The Meritorious Function of Dedication of Merit (pariṇāmanā)

Dedication of merit (pariṇāmanā) means that the manas is willing to give merit to other sentient beings, and the manas of those other sentient beings is also willing to accept it; then the two beings' tathāgatagarbhas will cooperate to carry out the handover. Creeping creatures and beings endowed with spirit, being incapable of cultivating merit and wisdom themselves, rely entirely on the dedication of merit by other sentient beings and bodhisattvas to accumulate some merit, and then, by the power of this meager merit, they continually improve the quality and level of their lives, so that only after countless kalpas can they be reborn as humans. Therefore, since we have already been reborn as humans and have the opportunity to learn Buddhism and cultivate practice, we should be grateful to those Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and good spiritual friends who delivered us. As for how to express this gratitude, we should deliver sentient beings just as the Buddhas and bodhisattvas delivered us.