Pariṇāmanā

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Key Term	pariṇāmanā
Hover Popup Choices	dedication; dedication of merit; transfer of merit;
In Tibetan Script	བསྔོ་བ་
Wylie Tibetan Transliteration	bsngo ba
Devanagari Sanskrit Script	परिणामना
Romanized Sanskrit	pariṇāmanā
Romanized Pali	pariṇāmanā
Tibetan Phonetic Rendering	ngowa
Chinese Script	迴向
Chinese Pinyin	huíxiàng
Japanese Transliteration	ekō
Korean Script	hoehwi
English Standard	dedication of merit
Alternate Spellings	bsngo ba; dedication; transfer of merit
Term Type	Noun
Source Language	Sanskrit
NEW: Context Descriptions (Glossary-DefinitionTsadra)	Abhidharma (Indo-Tibetan): In the context of the path, pariṇāmanā (T. bsngo ba) is the mental action that determines the specific maturation of a wholesome deed. While ordinary wholesome actions naturally result in pleasant rebirths within saṃsāra, the act of dedication intentionally steers that karmic potential. It is categorized as a virtuous mental activity that transforms a simple "root of virtue" into a cause for the "higher end"—liberation or omniscience. Without dedication, merit is compared to a seasonal crop that is consumed once it ripens; with dedication, it is like a drop of water added to a great ocean, which does not disappear until the ocean itself dries up. Mahāyāna (Indo-Tibetan): Dedication is the seventh and final branch of the "Supreme Worship" (anuttarā-pūjā) or "Seven-Branch Service" (yan lag bdun pa). It is the crucial step that seals all other virtuous activities. In the bodhisattva path, the standard dedication is to direct merit toward the "unsurpassable, truly complete enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings." This is often performed with the awareness of the "three circles" ('khor gsum)—the dedicator, the merit being dedicated, and the goal of the dedication—as being empty of inherent existence. This "pure dedication" (yongs su bsngos pa rnam par dag pa) prevents the merit from being destroyed by later moments of anger or regret. Vajrayāna (Indo-Tibetan): Within Tantric liturgy, the dedication of merit concludes every sādhana or ritual session. It is often paired with "aspiration prayers" (praṇidhāna; T. smon lam). In the Vajrayāna, dedication also carries the sense of "transmutation," where the practitioner's efforts in deity yoga and mantra recitation are dedicated to the stabilization of the "mandala of the deity" and the swift awakening of all beings within that spiritual environment. It is the bridge between the "meditative state" (samāhita-jñāna) and the "subsequent attainment" (pṛṣṭhalabdha-jñāna).
NEW: Glossary-PopUpBeginnerDefinition	The Buddhist practice of 'dedicating' or giving away the positive energy from one's good deeds for the benefit of others. It ensures that the goodness created is shared with all beings and directed toward the ultimate goal of enlightenment, preventing it from being exhausted.
NEW: Glossary-PopUpScholarDefinition	A fundamental Mahāyāna practice (Skt. pariṇāmanā; T. bsngo ba) involving the formal redirection of accumulated merit (puṇya) toward a specific goal, primarily the enlightenment of all sentient beings. It is the final branch of the Seven-Branch Service (saptāṅga-vidhi) and is considered essential to ensure that virtuous actions become an inexhaustible cause for buddhahood rather than merely resulting in temporary worldly pleasure.
NEW: Glossary-DefinitionBodhicittaWiki	Pariṇāmanā (T. bsngo ba) is the vital support for the development of bodhicitta. A bodhisattva understands that merit is the "fuel" for the long journey to awakening. By dedicating every act of generosity, discipline, or meditation to the enlightenment of all beings, the practitioner ensures that their store of merit becomes inexhaustible and cannot be depleted by the trials of cyclic existence. This act of "giving away" the fruits of one's virtue is the ultimate expression of altruistic aspiration. It mirrors the fundamental bodhicitta motivation: to achieve buddhahood not for personal gain, but as a means to liberate every living being. Thus, dedication transforms individual merit into a universal cause for total awakening.
NEW: Glossary-DefinitionLotsawas	dedication; dedication of merit; transfer of merit; sharing of merit
Definitions
Tshig mdzod Chen mo	༡. སྔོ་བའི་མ་འོངས་པ། ༢. ཡོངས་སུ་བསྒྱུར་བའམ། ཡོངས་སུ་སྤེལ་བ་ལ་འཇུག་པ་སྟེ། འཁོར་བའི་རྒྱུར་གྱུར་བའི་དགེ་རྩ་རྣམས་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཆེན་པོའི་རྒྱུར་བསྒྱུར་བའམ། འཛད་པར་འགྱུར་བའི་དགེ་རྩ་རྣམས་མི་ཟད་པར་སྤེལ་བའི་དོན་ཡིན་ལ། རང་གཞན་གྱི་རྒྱུད་ཀྱི་དུས་གསུམ་དུ་བསགས་པའི་ཟག་བཅས་ཟག་མེད་ཀྱི་དགེ་ཚོགས་མཐའ་དག་བླ་ན་མེད་པའི་བྱང་ཆུག་ཀྱི་རྒྱུར་བསྒྱུར་སྤེལ་བྱེད་པའི་འདུན་པ་མཚུངས་ལྡན་དང་བཅས་པའོ།