Resolutions for Buddhists
RESOLUTIONS FOR BUDDHISTS
Useful resolutions for enhancing
the cultivation of
virtues
and pursuit of perfections
3rd Edition
As of 19 April 2016
PREFACE
As one of the required ten virtuous
perfections, resolution making is a must for all Buddhists as it functions like
a rudder that controls the direction in one’s living. A resolution can
possibly come to pass when it is empowered by the life energy called ‘merit’
which is accrued when one performs a good deed, either by way of thought,
speech, or action. Since there are many factors that contribute to its
success, different resolutions take different period of time before they turn
into a reality. One needs to ponder carefully when making resolutions;
otherwise, they may cause disorder or troubles to one’s life. In
addition, without a resolution, one tends to live one’s life aimlessly.
This book provides well organized resolutions for general Buddhists as they are
designed to yield only positive outcomes whereas preventing oneself from many
undesirable things in life. Readers may choose to resolute only some parts
or all of the resolutions given in this book, depending on their preference.
RESOLUTIONS
By the power of all merit I have done,
may I become a virtuous Buddha [otherwise, a Silent Buddha or an enlightened
person]. May the merit destine my action, speech, and thought to be pure
and wholesome at all time. May I have minimal or none of mental impurity,
and let me be fulfilled with the 38 blessings of life (mangala),
virtues, supernormal power, longevity, fine complexion, happiness, strength,
intelligence, mundane wealth, noble spiritual wealth, human wealth, celestial
wealth, spiritual liberation, insightful vision, insightful comprehension,
wisdom, super-knowledge, and mental brightness. May I be freed from bad
karmas, karmic retribution, the evil mara obstruction,
demerit, sin, unwholesomeness, misdeed and impurity.
May I be able to righteously obtain
abundant properties for doing good deeds and charity. May I earn them at
ease and have them managed by capable honest persons. May I receive no
harm, no trouble, and no difficulty due to my possession. May I have good
fame and become beloved, respected, and believed by others for the sake of
doing good deeds, enlightenment, and Buddhahood [or arahantship] only.
May I become a leader of people in cultivating virtuous perfections who
promotes wholesomeness and discourages unwholesomeness completely.
May I have great wisdom and
might. May I become a scholar and/or sage who observes pure precepts, has
pure Dhamma quality and pure gender, and become a real man per my wish.
May I become skillful, capable, and well versed in all languages like the Lord
Buddha. May I gain the ability to recall past and future lifetimes, either my
own or others’. May I be able to practice celibacy completely and purely
throughout my life in every lifetime, per my wish, in order to increase my
merit and purity. May I become a righteous, capable, and knowledgeable
master, teacher, student, leader, follower, governor, and management who has no
ego for the sake of my own and others’ happiness and prosperity. May I
have opportunities to meet with the Lord Buddha, the Silent Buddha, and the
noble enlightened disciples, as well as the righteous pre-enlightened Gotrabhu persons.
May I have opportunities to study and practice Dhamma as well as making merit
with Them whereas They kindly welcome my alms and offerings. May they
also become my spiritual guides whom I am very much obedient to.
May I attain the supernormal powers,
have an extra long lifespan, be freed from illness, harm, revenge, and
sufferings, either mentally or physically. May I be extraordinarily
healthy, cheerful, and energetic. When I work on the pursuit of
perfections, may I receive good cooperation and kind support from my family
members and the public who never obstruct or trouble me. However, if I
were to do a bad deed, may there be people who compassionately prevent me from
doing so. Thus, I will be unable to do any misdeed. May I be unable
to think, speak, and act unwholesomely. May I be good at thinking,
speaking, and acting wholesomely only. May I reborn only in the wholesome
realms until attaining complete enlightenment or Buddhahood. When I die
or reborn, may I be able to do so easily, safely, and free from pain, difficulty,
and trouble.
May I have no enemy. May I have
only kindness, helpfulness, empathy and equanimity towards sentient beings
and vice versa. If I perform the duty of a virtuous spiritual guide by
giving good guidance to someone, may it be successful at ease. No matter
which community I belong to, may such community be blessed with unity, love,
respect, and harmony in doing good deeds. May I always have good,
virtuous, and capable fellows who unite to join me in doing good deeds.
No matter where I am, may such place be freed from pollution and have good,
tidy, clean, pure, beautiful, and suitable atmosphere, surroundings, weather,
and environment which are suitable for Dhamma learning, Dhamma practice, and
the cultivation of virtuous perfections.
May my fellows and I be freed from all
harms in the cycle of rebirth. May we be freed from any degeneration such
as from birth, aging, sickness, and death which bring about sufferings.
May I live long and does not get old, similar to the celestial beings. In
the era that I reborn to, may there be no intoxicant and may there be delicious
nutritious foods which are made from plants that people and animal prefer
consuming, so nobody consumes meat which causes more disease and the violation
of Buddhist precept.
May I commit no sin to anyone, and vice
versa. May I obstruct no one who does good deeds, and vice versa.
May my fellows and I have no obstructing mara or the evil
ones. May I have much good faith in the Buddha, Dhamma, and the righteous
Buddhist monks, as usual. May I be a faithful Buddhist or a believer of a
righteous religion if Buddhism does not exist.
May I reborn only to a family where
parents and siblings are virtuous and have right views. May I be able to
do good deeds since I am born. May I have outstanding IQ and EQ. If
I wish to ordain, may it be successful at ease and well supported by
others. May I have a complete body, beautiful figure, and good qualities
and capabilities like the Lord Buddha whereas my figure resembles Him more and
more in every lifetime until I possess the complete 32 signs of the great holy
man (mahapurusha) and the 80 secondary characteristics. May I have
good manners, excellent etiquette and gesture, similar to the Lord
Buddha. May I speak of only wholesome and endearing words. May I be
good at both arts and sciences as well as music, sport, art, and capable of
suitable things that comply to good conducts. May I wake up early
everyday to chant, meditate, and do good deeds conveniently. When I
sleep, may I dream of only auspicious things or dream of the future that allows
me to know things in advance for the benefit of pursuing perfections. May
I sleep and consume moderately, so I can live a contented life at ease.
May I have great willpower in
perfecting the ten virtues (parami) at three levels and possess the
great wisdom which foresees and understand thoroughly in all Dhammic elements,
as well as all proper knowledge, either in the mundane or the spiritual.
May I have superb, pure, and complete three wisdoms, namely wisdom from
learning, wisdom from thinking, and wisdom from meditating. May I
understand and insightfully see thoroughly the three superknowledge (vijja)
which belongs to the wholesome, the neither wholesome nor unwholesome, and the
unwholesome. As I know them, may I be able to improve the living beings
and non-living beings to be prosperously wholesome whereas the unwholesome is
diminished and eradicated completely.
May I be fortunate to make great
meritorious deeds with the very pure deserved ones such as the Lord Buddha, the
silent Buddha, and noble disciples whereas my mind is delightful before,
during, and after doing so. May I be delightful in my own and others’
merit without getting jealous or having ego. May I have modern and
advanced technology, tools and equipment which are safe for assisting my
cultivation of the ten perfections at three levels. So, they save my time
and energy. May the Lord Buddha, the noble disciples, the righteous
Buddhist masters and the righteous sacred ones protect and secure me throughout
my life. May I become a contented peaceful person who doesn’t have greed,
be satisfied with my possession, never over socialize, and doesn’t get trapped
by praise and gain. May I do not get attached to the five sensory, no
matter what I see, smell, taste, hear, and touch.
May all of my resolutions yield results
properly and in a timely manner, more and more.
As I accumulate more meritorious deeds, may I do not forget to make
these resolutions over and over. May I know more good resolutions which
are beneficial for myself and other sentient beings further. May I do not
forget my resolutions as I reborn. I wish I can make good resolutions
repeatedly until they come to pass. For the good resolutions which I made
by myself or others made for me; which are good and beneficial to me; which
promote wholesomeness and righteousness, may they come to pass at ease
continuously. On the contrary, may the bad resolutions which are not
beneficial and cause harm and suffering to myself and others become diminished
or don’t come to pass. May I do not make these bad resolutions for myself
and others, and nobody makes these bad resolutions for me as well.
May I earn much of pure merit, being
able to fulfill the ten virtuous perfections completely at ease without being
suffered or troubled. May I be fortunate to make great merit frequently,
conveniently, and successfully at ease. When I invite people to join me,
may they cooperate and support me with joy and pure hearts, and vice
versa. May I be the virtuous fellow for others, and vice versa. May
I have good and meritorious capable teachers who possess superb discipline,
wisdom, virtues, knowledge, and supernatural power to teach and guide
me.
If I cannot become a Lord Buddha, may I
become s Silent Buddha or a noble enlightened one, depending on the level of my
merit energy. May I harmonize and unite with other Buddha-to-be persons (Bodhisattas)
very well. Once I attain enlightenment, may I cherish the Four Meditative
Bases of Spiritual Power (four iddhipada), which comprises of (i)
concentration by means of desire (chanda-samadhi), (ii) concentration by
means of persistence (viriya samadhi), (iii) concentration
by means of intent (citta samadhi), and (iv) concentration be means of
discrimination (vimamsa samadhi), in order to prolong my life even more
for the benefit of others and myself. May I enter the Nirvana by
observing the aforesaid Four Meditative Bases of Spiritual Power.
In any lifetime that I meet with any
Lord Buddha, may my fellows and I have an opportunity to invite the Lord Buddha
to observe the Four Meditative Bases of Spiritual Power which will eventually
allow Him to prolong His lifespan. Moreover, in the era that I attain
Buddhahood or enlightenment, may there be an ethical universal ruler (cakkavatti)
who supports and secures my religion. If I have not attained Buddhahood
yet, may I also become an ethical universal ruler, when I am qualified, in
order to support and secure other Lord Buddhas, Silent Buddhas, enlightened
disciples, and virtuous people and promote peace and prosperity of human
society to be free from war and conflict.
I would like to humbly pay homage to
all the Lord Buddhas, either in the past, present, and the future, with my
accumulated merit. And I would like to share my merit to the enlightened
noble disciples, the pre-enlightened disciples, those who attain meditative
absorption, virtuous people, Bodhisattas or Buddha-to-be’s, my parents,
grandparents, descendants, relatives, friends, teachers, those whom I am
indebted to, those who have revenge upon me, in this lifetime and every past
lifetime, celestial beings, Brahma, Arupa-Brahma, and
all spirits, either in the wholesome and unwholesome realm.
Whoever that have received my merit,
may they attain happiness and achieve the thirty eight blessings (mangala)
of life, become the wholesome and righteous one who understands and foresees
life and things according to the truth and reality as well as reborn only in
the wholesome realm, by the power of merit they received from me and their
own. For those who have revenge upon me, once they receive the merit I
shared, may they be kind to forgive and pardon me all alike. However, if
they receive my merit but still deny to pardon me, may they do not see me again
until they fully pardon me or attain enlightenment. In addition, I would like
to forgive all sentient beings for any wrong doing they might have done upon
me.
Normally, one has to go through many
difficulties and troubles in pursuit of perfections as one is obstructed by the
evil mara. So, I would like to make a
resolution for myself to have my merit energy (punya) automatically fulfilled
and condensed further [to become parami] at ease without any problem and
hassle forevermore.
May others gain opportunities to make
this resolution as I do, and may all of my wholesome resolutions come to pass
throughout my lifetime and in every lifetime. May all of my karma(s) and resolutions
yield only good, beneficial, and wholesome results for the sake of
wholesomeness and righteousness only. May I be successful and prosperous
in my pursuit of virtuous perfections until attaining the Nirvana conveniently,
quickly, easily, joyfully, and cheerfully with happiness, peacefulness, purity,
and auspiciousness in both the mundane and spiritual path without having any
impurity, suffering, harm, and unwholesomeness contaminating to my life in any
way.
Nibbana Pajjayo Hotu… May I succeed the Nirvana which
is the state of supreme bliss!
Brief Resolution: “May all of the good and righteous
resolutions I made in the past come to pass completely and easily in a timely
manner.”
