Chapter VI

Supreme Merit of Dedication and Jubilation

However much merit the hosts of Disciples may beget,
Associated with giving, morality, and [meditational] development:
But if a Bodhisattva rejoices with one single thought,
There would [by comparison] be no mass of merit in all the hosts of the Disciples.

The Range of Jubilation

If we take the niyutas of kotis of Buddhas, who have gone by in the past period of time,
And those who just now abide in endlessly many thousands of kotis of Buddha-fields;
And also those Saviours of the world who, having gone to Parinirvana,
Will demonstrate the jewel of Dharma for the sake of the complete extinction of suffering;

If we consider the merit of those Jinas during the period
Beginning with the first production of the thought of the foremost enlightenment,
Until the time of the extinction of the good Dharma of the Guides,
And the dharmas connected with the perfections, and also the Buddha-dharmas,

And also the merit of the offspring of the Buddhas, and of the Disciples,
Be they in training or adepts, with outflows or without, -
Having heaped it all up, the Bodhisattva rejoices at it,
And turns it all over to the enlightenment which is linked with the weal of the world.

True and False Turning over

When in one who turns over there proceeds the perception of a thought,
Or if the turning over of the perception of enlightenment involves the perception of a being:
Established in perception, false views, and thought, it is tied by the triple attachment.
It does not become turned over to those who apprehend it.

But when he thus cognizes: These dharmas are extinct and stopped,
And wherein they are turned over, that is also extinct;
Nor is ever anywhere a dharma turned over into a dharma:
Then it does become turned over in one who thus considers wisely.

When he makes a sign, he does not turn over [to enlightenment],
But if [he turns to it as] the signless, [that] becomes turned over into enlightenment.
Just as though food mixed with poison were good to cat,
So has the taking of pure dharmas as a basis been spoken of by the Jina.

Therefore thus should one train in turning over:
As the Jinas wisely know that wholesome [root], -
Its class as it is, its origins as they are, its characteristics as they are, -
Thus do I rejoice [in that wholesome root], thus do I turn [it] over.

And thus turning merit over into enlightement,
He does not upset the Buddha, one who preaches what the Jina has taught.
As many as there are in the world Bodhisattvas who lean on a basis
All of them surpasses the hero who turns over in this way.