For example, how do we dedicate the merit accrued from liberating animals? We should sincerely make a vow: “However the Buddhas of the past, present and future dedicate their merit, I will do the same as well.” This would be nonpoisonous dedication. Naturally, we can also recite the Practices and Vows of the Bodhisattva Samantabhadra as it contains many auspicious dedications. If not knowing how or not having the time to recite the whole text, we can just recite the eight verses in the two stanzas from “In whatever way valiant Manjusri and Samantabhadra know how to transfer merit” to “I dedicate all of these roots of virtue to accomplishing the deeds of Samantabhadra.” Nagarjuna once said, “These two stanzas embody the essence of the Practices and Vows of the Bodhisattva Samantabhadra .” Therefore, to recite just these two stanzas would be the same as having read the whole text. 

There are also those who ignore these basics but tirelessly run back and forth between China and Tibet to receive empowerments without knowing their respective meanings, conditions and requirements beforehand, which in the end have very little effect on their quest for liberation. So, I hope you will all make generation of renunciation and bodhicitta your aim and strictly refrain yourselves from undertaking any Vajrayana practice until your aim has been achieved. Only then can you consider the advanced, more profound practices like the Great Madhyamaka, Kalachakra, Mahamudra, the Great Perfection and so forth. The Vajrayana tradition of Tibetan Buddhism offers rich pickings of sublime practices, described by some as being plentiful as the yak’s hair. But no one would be qualified to practice any without first developing renunciation and bodhicitta as the base, which ought to be the single most important practice for us now.

What are the three supreme methods? They are: 1. motivation; 2. actual practice with a mind free of clinging and concepts; 3. dedication.

There are two types of dedication: poisonous and nonpoisonous. “Poisonous dedication” means dedication with attachment. It is stated in the Prajnaparamita Sutra that good seeds sown with attachment is like poisonous food. It may taste delicious at first, but will cause tremendous pain when the poison takes effect. Similarly, good seeds sown not by actions performed with mind free of clinging, as explained above, may perhaps yield some transitory benefit, but more suffering will ensue and no liberation attained because such actions are deemed defiled phenomena.

Nonpoisonous dedication refers to dedication free of attachment and concepts, i.e. to dedicate while in the state of realization that the true nature of all phenomena is emptiness. Nonpoisonous dedication is further classified into two types—genuine and simulated. Genuine nonpoisonous dedication refers to the one made by the bodhisattvas, who have arrived at the first ground or higher, in a state of thought-free concentration. It is beyond the capability of ordinary people whose capacity is more suitable for simulated nonpoisonous dedication. This type of dedication is not to use the logic of Madhyamaka to discern the void nature of all phenomena but the visualization as described in the Thirty-five Buddhas Repentance Ritual . One should visualize in earnest as follows: “However the Buddhas and bodhisattvas of all times and ten directions dedicate their merit, I do the same with mine.” This way is simulated nonpoisonous dedication.

Mind “free of clinging and concepts” means emptiness, the void nature of all phenomena. Most of you may not have realized emptiness, but there is no need to be anxious. Once you have generated renunciation and bodhicitta, realization of emptiness can be rather easy to accomplish after all. Conversely, trying to realize emptiness without cultivating renunciation and bodhicitta first will be like making rice out of sand.

To use another analogy, it will be easier to harvest when seeds are sown in springtime. Whereas in wintertime, due to a lack of the requisite conditions, seeds sown in this season may not yield any crop no matter how much effort has been made. That is to say, when all the necessary conditions are in place and ripe for happening, things will naturally take their courses as wished.

The standard set in the texts regarding actual practice, say, the practice of the six paramitas, is to do it while realizing at all times the empty nature of all phenomena. For example, when releasing life of other beings, one should realize that the person who releases (oneself), the beings released and the act of releasing are all without self-nature and hence illusory like dreams. That is, the action performed is free of the concept of a doer, an object and an action. This constitutes the second of the Three Supreme Methods.

First, as a Mahayana practitioner, when aspiring or dedicating, one should begin with the vow: “May I, in the many lives from now until enlightenment, never harm the life or even a single hair of another being, not even for the needs of my own body or life.” Naturally, one must make good one’s promise. If, for the time being, one cannot fully keep one’s words, at the least one should vow this way: “May I, in the many lives from now until enlightenment, never intentionally harm the life of another being, even for the needs of my own body or life.” Failing this, any more talks on practicing Mahayana would be pointless. Moreover, we should encourage ourselves to make the promise of not harming other beings at all costs as quickly as we can and make good that promise, which ought to be the goal of our practice at the moment as well.

The cultivation of renunciation begins with the four general preliminaries: contemplating the rarity and preciousness of human birth, the impermanence of all phenomena, the law of infallible karma and the suffering of samsara. Upon successfullycompleting the general preliminary practice, renunciation will arise spontaneously. As for relative bodhicitta, it has two stages, i.e., aspiring and engaging. The practice of aspiring bochicitta is to cultivate the Four Immeasurables: loving-kindness, compassion, altruistic joy and equanimity through which unbiased, unlimited compassion for all sentient beings will arise. Once that has been developed, generation of bodhicitta will be just steps away. It is only when practice progresses in an orderly fashion, step-by- step that we can hope to reap any results.

In addition, dedication should correspond with motivation. If our motivation is to cultivate virtue for the sake of all sentient beings, our dedication should be for them as well. The two should not be inconsistent. It would not make any sense to arouse bodhicitta first and subsequently dedicate merit for our own benefit. According to the viewpoints of Mahayana Buddhism, we can dedicate merit neither for the worldly blessings of this life— our own health or prosperity, nor the attainment of the state of sravaka or pratyekabuddha, but enlightenment or the attainment of Buddhahood, the most sublime of all dedications. To dedicate as such, the seeds of virtue can never be depleted; the fruits born thereof, though ripened time after time, will never end. As the merit has been dedicated for the attainment of enlightenment, it will not disappear before then.

In summary, the first requisite of generating bodhicitta is the aspiration to deliver sentient beings from samsara; the second, the determination to attain Buddhahood in order to free sentient beings from the suffering of samsara.