to act that way again.

About Samsara and Nirvana

In reality, happiness does not arise from being self-centered; happiness arises from taking care of others. If you look at the difference between the Buddha and an ordinary being it will be easy to understand. The Buddha worked for the benefit of other sentient beings, achieved omniscience, and now has the capacity to benefit all sentient beings; however, ordinary sentient beings focus only on their own well being and have not achieved liberation (Nirvana) and are still in the cycle of existence (Samsara).  

I don't know how many people understand what the difference between Samsara and Nirvana. The difference between Samsara and Nirvana is just mind training outwardly and mind training inwardly. To reach Nirvana we must use mind training to look inward to recognize the true nature of our mind. On the other hand, Samsara is also mind training, but one that looks outward, which causes you to not to recognize the true nature of our mind. What really happens in Samsara is that even though we want to have happiness, but we actually run away from those true causes of genuine happiness.

The great Indian Master Shantideva has said that all the suffering that we see in the world arises because we are self-centered; that is, we wish only for our own personal happiness. However, in reality, happiness does not arise from being self-centered; happiness arises from taking care of others. Of course there many reasons for taking care of ourselves and of course you cannot completely ignore yourself. But we must know how to take care of ourselves and intelligent way. It means that we do things in a harmonious way and help each other in a mutually advantageous manner. Right now we do things like killing other beings for our own interests or we find happiness in other people or animal's unfortunate circumstances, but that is not intelligent

About Compassion

One time in Tibet, Patrul Rinpoche was teaching an important meditation about compassion. There was a monk who attended his teaching. Actually this monk is very prideful and he told Rinpoche, I already know all that you have to teach and it would not be a problem for me to meditate on compassion. Then Rinpoche said it is not very easy to meditate because when you meet with your enemy then you are going to know how much compassion that you have.

Then one day this monk was meditating on compassion by the Stupa. He was sitting very good posture. So, Rinpoche came to the Stupa for circumambulation. Actually he was a very humble man and walked around just as an ordinary person. The monk was there at this time and he continued to meditate in the same way. Rinpoche held his hands in prayer and was very respectful to the monk and he asked him very politely what are you meditating on? And the monk didn't look to see who was talking and he said I am meditating on compassion. Then Rinpoche said how wonderful. And then he continued on his way around the Stupa again. 

Then second time he asked him again the same question: What are you meditating on? And he gave the same answer as before. Then third time he came back to the monk and asked him the same question once again. At this point the monk got very angry and asked why are you always bothering me? After this he finally opened his eyes to see who asked him the question. 

And then he knew that it was Rinpoche and then Rinpoche asked, “Is that what your way of meditating on compassion is like?” Then the monk was very embarrassed and he apologized to Rinpoche. 

So it is not very easy to meditate on compassion.  Right now we are meditating on compassion every day. But if we really do not have genuine compassion, then the compassion we feel if usually mixed with attachment. For instance, when we meditate on compassion and think about our relatives, our parents, or your children, this is still not genuine compassion because you already love and are attached to these people. We cannot have genuine compassion until we can have compassion for all sentient beings. However, do not worry, because in reality we have the root of compassion within us and we need to continue to develop it this way. 

The compassionate mind has the nature of wishing that all sentient beings are free of suffering. You should put yourself in their place and visualize that it is you that is suffering their ills. Once you begin this process you will come to an understanding of how that suffering feels. You will also gradually come to see all sentient beings as equal, with no difference between you and them. If you really do understand that then you do not have the desire to harm others.

I am not saying that you must avoid eating meat, but I really want you to understand that when you eat meat, that this is very harmful to animals. And also, Buddha said that if you eat meat, then it is more difficult to cultivate compassion and Bodhicitta. So if you really are thinking about eliminating meat from your diet, then every day eat a little bit less and less than the day before. Then eventually, you will be able to stop eating it completely.

What is Meditation?

Always watch your mind carefully. As ordinary beings, it is impossible not to have thoughts and actions which are motivated by evil intentions. But if we can recognize the wrong direction immediately, and confess it and vow to not do it again, then we will part from our connection and relationship with it. 

Long ago, there was a story about a Brahmin called Ravi who examined his mind at all times. Whenever bad thoughts arose, he would put aside a black pebble, and whenever a good thought arose, he would put aside a white pebble. At first, all the pebbles he put aside were black. Then, as he persevered in developing antidotes and adopting positive actions and rejecting negative ones, a time came when his piles of black and white pebbles were equal. In the end, he had only white ones. This is how we should develop positive actions as an antidote with mindfulness and vigilance, and not contaminate yourself with even the smallest harmful actions.

People love to meditate. But actually, sometimes people don't know how to meditate. So sometimes, meditation can mean to think about your mind. Sometimes meditation is also done without any thinking. So actually, meditation is about developing your mind and giving up negative emotions. If you do not have experience in Buddhism and do not have any experience with meditating, it is important to relax the mind. If you are in this situation, it would even be beneficial just to sit on your couch, and relax both your mind and your body. When you do this you should not think about anything. This is helpful because all the time we are doing too much and thinking too much, we never give our minds a break.

Buddhism is really talking about the mind. Basically, it is about working with our mind all of the time. Even when you study about Buddhist philosophy, they are talking about the mind. And then when you attempt to meditate you should be thinking about the mind. Because when you look at who really harms and who really helps, you will realize that it is the mind. We have three parts of ourselves which are body, speech, and mind. Through these three we do positive actions and negative Karmas, but the body & speech are just merely subservient to the mind. The mind is truly the boss. The mind is the root of all. So we need to train our mind.

When the time comes that you will die, at that time your only refuge will be the dharma. From now on you must make the effort to accomplish at least one practice of genuine Dharma. When you are going through the dying process it is important to not feel attached to this life and your worldly belongings. If you are attached to them, then you will not remember to practice. 

In addition, it is important to understand two things, the first, to limit your desires and second, to practice satisfaction. It doesn't mean that you cannot have anything if you practice Buddhism. The Buddha did not say that. For example, my teacher was really a great Buddhist practitioner, but he had all the food he needed, and also he had some nice clothes, and he had some Tibetan Buddhist books. That is what practicing satisfaction means. You have what you need and that is enough. Not being excessively attached to many things. If you practice these two things, freedom from suffering is possible, and happiness is possible.

These teachings were written by the wandering Sherab Sangpo.

The Precious Human Life

It is important to know that this precious human life isvery difficult to find. Without human life, it would not be possible to evenfind the Dharma. We must have all of our senses working (eyes, ears, nose,smell, touch, and taste). If we do not, it will be much more difficult topractice the dharma. For instance, if we were blind, we would not be able toread the teachings. If we were deaf, we would not be able to hear them. We needto lead our lives in a positive way. If our lives are dominated by negativeactions, for example, if we are hunters or thieves or spend our lives fightingwars - that naturally leads in the opposite direction from the positiveconditions needed for Dharma.

Why is it precious? Because by using this human birth enlightenment can beachieved in this very lifetime. That is what we call a precious human birth. Topractice the real, authentic dharma, it is absolutely necessary to be a humanbeing. Because we have been born human beings, we have been given many advantages.  At all times you should carefullyexamine whether or not you have all the qualities of the freedoms and advantagesof this precious human birth.

Sometimes there are circumstances that prevent a person from realizing thefreedoms and advantages of the precious human life; specifically the negativeemotions such as hatred for enemies, infatuation with friends and relatives, andignorance. When these are very strong, a person may wish that they couldpractice the dharma, but because these emotions control their mind most of thetime, it prevents them from ever accomplishing the dharma properly.  For instance, just as the rising sunlights up the whole world, it will not make even the smallest difference to ablind man. And just as the waters of a great lake cannot satisfy the thirst ofa traveler arriving at its shore unless he actually drinks from it, the Dharmaof transmission and realization cannot get into your mind by itself.

Look at this situation of the whole world, year by year,month by month. It is changing and changing. People are more and more worriedand full of stress. And then this results in even more suffering for them. Somepeople lose their jobs, cannot find a place to live, have no food and strugglefrom day to day. I think in these times, if you can practice Bodhicitta andcompassion it will help you a lot.

Bodhicitta and Shamata Meditations

If you only meditate on shamata, but never meditate onanything else, then this will not help you very much in your life. One time myteacher told me that shamata is an important meditation. However, if you do notknow when you will die, then it is very important for you to practiceBodhicitta. Without Bodhicitta you cannot do any kind of meditation.  It provides the best motivation for yourpractice. Shamata is nothing compared to this. 

Shamata does not provide you any motivation; you justcomplete it without thinking about anything. For example, say that you have aglass of water with a lot of dirt and particles in it. If you shake it up itwill be very dirty. Then, shamata is like having it calm down and the particlesand mud separate to the bottom and the water becomes very clear. Your mindbecomes workable. However, the particles and mud still exist, they have notbeen eliminated. This is like the negative emotions like anger and attachmentwhich are still lurking around and will become active again when you are notmeditating.  So it is veryimportant practice Bodhicitta immediately, like a coward who has just found asnake in his lap, and he immediately jumps into action.

Purification through Vajrasattva Practice 

Usually, people meditate on Vajrasattva so they can purifytheir past negative actions, obscurations and their habitual tendencies. Weneed to purify all of these things because they are the main obstacles togrowing and developing along the spiritual path to enlightenment. It is veryimportant to diminish our obscurations so that realization can arise. There isreally nothing good about our negative actions. But the only good thing is thatthey can be purified through our practice. From Buddhist point of view, if youhave done many negative actions, or if there have been lots of bad things thatyou have done in this life, and if you do not work to diminish these bad habits,then it will be the cause of you future suffering. However, even if you work todiminish that negativity, some people will think that you cannot reduce thesethings and will believe that you will go to the hell realms. But from theBuddhist point of view, it is not like that. Even if you do something very bad,it can be purified.  There is astory in India of a man called Anjulimala who killed thousand of people. Hetook their thumbs and made a mala out of them to wear. After he had done this,the man met the Buddha and Buddha taught him. Then he felt regret for his pastmistakes and negative actions. He had a lot of diligence and he gainedenlightenment.

Talking about Buddhism with your Friends and Family 

How to talk to your friends and family when they ask you aboutBuddhism. You should talk about how they can improve their mind with Buddhism.There are many ways to talk about Buddhism. But you need to think first aboutwhat kind of personality the person has that you are talking to. For instance, somepeople do not really like to hear about suffering and some people do notbelieve in something that they can't see. But I think the best thing you can do is to help the people with theirnegative emotions. When they are angry, you should tell them to be patient.Also if they are worried, then you should tell how to resolve that kind ofemotional state. People want to be free of stress and worry.

The Buddha saidthat the mind is the root of all things, good and bad. Everything comes fromour mind, including the bad emotions and afflictions like anger, aggression,and jealousy. So it is very important to investigate our mind.  Everything has cause and condition,without a cause nothing can happen. We say that everything is dependent on itsorigins or causes. Even the Buddha himself became awakened through causes andconditions. We do not say he was a Buddha from the beginning without goingthrough a process of change. He was an ordinary being like us and hetransformed his mind by training, step by step, on the path and slowly hepurified all the obscurations of his mind-stream.  So we understand that all being with a mind and a life willchange by causes and conditions. So we must understand the Buddha's teachingsare characterized by the principle of the interdependent nature of all things.

The Seven Branch Offering

The seven branch offering is actually part of the preliminary practices in the Guru Yoga section.  However, I think everyone here will find it interesting and helpful because it is good to train in these methods even when you are not doing the preliminaries.   These seven branches actually include all the preliminaries and that is why it is important to understand.

The first branch is Prostration which is the antidote to pride. First we need to know how we do prostrations and what you need to visualize during that time.  For this practice you should visualize yourself multiplied infinitely.  At the same time, visualize that all beings in the universe are prostrating with you.  For the people who are practicing preliminaries, if you want to do prostrations during all five preliminary sections, that is just fine.  But the best way to practice prostrations is with Guru Yoga.

It is important to remember to connect your body, speech, and mind during prostrations.  As you prostrate with your body, you should combine this with your speech by saying the seven line supplication to Padmasambhava or recite Padmasambhava’s mantra OM AH HUNG VAJRA GURU PADME SIDDHI HUNG.  You should also combine it with your mind by thinking that you are practicing with all sentient beings and that you have a feeling of respect and devotion towards the Buddha.  If you don’t make these connections then you will end up just saying whatever you like and looking around everywhere, which is not correct.

The way that you prostrate is to start by cupping your hands together in the shape of a lotus, with a little space inside where you visualize all of things that your are offering to the Buddha.  Then you place your hands on the top of your head to purify the obscurations of your body, then to your throat to purify the obscurations of you speech, and then to your heart to purify the obscurations of your mind.  Then you kneel and touch the floor with your body at the five points which are the forehead, the palms of your hands and your knees.  You do this so that you can purify the obscurations of the five poisons and receive the blessings of body, speech, mind, qualities and activity.  

The Second branch is the Offering which is the antidote to greediness and stinginess. In Buddhism we make offerings to the Buddha.  These offerings are usually things like incense, food, water, butter lamps or candles and flowers and so on and so forth.  In the preliminaries the offering is done with Mandala offering. Visualize that you are offering all of the wealth in the universe that is not owned by anyone.  You can accumulate just as much merit by offerings all of these things as you would if they were your own possessions.  Never think that you have nothing to offer.  During the offering, visualize all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and that all sentient beings are purified of their obscurations.

The third branch is Confession of Harmful Actions which is the antidote to negative obscurations. This branch relates to Vajrasattva in the preliminary practices, and you use the second and third powers of regret and promise not to do it again.

The fourth branch is Rejoicing, the Antidote to Jealousy.  This branch is part of Bodhicitta.  You should rejoice sincerely at the turning of the great wheel of the Dharma.  You should rejoice at the vast and powerful activities of the Bodhisattvas, the positive actions of all beings, and for whatever good you yourself have done in the past, are doing now, or will do in the future.  

The benefits of these actions are infinite (very great).  One time King Prasenajit invited Buddha and his followers to eat at his palace every day for four months, during which time he offered them all of his possessions.  An old beggar woman who saw this was filled with joy at this action.

She thought to herself, “The King has accumulated all this wealth through his merit and now he has met the Buddha and by making these offerings to him, his accumulation of merit will be even greater.  How wonderful!”   Through her sincere and perfect rejoicing she created boundless merit and the Buddha knew that. 

That evening, when it was time to dedicate the merit, the Buddha said to the King, “would you like me to dedicate the merits of all that you have accumulated, you?  Or should I dedicate your merit to someone who is better than you?”  The king replied, “Dedicate it to whoever has the greatest source of merit.”  So the Buddha dedicated the merit in the name of the old beggar woman.  This story is told to show how rejoicing in other’s deeds is very beneficial.

The fifth offering is Requesting the Buddha to Teach (or turn the wheel of dharma). Which is the antidote to ignorance.  Imagine that you are in the presence of the Buddha, Bodhisattvas, teachers and all of those who do a lot of good things for others.  Think about how they have become tired and discouraged because the students don’t practice, they harm others, or do other bad activities.  Then the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas become very sad because their teachings don’t seem very beneficial because the students are not listening and following the teachings.  Then they think, I will only practice for myself and not teach.  At this time it is important to request the teachings.


The Sixth Offering is Praying for the Buddha and Bodhisattvas to have a long life.   You should make your prayers to the teachers, Buddhas, and Bodhisattvas to have a long life because if they have a long life then they will be able to teach the dharma.  Without there teachings there would be no opportunity to practice, and without an opportunity to practice you cannot achieve temporal or lasting happiness.  The cause of happiness is learning the dharma and putting it into practice.  We cannot learn the Dharma without teachers.  That’s why Buddhism talks about how to take care of our lives and how to train our minds.

The last Offering, of course, is Dedicating the Merit.   This offering is the most important one. Never forget to say the dedication at the end of any good act, great or small.

When you meditate there are three important things to remember:  How you start, how you maintain the practice and how you finish.  Of course, the first is correcting your motivation and thinking about Bodhicitta.  The second is doing the practice without loosing focus, which means you should not let your negative emotions grow during that timeframe.  Finally, when you have done anything that is good or virtuous, it is always good to seal the practice by offering all the virtue to the welfare of all beings.  This is dedicating the merit.  You can visualize dedicating the merit in the same way that they Buddhas dedicate the merit.  When you dedicate, you should start by thinking about all the virtuous things you have done in your past and present life and all the virtuous things you will do in your future life.  Then, you should also think about all the virtuous activities completed by all the Buddhas.  Then you bring all of that together in union and visualize dedicating the merit in the same way the Buddhas dedicate the merit. 

written by the wandering Sherab Sangpo.