Dedication of Merit Song

Dedication of Merit Song

Lyrics

May every living being, our minds as one and radiant with light.

Share the fruits of peace, with hearts of goodness, luminous and bright. 

If people hear and see, how hands and hearts can find in giving, unity.

May their minds awake, to great compassion, wisdom and to joy.

May kindness find reward, may all who sorrow leave their grief and pain.

May this boundless light, break the darkness of their endless night.

Because hearts are one, this world of pain turns into paradise.

May all become compassionate and wise.

May all become compassionate and wise.

Explanation of the Dedication of Merit Song

by Heng Sure

The song "Dedication of Merit" was born as an antidote to the grief and helplessness following 9/11 and the fall of the two towers. 250 Buddhists and Catholics had gathered at a Benedictine Convent in Indiana to investigate the Rule of St. Benedict from a Buddhist perspective.

Sister Mary Margaret Funk invited the Buddhists to provide a dedication of merit, a practice of sharing with the world all the goodness created by any wholesome action. Using the mind to broadcast goodness is an effective form of spiritual activism.

The Abbot of the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas and I accepted the challenge, and the night before the conference concluded, we managed to translate into English the 1300 year-old Chinese Buddhist verse. Needing a tune, my thoughts spontaneously recalled Ms. McKennitt's "Dark Night of the Soul." I matched our translation and her melody and they joined like body and soul.

I introduced the new song, saying, "After meritorious deeds of any sort, a Bodhisattva, an Awakened Being, can share the goodness with the world by making a wish and dedicating the merit. The scope of your mind and the sincerity of your heart determines the efficacy of your vows. When, as today, so many hearts dedicate together, the effect can change the world in profound ways."