Motivate with Bodhicitta and Dedicate with Emptiness so Your Life Is Not Wasted

When one is upset or afraid—and also happy—remember bodhichitta so life is not wasted and everything we experience is dedicated to others, Rinpoche advises. When we recite mantras with a bodhichitta motivation, it becomes the cause to achieve enlightenment. Afterward, dedicate the merits for oneself to achieve enlightenment for all sentient beings, so that the merits become unceasing, like a drop of water added to the ocean. Also, we can seal the dedication with emptiness so the merits won’t be subject to being destroyed by anger or heresy. Since beginningless rebirths we have been believing the hallucination that everything we experience, including the I, is real; this ignorance the root of our suffering. Dedicating with emptiness leaves positive imprints on our mind, even if we don’t fully understand the words we are saying at this time. The teaching for this episode was recorded on September 09, 2017, at Light of the Path Retreat, United States.