Dedicating One's Actions

Before going to tutoring in the morning, I decided to dedicate the tutoring practice to all the Buddhas and Dharma. It was not anything elaborate: I just directed my intention outward to include all living beings. In the Ten Vows of Samantabhadra, Samantabhadra links dedication to others to dedication to serving all Buddhas, when he remarks:

I would be a good physician to the sick, a guide to those who have wandered from the path, setting their feet in the right way. I would be a light to those who wander in darkness. I would enable the people in poverty to discover the vaults of treasure. A Bodhisattva should thus benefit beings inn equal treatment, and bestow his loving care on all beings alike. And why? because if a Bodhisattva serves all beings that is equal to serving Buddhas dutifully. (p.14-16)

I don’t consider myself to be a Bodhisattva, but I find that this principle is useful to anyone from any walk of life. I think it has to do with silently dedicating anything one does to the well being of many, if not all. There are times when this is hard to do, because we tend to be limited by time constraints and even physical needs. But on the other hand, I have learned that simply having this attitude of dedication goes a long way. I almost have this sensation of being able to get through my work more smoothly, because I am not limiting the meaning of work to a personal sense of accomplishment or finality. The dedication itself allows me to approach the job with a wider perspective which is linked to all sentient beings.

It sounds almost incredible to believe that anything one does can be linked to all beings. What does this mean? As long as I am caught up with attachment to self-importance or pleasure, work will feel like either drudgery or a system of rewards. I will try to do the work quickly, in the secret hopes of experiencing relief after it is fully completed. But if I really and fully believe that my intentions and wholeheartedness can benefit all beings, would this not make the work itself more meaningful and enjoyable? I certainly believe so, and it also counteracts the tendency to think that we are only tiny cogs in a machine. It seems that the modern workplace almost encourages the mentality of thinking that one is only a small part in a whole. But does being a ‘part’ make a person any less than the whole? In fact, each part is indispensable to the whole. In this way, what I do and how I do it always reflects everything else in some way.

I think it’s important to think this way, because I am convinced from my own experience that many people often feel unimportant in the modern world. They internalize the message that they are parts of a machine—and dispensable ones, at that. But this view is quite negative and can lead to a dreary and reluctant approach to one’s working life. If there is some way that one can dedicate what one does to the deeper interconnection of all beings, this itself can create the very best society. It counteracts the despair of thinking that one is replaceable. In fact, the awareness one uses to work is priceless and irreplaceable.