Making Dedications

 I have recently been in the habit of ending translation meetings with a dedication. After I help to edit and translate sections of a sutra, I will improvise a kind of dedication to all sentient beings, which allows me in turn to reflect on the relative value of the activity to which I had been engaged. Surprisingly, even though the dedication might seem hard to generate, I find there is some voice that comes out of me that seems truly genuine and whole. I reflect: there are so many activities that one can do in one's life, so why am I doing this one? What's the real value in it? I can only think that an activity is valuable insomuch as it takes a person truly out of themselves: out of their tendency to feel shut in or lost in self-referential thoughts. And the dedication confirms this idea. It allows me to contextualize the work I had done on deciphering a spiritual text, widening its girth to include all sentient beings. This is truly in itself a liberating perspective which can free a person from small-minded thinking. And I believe that this can benefit anyone, even non-Buddhists, insofar as it widens the scope of one's actions and helps a person to step outside of narrow thinking or constructs.
  The point I am trying to make is that dedication can be a form of mental health and even therapy. It's a therapy insofar as it links what we do as individuals to communities and larger movements in the universe. It can even make a person more cosmic minded, insofar as it takes us far beyond the confines of "this body" and all its small wants and feelings. Finally, it naturally becomes a way of not getting lost in irrelevant thoughts that have no beginning or end.
   I think that this dedication has helped me appreciate the ways that Buddhist teachings have helped me, and to keep learning about Buddhism. It helps me also to understand a deeper meaning to life that is not stuck in the self.