What is the relationship between vows and dedication?
Relationship
Dedication is a very important practice in Buddhist teaching. It means to share the merits and virtues one has obtained from practices with others, so as to broaden the mind and show direction to the merits and virtues.
Taking vows means resolve to achieve Bodhicitta, a mind that strives toward awakening and compassion for the benefit of all sentient beings. It also means to obtain pure land so as to relieve all living creatures.
Dedication and vow are echoed by each other. They encourage a follower to dedicate every merit and virtue he gets from every good deed he has done to all living creatures. Dedication can not only strengthen the practice results, but also increase the limited results to limitless results.
Vows are similar to the resolution in Confucianism, a confirmation of the life goal, which is a result of reflection and choices, rather than that of lust and custom. Generally speaking, people can be classified into three categories: people without thoughts and ideas, dawdling away their time; people who have lofty ideas but have no courage to put them into action; and people who aim high and take actions. For Buddhist practice, one should not only make the goal clear and take actions, but also relate the merits and virtues to be get from practice to this goal. Therefore, dedication is like saving money, enabling our merits and virtues grow limitlessly.
Why can limited actions be turned into the limitless? The key lies in our heart, and depends on whether we have infinite kindness. Like doing multiplication, no matter how small a number is, it can be infinitely large if it is multiplied by infinities. Conversely, if multiplications are done among finite numbers, no matter how large the result is, it will still be finite rather than infinite.
People usually neglects the role of vows, so however successful their career is, they do things with a limited, greedy and self-centered mindset. This way of doing things can only achieve secular results. Even if you get anything, it only belongs to this life.
From the perspective of practice, the focus is not on the vow itself. The key is that you should try your best with a pure heart that can benefit others. If you have spared no effort, the results will not be important. If you are not serious about your vow or without a good attitude, it will not be perfect no matter how successful your career is. Buddhism emphasizes the harmony of all karmas. Personal effort is only one of them and cannot determine everything. The objective results will not change according to individual wills. Success or failure sometimes depends on collective karma. Success with a bad state of mind will not last long, which is very common in the society and the Buddhist circle. It goes against the intentions of practice that you are obsessed with and unable to let go of your business even if your business is very big.
